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Published: February 23rd 2007
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I got off to an early start, Boss man had looked up the train time tables and it appeared I was to depart on the 7:56am train. After being dropped off at 20 to 8am I found I couldn’t exchange my JR voucher for my JR pass so I had to pay for my ticket to Hakodate.. then when I went to head to the platform I was informed that the next train was due in an hour and a half… Boss man had miss understood the time table! Damn it.
Anyway after getting on the train then transferring at Hakodate and exchanging my JR voucher I boarded a shinkansen for speedy trip back to Tokyo. Instead of hopping off at Tokyo Station I thought it would be a smart idea to hop off at Ueno which is closer to where I would be staying, this would in fact save me time and enable me to check in before reception closed. I alighted the train at Ueno, prodigy blasting on my mp3 player and a goal on my mind. I Left the JR (japan public rail) area and headed to the Ginza line and bought my ticket, everything was going
smooth, I waited on the platform till the train pulled up, it was packed. I realized it might be a bit of a squash with me and my bags….. hold on, bag…. Oh no! I was missing my main pack! I thought back and after a bit realized I had not got off the bullet train with it, this led to two possibilities. Either my bag had been taken by someone else (not so likely since it would be an effort to steal) or it had continued to Tokyo station and been taken to lost property. I quickly spoke to the JR officers who did not speak any English so I realized this was not going anywhere so I caught a train to Tokyo ASAP. After getting to Tokyo I spoke to some JR reps to find out what platform the train had come in on. After speaking to the platform officers and being told they had not seen any bag I double checked on the route, I then realized I had been sent to the wrong platform *phew*! Back to scratch, I went to some more JR officers and found out the correct platform, spoke to the platform officers
and after a while trying to break down the language barriers I managed to locate my bag. After filling out a form in Japanese (probably filled out all wrong) but none the less equipt with my bag I was off again.
The only problem is I am now one hour late for check in… I got to the hostel and was lucky to be able to get the last bed. Now very tired I decided to have an early night since it had been a long day and climbing into bed drew the curtains on the days events.
Feb 7th
This morning saw me embark on another journey, getting to Kyoto. This was not so difficult as it was not so far and didn’t involve any transfers. The trip was quite smooth and I arrived 3 hours after departure. One difference I first noticed is that Kyoto does not have as much English written road signs as Tokyo. I found some accommodation and then headed out to check out the city. I found a nice temple close by with a moat all around it filled with carp. After this I found a nice place to eat close to
my accommodation and then headed to the post office to siphon some more money from my heavily abused account :-)
Feb 8th
The past few days have been busy for me, 8th saw me wake up at 6am and get to Fushimi-inari Taisha. (or sometimes known as Inari Gates) at 7am. Inari Gates consists of hundreds of red torii dozern of fox statues. (the fox is considered a messenger of Inari, the god of cereal grains) The path runs some 4kms up the mountain and was quite a long walk.
Next I caught the train back into Kyoto station and then caught a buss to Ginkakuji-michi to see the Ginkakuji Temple (also known as the silver temple) this temple was going to be laced with silver as apposed to the golden temple of Kinkakuji. The temple its self was not overly interesting but the grounds were really nice with lots of moss gardens. Some of the mosses were labeled as VIPs….. After leaving Ginkakuji I walked down past a host of other temples scattered no more than 100 meters from each other. It is amazing how many temples there are in Japan! Another interesting sight was a
fairly large roman styled water duct around Nanzenji temple. Then I headed off through to Gion where I looked through some shops and grabbed a bite to eat while watching the odd Geisha pass by. After I finished eating I went on another temple/shrine walk which ended with another walk through some really nice old areas littered with fancy eccentric shops selling everything from chopsticks to cloth to food and toys. (Pretty much targeted at Japanese people) And up a bit of a hill led me to Kiyomizu Temple which was perched on the side of a mountain, such a great looking temple with a very original feel to it.
The time now was around 5pm and all the temples were not closed or closing so I though I had better head back to the hostel. After getting back a few of the guys and girls there were watching a movie so I sat in the communal room and joined them.
Feb 9th
Today was rainy so I felt like I didn’t want to go out anywhere, all the temples would be wet and camera unfriendly but after speaking to the reception at the hostel they gave me a
good idea, why not visit the bamboo forests of the Arashiyama area? So I jumped on the JR line and headed off. Once I got there I started to feel like I might have got to the wrong place, there were no signs and almost no tourists but I headed off down the road and spoke to some locals which after a little work managed we managed to communicate with each other and they pointed me in the right direction. I eventually came across the the famous bridge at Iwatayana Park. I crossed the river and headed up the mountain to visit the monkeys in Iwatayama Park. The rules were simple there, no eye contact with the monkeys (they will attack you) no feeding them outside the caged area (you must only feed them when you are behind bars) and a few other little rules like not getting too close etcetera. Once I had grown bored with the monkeys I headed back down the mountain and set off for the bamboo forests. They were so nice to visit on a wet day the weather just added to the mood and tranquility of the area. By the time I had finished
walking through the forest it was not getting late so I headed back to base and watched another movie with the guys of which I was starting to get to know quite well.
Feb 10th
My last day full day in Kyoto and what good luck for me, it was cloudy and clear on and off with some nice bright light on occasion so I was happy to go visit some of the more interesting temples. Namely Kinkakuji Temple (the famous golden temple) and Nijo Castle (the castle built with nightingale floors, floors that sing and squeak at every move. This was intended to alert local security body guards and the shogun and his staff of intruders.
Lastly I visited Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds. I did not go into the palace because a prior appointment was requires and I was not that interested to go inside.
Now I felt satisfied that I had visited most of Kyoto, I had seen the Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Okazaki, Arashiyama and Higashiyama areas.
Feb 11th
Today I work up at a reasonable time, packed up all my things, said goodbye to the people I had grown to know there and caught
a shinkansen back to Tokyo. I checked into a hostel in Asakusa, bought my train ticket back to Narita airport and grabbed something to eat for dinner then called it an early night as I had to be up at 5am to get to the airport in time for my flight.
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James
non-member comment
Small world
I felt like I was the only foreigner to ever go and see those monkeys! So strange to know that someone I know has been to some of the most alien places to english speakers that I had ever been. Good job covering all the essentials in Kyoto! I hope you took as much away from it as I did. Looking forward to catching up with you soon. -James H