Blogs from Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 89

Despite the cold overcast day I decided to go for a walk, so I grabbed the bus up to the Ginkakuji Temple, or silver pavilion. The temple was beautiful as were its gardens, but there were a ton of Japanese school children around so I quickly left down the Path of Philosophy - a riverside path literally surrounded by temples. Many of these temples were smaller and less impressive than the first but they were that much nicer for it. Many of them I had completely to myself, and when the sun eventually shone I was rewarded with some truly beautiful moments. I hiked up the hill behind one of the temples which eventually afforded me with views over the whole of Kyoto, and another city beyond which may have been Osaka. Lunch was a curious ... read more

OOOOH! I found myself out shopping again today. I do love it. I really do. Today was especially good: I could actually afford to buy stuff, and that had nothing to with my scholarship stipend finally hitting my bank account! I have cased every beautiful depaato and exclusive boutique I could find in the past month (yes, I've been living in the northern hemsiphere for a month since thursday), but it has basically all been in vain. But today, I hit the Jack pot! Under the pretence of going to Kitano Temangu (outskirts of Kyoto) to see the plum trees in blossom (I start learning how to paint plum in Sumie on monday) around a beautiful temple we learnt about in Japanese Architecture class and perhaps having a squiz through the temple market in order to ... read more

I went to Kyoto for the first time yesterday afternoon! After successfully navigating a bus and a train ride (trains are a first for me), I visited a beautiful temple with a group of international students. Our "tour Guides" were local Japanese students and they were lots of fun! After putting up with our very tourist-like oohs and aaahs, the students took us to do some postcard shopping in the surrounding area, I had my first taste of green tea (which I must admit wasn't my idea of delicious...), tasted some japanese sweets (now that's what I call scrumptious!!!) and had a few drops of Japanese rain. Feeling culturally enlightened and rather hungry, we made our way to a small, dark restaurant for more okonomiyaki (squid this time!). We oogled at the beautiful shops along the ... read more

Landed in Kyoto station at about 5.30am, 2.5 hours before check-in (in Japan, you do not just show up and you do not check in early or late, or hang around during the day!). We hung around until the corner cafe opened at 7 and had a lovely breakfast. We checked in to The Tour Club at 8 am (well, dropped our bags off, check in is not until 4 pm). Then we headed off to explore the extensive Imperial Palace gardens. There are 2 ornate little shrines within the grounds, the palace itself and beautiful forested grounds. Following this, we went to Nijo castle which was absolutely excellent. There were beautiful Kano screen paintings and amazing nightingale floors which squeak however lightly you try and walk on them in order to prevent intruding samurai. On ... read more

I wasn’t even ready for Japan when it came. But I mean really, have I been ready for any of this? For some people Japan was their most anticipated port. Not for me really, I was actually kind of dreading it given the amount of money I was told I would have to spend. None of my preconceived notions turned out to be true, and I should have known that from the start, give what this whole trip has taught me. On the first day immigrations took quite some time so we weren’t allowed to get off the ship until at least noon. I had a trip leaving at 2:30, and I knew I would have to take a train to get anywhere, so I decided to just stay put until then. At 2:30 Lauren and ... read more