Day 6 ~ Osaka ~ Kyoto ~ Tokyo

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Day Six, 11th April 2007

"After a while, the temples, shrines and castles seemed somewhat similar."

Kyoto

On our way back to Tokyo this morning, we stopped by Kyoto to have feel of this ancient city of Japan. Time is running short for us as we have to catch the afternoon train back to Tokyo. We stopped at the modern Kyoto Station for some picture taking opportunities. The station itself is tall, towering 13 levels overlooking the the city. However, given the hazy weather and dusty glass panels, it failed to offer any paranomic view of Kyoto.

Temple hopping was not 1 of our itinerary today. Nevertheless, we took a 10 min walk from the station and pop by the Higashi Hongan Ji temple to have our pictures taken. The beautiful sakuras and musical traffic lights did caught our attention & surprise.

My impression with Kyoto: The city itself was spared from the American bombing in
WWII with many traditional Japanese architectures still intact. It does not have the hustle and bustle of busy Osaka and Tokyo and the atmosphere is more relaxed. Given another opportunity, we will want to devote more time to uncover the gems of the city.

For now, it's back to Tokyo where we will be spending our final 4 nights in the city before flying back home on Sunday evening.


Tokyo

It was drizzling by the time the bullet train reached Tokyo Station. After sorting out our directions and finding the Yamanote Line to bring us to IKeburkuro Station, it was already quite late in the evening. We have the chance to experience the rush hour madness in Tokyo as we will nearly crushed with our luggages. On a brighter note, there were useful English announcements and LCD displays on the Yamanote Line to inform us where the train is heading. This is definitely comforting while travelling in a foreign land.

After having some minor hiccups with our accomodation providers, we finally checked into our accomodation at House IKebukuro. For the evening, we simply hung around our hotel area for as it was simply too cold, too rainy and too tired for us to venture out of Ikebukuro district.

Good night Tokyo as we had our well deserved rest to prepare our bodies for the long trip to Mount Fuji tomorrow.

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