Day 7: Imperial Palace, Narzen-ji Temple & Path of Philosophy (Kyoto)

Hi darlings,

We back to our jalan-jalan mode ok :P

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1st April 2009

If you notice, most of the entries are about temples, temples and temples. This is because Kyoto is famous for their temples and parks. You may get tired of it but their temples and park is a worth visit to pay. It's very different and serene.

Since we didn't get proper food for few days, we ordered breakfast set from Kawashima Inn and it costs us 1000 yen each.

They gave us rice, miso soup, salmon slice, sunny side eggs, blanched soybean, seaweed and japanese tea.

They also gave us a whole pot of extra rice (look at this container, cute isn't it?)

And we finished all of them! Nampak sangat makan byk ok. And it's japanese rice, a bit sticky like our pulut.

MrComot in yukata (Japanese traditional summer garment)

Since we were so full, we fall asleep straight after breakfast boleh? And woke up later at 1130am! We quickly get ready and move our ass to Imperial Palace Kyoto.

A thing about Imperial Palace is, they only open twice a day for English session, one in the morning and one at the noon. We planned to be there for morning session but since we dozing off, we have to move it to noon.

The route: Shijo - Karasuma Imagedawa - walk down from here Admission: Free but you have to apply the admission to enter in advance

This palace is empty now, last Emperor to reside here is during the Meiji time in 1869 (now everybody moves to Tokyo Imperial Palace). The building is preserved as part of Japan historical and only the ground is opened to public.

We arrived just in time and was the last couple to gain the permission for the tour. Right after we took the form, they put this 'fully booked' notice. We had to go to their office (warning: 10mins walking. So kalau boleh be as early as you can as they are pretty strict with timing. We reached there at 1.45PM *pheww*), fill in forms, and show our passports to get the permission slip.

In front of Imperial Palace. They open the tour at sharp 2PM and it lasts for 1 hour

The big compound. Everybody is free to wander around, only can't go into the building

The bright orange gate to cast away the ghosts

Their royal pond

The bridge where royalties melepak hehe

Tour guide haeling some information

One of the trees inside the imperial palace area

It's blooming

Me among the tourist

MrComot recording macam-macam and I haven't see yet any of it, takde masa :(

After tour around palace, we ventured to Imperial Park, next to Imperial Palace. It is a big park with lotsa sakura tress and the path is tarred with small stones.

Different type of sakura

At bright pink sakura

Hogging one of the tree

Snowy sakura

The big sakura

We went to Nanzen-ji Temple after that for another sight-viewing and their famous path of philosophy!

The route: Karasuma Marutamachi - Karasuma Oike - Keage - Walking distance
Admission: Free

On the way to the temple, it looks hot right?

But it's 12 degrees ok!!! I had to hide my hands inside the pocket all the time.

Monk walking out of the temple

Nanzen-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto and since I already tired of temples (and my feet hurt!), we didn't go inside, just admiring the scenic garden outside. From Nanzen-ji temple we walked around helplessly (with maps in our hand) trying to find Path of Philosophy. We even sampai at one small police station and asked the inspector but as expected, he doesn't understand a word even the name of path of philosophy. Fortunately, in our map also printed the name in kanji saying ("tetsugaku no michi") and he gave some directions that we also don't understand, but his hand showing back to Nanzen-ji temple. So we tried our best while chanting tetsugaku no michi tetsugaku no michi, went back to Nanzen-ji and found a signage written "tetsugaku no michi" and the signage gone after a few meters that we blindly walking, following our hunch.

Until we reached a road among houses, and still yakin boleh!

And finally! Berkat the yakin boleh (haha) and sakit kaki, we reached path of philosophy.

Actually it's a path full with hundreds of cherry blossom trees along the canal and behind residential houses. The path is very nice indeed but not as expected. It supposed to be very scenic but not all trees bloom, so it turned out so-so only.

We reached end of the path with "where are we now" question. The map seriously not helping and since it's evening, the road is very quiet. Shops are closed and nobody wandering around. We kept on walking until we saw a bus stop and with few people there. So we just gambled waiting for the bus too thinking, if there is bus, the bus will take us to bus station, so we can continue our journey from there, no matter where we are.

After few moments waiting for the bus, one of the girl smile at us and asked where we came from. I was like, Thank God, finally got somebody speak English! Apparently, she is a Taiwanese and not that she can read Japs, but at least it's kanji so she can guess where the bus going and the schedule. We talk a bit (very broken english hahaha) and ride the bus together. She even alerted us to stop at which station. Thank you Miss Taiwan! :D

We stopped at Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae station and again, no idea where are we hahaha. But it's a station so the 'lost' game is not that bad. We took subway to Kyoto station for dinner.

The route: Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae - Karasuma Oike - Kyoto Station

As I told before, Kyoto station is vey big and has arrays of food shops. We ate at Porta (a foodcourt full with restaurants) and had this:-

Donbori with ebi and cold soba

This restaurant also doesn't have english menu, we just depend on their food display and try our best to avoid the unnecessary food.

Example of the food display. All shops have this setting.

And since we can't read, we just look at the sample one by one. This is the example of the shop selling pork (thank to the food blogs that I browse hari-hari before, that I can recognize it is a pork meat - the fat is their signature). So we always avoid shops with sample like this. But ada jugak a few yg terlepas, not in display but when we go in, they do serve it.

On the way back, we saw one bakery selling cakes and desserts and bought this:-

Grape fruit jerry (I guess it's hard for them to spell 'L' as I see quite many words with R replacing L)

And it's M-A-S-A-M :))
But it's cute isn't it? They use real grapefruit skin as the holder and real grapefruit as the topping.

There will be one more entry on Kyoto, then everything will about Tokyo! :)

Day 6: Bamboo Forest Arashimaya, Maruyama Koen & Gion (Kyoto)

31th March 2009

We checked out from Kazariya because their place is full and we only managed to book for 2 nights. Our next sleep-over place is Kawashima Inn, still a ryokan and still in Kyoto. Luckily it's just one station (Shijo station) away from Kazariya so we just dragged our luggage and walk down the road. It took us about 20minutes walking and we reached Kawashima around 12PM. Oh ya, breakfast was breakfast bars and tea hehehe.

After we placed out bags in Kawashima and prayed there, we quickly proceed to Arashiyama for some temples and bamboo forest!

On the way to Kawashima, we saw this camouflage tree, like wrapped in army uniform.

Even though Kyoto is considered oldest town in Japan, but we can see more cars and big building in Kyoto compared to Osaka. Maybe because public transportation in Osaka is very convenient and comprehensive (they use totally JR lines) whilst in Kyoto use combination of Subway and JR.

Since land is pretty expensive in Japan and limited, everything is squeezing in. A small house/shop in the middle of gigantic building.

Lunch was as usual, we bought 2 fish onigiris, 2 sandwiches (tuna & egg) and pet drink from local newstand.

The route: Shijo (subway) - Kyoto - Saga Arashimaya (JR Line) - Walk distance to bamboo forest
Admission: 500 yen

At Kyoto station I think. Kyoto station is very big as it stores 30++ lines under one roof!

Saga-Arashiyama park has multiple attractions such as the the bamboo forest, Mount Arashiyama as the backdrop, Zen temples all the way and the famous one is Tenryuji Temple. The 500 yen admission is for all of this.

The big sakura in the park

In front of their lake. The temp is around 10 degrees that time, still very cold, but the sun is blaring.

Pond in front of Tenryuji temple. The golden Koi is humongunous

Mt Arashiyama. The view will be magnificent during autumn.

Under one of the sakura trees

Taken by one of the local. Everytime we wanted together-picture, all we have to do is approach anybody walking by and said "sumimasennnn (while showing the camera)". And they will say "Hait!". One thing about them that I noticed, they like to see back pictures they took, so we will view the pic with them everytime right after they snap and said "Nice!" or "Good!", ending with "Arigatou Gozaimasu!" and they will grin broadly.

In front of the bamboo forest.

Me inside the bamboo forest

The path inside

The bamboo forest is quite interesting. You get to walk in a path surrounded by lots lots of bamboo. They have two path, one is about 1 km and another one is 250mtrs I think, and we chose the later of course hehehe.

In the middle of the forest

The cool cool green bamboo

At the end of the road, there is a villa of a Japanese movie star (I forgot the name, not that I know him :P) turned into a museum and can be visited. There are splendid views from the villa and it is famous for its garden design. The admission quite expensive, 1000 yen each and since it's not autumn, I don't think it's worth it, so we skipped this.

We had our lunch on a bench along the roadside and I saw this:

An automatic car park! After you park, the blocker (right in front of the number) will rise up and you have to pay the fare at a parking machine then the steel will go down. Interesting isn't it?

Our new lunch (after days of onigiri) - tuna sandwiches

We also had some local icecream - Matcha and Sakura swirl!

Actually it is light pink (sakura) and the green one is matcha (green tea) and the combination really delicious! I wish we had one each instead of shared!

Arashiyama also has a park where lies a big river. There is a gondola for you to canoed to enjoy the cherry blossom but the area still not overally bloomed, so we pass it.

The big river

Everybody has SLR including this makcik!

Trees and flowers. It was very breezy and fresh that time and I wish we can spend longer in Arashiyama but we need to see other places too.

Then we off to Maruyama Park. On the way out of Arashiyama, we stumbled upon a local shop selling grilled fish. This is our first time seeing grilled fish in Japan (finally!) so we bought one big chunk and had it at the train station while waiting for ours :D

It's thick and cold and bland! Taste like our local tenggiri. Oh ya, 400 yen (RM15) for this small piece!

The route: Saga-Arashiyama - Nijo - Higashiyama - 20 mins walking to Maruyama Koen (Maruyama Park)

Maruyama Koen is a public park in Higashiyama district and Kyoto's most popular spot during cherry blossom. We arrived here around 530PM and the dawn is approaching.

You have to walk inside the small road

Kyoto is a bit warmer than Osaka so we starting to see more flowers yeay!

Their famous "shidarezakura" (weeping cherry tree)

People starting to book their camping place

We bought squid again! What else to eat hehehe

Yummy!

Me with some local girls wearing kimono! Kawaiiii!!

When the night falls, the whole park is lit up by bright lights and a lot of stalls already selling foods. I was wondering if they have any function that night that I asked one of the guy selling kebab (he can speak English and he isn't local! Haha. I think he is Persian).

Oh ya I know he can speak English because he shout calling me from far

Kebab Guy: Heloooo! You are from Indonesia?
Me: No, Malaysia
Kebab Guy: Ohh Malaysia. Welcome!
Me: Thank you, hmm excuse me, why everybody is camping here? Is there any speacial show tonight?
Kebab Guy: No no no. It is because of the cherry blossom season, so they are out just to have fun under the trees, with friends and families. Just having fun eating and drinking at night.
Me: Wahh nice. Thank you. Hmm sorry, I can't buy your kebab, we don't take meat (haha I feel bad sbb tak beli apa2 from him yet he still borak2 with me)
Kebab Guy: Haha it's ok. Enjoy yourself

The salted fresh fish being grilled with barbarian way. Haha barbarian ke? But it's very unique and cute. We were so tempted to try this fish until we saw one couple eating it and guess what, the fish is not being cleaned! Tak di siang langsung! We can see the stomach inside the fish but I'm not sure they eat the whole thing or spare the stomach but blueghhh I can't take it la.
Oh ya, this guy kindly smile for my snap. Arigatou and you are so comel!!! :D

It's getting darker

We made our way to Gion around 6.30PM on foot! According to the map it is nearby but it took us 45minutes (plus minus sesat lagi kan hehe). We read online that you can see a lot of geisha/meiko walking by the street getting ready (for performance I guess) during the evening but the thing is you have to be there early around 6-7PM. When we reached there, we saw only one geisha in full costume and make-up walking very FAST in her little terompah (slippers) and didn't stop even for a second while a swarm of people ushering her with their SLRs and flashes.

Gion Street

We went to Gion Corner (down the Gion street) and bought the ticket for daily show. Admission 3150 yen.

The daily show has two slots, 7PM and 8PM, we watched the later. Seats are limited so you have to go early. They don't sell early ticket which means, if you want to watch 8 oclock show, the queue will be opened at 745PM.

The show falls into 7 performances - puppet show, kyoto style dance, comic plays, court music, flower arrangements, tea ceremony and japanese harp. All in Japanese but they have a walkie talkie like for English explanation and it is upon request. You have to pay it for 1000 yen and it is refundable, when you return the gadget.

The tea ceremony

Japanese Harp

Flowers arrangement - how they do it traditionally (penuh sopan santun ok). By this time we already restless and whispering to each other "Why takde yg comel2 ni? Semua makcik tua"

Court Music. The real court music will have more musician (the group in purple) like 100 something like that. It's quite hard to decide, nak dengar the explanation in the earphone or listen to the performance in jargon. I chose to enjoy the whole performance without the earpiece so I don't know the details of this show.

Comic plays. The story is about the master wants to go to the town but he don't trust his guards afraid that they will steal his sake. So he made plan to trick the guards making them tie each other and he's gone. While he's away, the tied guards try to drink the sake and we drunk when the master came back.

The kyoto dance. Finally! Some real girls come out! We get to see the geisha real close and they have different painting at the back of their neck. I think showing the level or something like senior geisha, meiko, etc.

Puppet play, about a princess wants to save her lover and the only way to do that is by ringing the big bell on top of the hill. The bell is only for emergency and she is in dilemma to ring it or not.

Us in front of Gion Corner

After Gion visits, we wandering along to road to search for suitable shops for dinner but didn't find any. So we settled for 2 packets of prawn crackers + 1 cup on instant noodles (curry) + 2 fish onigiris + 1 Lipton caramel tea.

Oh ya, we walked back home (Gion to Kawashima) and it is 2km!




Ps: Have a good holiday guys. See ya on Monday. I'll back to my hometown this holiday and will try to update as soon as possible ya. Mwahhhh!!