17 March 2016 (Thursday)
Headed out early in the morning at about 6am+! Took the subway to Osaka station then to Kyoto station and arrived close to 8am!! Always hearing from others that the shrine was always packed with people no matter what time it is and surprisingly on arrival the whole place was so peaceful and there weren't many people! So we headed in and it was easy to take photographs 'cause there's simply no one around hahaha.
Fushimi Inari Shrine
Look at how empty the place is! The morning sun was shining on us. There's only just some Japanese students that came up at that time.
As we left the place became so crowded! I guess the tourists were all coming at that time as there are some tour groups around. This fish crab meat that we had at the market next to the shrine was so good! Most of the shops are still not opened so we decided to go to somewhere else. Actually we didn't really have anything planned for that day except to perhaps explore Kyoto? As we had Wi-Fi since our Osaka house provided us with the Wifi egg, I had google maps on so I just checked on where to go so we decided to go to Nishiki Market before heading to Gion!
Gion-shijo Station
We were kind of shock upon exiting the station because we never expected it to look like that. Really a different side of Japan, especially the previous time I went to Kyoto, I only went to the Nijo-jo/Kyoto castle! So we found our way to Nishiki Market just so we can eat some food but the shops only open at 11am!? So we decided to go Gion and get back here later.
Nishiki Market
This egg is so so so so good. Please have it when you are there.
Gion
I wasn't really impressed at this area, there were so many tourists and many things seemed to be rebuilt to attract tourists. There weren't anything much so after walking a round we went to look for food and decided to have Mac...
Ume (Plum) shaker fries! Okay it sucks.
We ended up in between Nishiki Market and Gion, no idea where we were though I still remember how to get there, but we were so absorbed at that shopping district! There were so many unique shops around and even Neoprints shop that were dirt cheap so we were stucked there for a couple of hours... Okay I just remembered we were suppose to spend half a day in Kyoto and then head to Nara Park since Shimin wanted to go there but then we decided to stay in Kyoto.
Every beef bowl tasted so good in Japan except Yoshinoya (please don't eat Yoshinoya in Japan).
Finally got out of the shopping area at about 4pm and we headed to the Kyoto Imperial Palace which I didn't go to previously! Was looking for the Kyoto International Manga Museum first before going to the palace.
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Finally arrived at the museum and everyone's sitting outside reading Manga. The museum's about to close so there's no point going in so we moved on to find my palace. Decided to give the Castle a skip but we still had to pass by the Castle in order to go to the palace (imagine how far we walked...).
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Finally arrived at the Palace area and I was so excited!!!!
Plum blossoms!!
Hehehe everything's blooming!
Okay so as I went to the entrance of the main Kyoto Palace... The guard closed the door in front of my face (I captured it in my video)......... I was so disappointed oh my god I really want to go in..... I guess I calmed myself down by telling me I'm going to visit the palace again during my next visit...
So Shimin wanted to go to a Kaleidoscope Museum which we saw on the street map when we were at Gion. So I searched on it in my Google Map and we headed to the Museum. So we walked the entire town next to the Palace, it was almost 6pm so everyone was ending school and the school bells were ringing. Students were walking out as the bell rang from the elementary/high school. Parents were fetching their kids from their schools on their bicycles... It was so cool to watch the Japanese everyday life by chance.
So we apparently were at the spot of the Kaleidoscope museum but we couldn't find it and I realised I searched the wrong one on the map... So we gave up, but it wasn't that bad after all, at least we seen something not many people will see.
Went in to some random shrine to have a look but it was so empty so we came out quickly. Then we walked by this street, and there's music playing from the speakers along the whole street and it kept sanging 'Moto moto moto' hahaha.
This was the end of the street. There's a vintage shop and a vintage CD shop and so on... It was kinda cool but all the shop were closing as it was getting dark already.
We had to walk back to the station and it was impossible for us to walk all the way back to where we came from. Can you imagine we walked from Gion all the way here without taking a train...... We haven't took a train since like 10am. And this was already probably 6-7pm.
Nijo-jo Castle
The castle was closed for renovations or something. But anyway we just wanted to go back which we have to walk along this huge dark road next to the castle and even more after that...
Our legs died halfway through and we just sat at this stone outside the toilet by the castle.
Finally arrived at somewhere decent! Forgot what station it was but I can remember the route we took the entire day. Okay so after Inari Shrine we headed to Gion-shijo Station but we walked to Nishiki Market then back to Gion! Then back to Nishiki Market area then walk towards the Kyoto Castle and passed by the Manga Museum and then the Castle before going to the Palace. Then after going to the palace we walked pass this unknown town in search of another Museum which doesn't exists... Then walked along the streets of Kyoto in search of the train station and we had to pass by the Castle and then walk even further till we arrived at a station. Out of all the days we were in Japan, this was the only day we walked so much! We couldn't take it and decided to stop at Holly's Cafe. This pancake look so fluffy omg and it's not bad. Hahaha I ordered ice-cream while Shimin had Matcha. Sat for awhile before we decided to go to the station and get to Kyoto Station.
I have no idea what made us continued... We wanted to go to their Muji there and we searched and found this Aeon Mall that's near Kyoto Station. So upon arriving at Kyoto Station we had a really hard time finding for Aeon Mall and constantly asked for directions... Finally we arrived at Aeon Mall which was quite a distance away from the Station.
There's nothing much there mostly Factory Outlet kind of stores. Walk around a little bit and bought some food from 7-11 and headed back all the way to Osaka (the journey was torturous cause my leg was already dead and I still have to go to Osaka and then take the subway back....)
Yay we finally arrived at the comfort of our Airbnb!!!!!! That's about it for Kyoto I guess. It was definitely a really good trip because the previous time I didn't actually explore Kyoto at all. This time I guess I somewhat explored it all except for a few places but I guess I'll go back to Japan again some day soon. 2 more posts for my Japan trip coming up.
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