Kyoto Day 1: Chasing Sakuras
It's day three in Japan and we were heading towards Kyoto! Checked out of our hotel and we were on our way to Kyoto! To save time, we grabbed onigiri for breakfast from the Family Mart near to our hotel and headed towards the station. To get to Kyoto, we had to take a train at Osaka station before transferring to Special Rapid Service where we will reach our destination in 30 minutes!
That der-pigg face
Emo? Or just feeling pensive?
Upon reaching Kyoto station, we were kind of lost as the station was so big, with multiple lines and exits. However, we still manage to make our way out and found our way to our hotel, which is a less than 5-minute walk away from the station.
For our supposed trip last year, we also booked The Garnet Hotel, which is newly built at that point in time. The price was affordable and accessible to the train station!
Used their toilet to put on my contacts and we are ready to go! Pigg caught this moment of me trying to adjust my beret, which I was wearing in for the first time ever since I bought it last year in Taiwan...was supposed to be for our trip last year too, oh well...
Off we go to start our day in Kyoto!
Bought the one-day subway and bus pass so we can enjoy unlimited travel for just 900 yen.
Our first stop for the day was supposed to be Mameshiba Cafe, however as we set off late, and due to the cafe's limited capacity, the next earliest timing is full and we decide to go to the cafe when we are back in Osaka.
We proceeded to Nishiki Market for lunch, which is one long street of food stalls
One thing about Nishiki Market, and also about the Japanese culture is that it is considered rude to eat as you walk. If stores do not have an indoor area for dining in, then customers are required to eat at the storefront. I guess eating at their storefront helps with their publicity? So passer-bys could gauge how popular that stall is by the number of people eating
Our first snack: Grilled Scallops and Squid
Second snack: Jumbo Prawns
Third snack: Tako Tamago (Quail egg octopus)
This is an interesting snack - first I am unsure how did they manage to stuff the quail egg into the head of the octopus, and secondly, it tasted sweet, in a good way.
Fourth and fifth snack
All these small bites here kind of help fill up our tummies. The snacks were not that cheap either, each item cost an average of 500 yen.
We then headed to Pigg's paradise... Pokemon Centre Kyoto, which was newly located at Kyoto Economy Centre, a few minutes walk away from Nishiki Market.
Pokemon Centre Kyoto's mascot is Pikachu riding the mythical Ho-oh!
And not forgetting the cute pikachu in kimono at the entrance
How to resist these cute plushies? In the end, Pigg got the smaller keychain version as they would not take up as much space.
Final picture with Lugia
Damages in the end: Pigg spent a little over 10,000 yen on Pokecentre merchandise, a hole in the pocket to satisfy the inner child within him.
We then travelled to Kaege station where we have to head to Nanzenji Boat Pier for our boat ride!
And that's where we saw our first CHERRY BLOSSOMS! The trees were still quite sparse but it actually looked prettier in real life.
Since we were here already, Pigg asked me to stand beneath the tree to take a picture
We were so distracted and also lost our direction, that we almost missed our boat ride...
But at last, we managed to find our way, and reached the pier a little less than five minutes before our set off time.
We were panting to catch our breaths but so glad that we were able to make it, as we had booked the ride and paid beforehand. The ride costs around $16 per person, it would be a waste if we were unable to board...
Exchanged our tickets and put on our life vests before boarding
On the Jikkobune boat! As the seats were first come first serve, the front seats were snapped up. A special thing about this boat is that instead of sitting face front towards the head of the boat, we sat facing the two sides of the boat, where we could get a good view of the passing scenery.
I was asked to remove my beret during the ride as it may fly away
It was very interesting to see the roof of the boat going down when we head towards the bridge.
Met the other boat who left half 15 minutes before us, who was on their way back to the pier.
Rows of flowering plum trees
This one looks like its almost approaching full bloom!
Passed by this giant Torii gate
Returned back to the pier!
Verdict: The entire tour was conducted in Japanese and we totally had no idea what the guide was talking about. One Korean girl who was sitting beside us even dozed off, I guess the cool breezes provided a conducive sleeping environment. This was supposed to be a cherry blossom boat ride, but as the trees were not in full bloom yet, so it was quite disappointing...
We then headed back to the railway tracks to get closer to the cherry blossoms!
Many girls were also dressed in Kimonos to take pictures at the tracks. I truly applaud their effort as it was so hard to walk in those wooden clogs on the pebbly roads!
We were also hoping to get some nice shots to replace our old iPhone wallpaper which we took in Taiwan's Shifen railway station.
We wanted to do our signature holding hands pose to replicate our previous wallpaper, and we finally got a perfect shot after guiding the person who helped us to take the picture on the angles.
Satisfied with our pictures, we decided to head to our next stop: Fushimi Inari!
However, something unfortunate happened... we boarded the JR Nara line which will take us to Inari station... but after 5 minutes, the train doors did not close or leave Kyoto station... turned out that the railway service was suspended due to a fire alarm that was activated at the next station...
We thought that it might be a false alarm, but I guess there was really a fire breakout and all the locals started leaving the train. Only foreigners and tourists like us still stupidly stayed on the train, waiting for it to move...
After 15-20 minutes of waiting, we decided to just postpone our trip to Fushimi Inari and return to our hotel to put our stuff since we were able to check in already. Before heading back, we decided to check out the GU store at Kyoto Avanti mall, where we lost track of time and spent an hour plus shopping for clothes. We racked up a 10,000 yen (so we can get tax free too!) where I bought clothes too for my Mum and Sister.
GU was paradise for us as I felt that the selection was greater and more affordable than Uniqlo (though Uniqlo is a brand under GU).
Checked in and on our way up to our room!
Our room! Although it was small, but it definitely look better than our previous hotel in Osaka, the bathroom also has a small bathtub
Night soon fall when we left our hotel for Kyoto station as we want to head to Nijo Castle’s night cherry blossom illumination festival.
The trip to Nijo Castle is actually made arduous as I had got the directions wrong and we got off at the wrong station, where we had to take a long walk to reach the castle. We should have gotten off at Nijo-Jo-Mae station (in front of Nijo station) instead of Nijo station... my bad...
Got our tickets! People who wore the kimono actually got free admission... but I guess walking on the pebbly ground in clogs is not worth it just to save on the ticket price?
We were greeted by the cherry blossoms projection mapping on the castle gates
The route that we took after entering the gates
So this is how cherry blossoms trees look like when illuminated in the dark
And we passed by this area where there were glowing lime green balls
Lamps were lit up and lined to lead the way
This part of the castle is actually out of bounds
Saw more cherry blossoms along the way and many professional photographers were snapping away on their DSLRs.
The next route was an interactive section where trees will either light up or produce music when we did specific movements e.g. shining our smartphone torchlight or sitting on a bench
It was quite difficult to take pictures in the dark and the beauty of the cherry blossoms would be best enjoyed with the naked eye.
After much walking, we decided to head to our dinner venue: Fire Ramen!
It was quite a long walk to the restaurant, which is located in somewhere quite ulu, and we had to pass through alleys and brave the cold winds to get there.
However... we were unable to dine there... as the queue was a freaking 2-hour long wait! We were quite hungry and there was no way we were going to wait outside in the cold. We decided to just dine next doors in a quaint little steak restaurant, where Pigg found his second best steak that he had!
Since I do not eat steak, I ordered their pork.
Although our day did not go as what we had planned, we still managed to enjoy ourselves on our first day. Although we did not get to go to Fushimi Inari, we need not rush and got to have some shopping time. Although we got off the wrong station, we got to go the long way and appreciate more sights along the way. Although we did not get to eat the over-hyped fire ramen, we stumbled on a nice steak house which serves quality food.
And that's how we ended our first night in Kyoto.
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