Yin Sin and I are going to stay for two nights in Kyoto. We packed up in the morning and left to kyoto to meet Yvonne for lunch. This time, the journey took 90min cause we didn’t get to board the special rapid train. We took the normal rapid train but after it left Osaka station, it became a local train.
We met Yvonne at her hotel and went for Japanese pasta for lunch near the Kyoto train station. We ordered food to share and this time, we tried Japanese Pasta. We ordered pizza, seafood spaghetti and a salad.
Once lunch is done, we sent Yvonne off the bullet train back to Tokyo.
We checked in at our hotel, called the Palace Side Hotel. It’s a very decent place with receptionists that can speak fluent English.
It was only only SGD300 for two nights for a double bed, booked through a Rovia website which offers quite a competitive pricing out there.
For the day, we decided to explore the northern part of Kyoto and selected three main attractions; Kinkaku-ji Temple, Ryōan-ji and Ninnaji Temple.
We started from Ninnaji Temple which has a 17th century five-storey pagoda, and a nice garden to walk.
We didn’t stay too long there cause we reached there at 330pm and we have two more nearby places to visit with Kinkaku-ji closing at 5pm.
We went to Ryōan-ji temple next which is famed for it’s zen rock garden where we reached at 4pm. When we were inside, we saw this beautiful lake and decided to let go of Kinkaku-ji cause we didn’t want to rush ourselves.
At the main attraction (which costs ¥500 per pax), there’s this rock garden which is said that if you stare at it long enough, you would be able to answer whatever questions that you have. The miniature of the rock garden looks like this.
And inside, there is the actual version of it. It has an arrangement of 15 rocks sitting on a bed of pebbles.
Right opposite the rock garden, is a nice resting place to enjoy tea by the olden people, I suppose.
And right behind, is a wash basin that has an inscription that says “I learn only to be contented”
We walked along another beautiful garden which is filled with layers of moss.
By around 435pm, we’re already done with the place and may still have time for Kinkaku-ji. The temple is only a few short stops up the hill and the moment we stepped out and found a bus stop, we ran for a bus coming on the way and realized that it was the wrong bus. We did a quick transfer and managed to reached Kinkaku-ji at 450pm. By the time we were at the ticket counter, it already 455pm. Finally, we managed to get in with very little crowd as the last entry is at 500pm. *phew*
Kinkaku-ji Temple is famous for its golden temple.
We then slowly explored around the area.
After that’s done we have the entire evening free to ourselves. We hopped on the first bus that we see and stopped when we saw something interesting at the street. We ate a beef rice bowl at a very cheap price. They use vending machine concept to order food.
Then, we saw a shopping mall nearby and went to buy clothes since I didn’t bring enough clothes. Coincidentally, there’s an opening sale in uniqlo and I was able to buy decent t-shirts at 1000yen; which is considered cheap cause clothes in Japan is generally very expensive. Actually everything in japan is expensive.
We continued walking around further, buying lots of pastries, desserts, food along the way.
At one time, we even got lost and we took 1 and a half hours to find our way back. Then Yin Sin bumped into the supposedly nicest ramen shop, called Tenkaippin, in south Japan that her friend, an avid lover of ramen recommended to her.
The menu is all in Japanese and we didn’t know what to order. We tried to ask for the waiter’s recommendation and with his limited understanding of English, he recommended us this;
It’s a very thick pork soup ramen with added garlic paste in it. A bit too thick for our liking but otherwise, it’s rather enjoyable.
We had to walk all the way back to the hotel after that as all the bus has stopped its service. Fortunately, it isn’t too far away and we managed to get back from the ramen place in about 30min time. We were so glad to be back in the hotel at 1130pm after a long day of walking. We ate the pastries we bought as desserts. We had cheese cake, a very delicious apple pie and green tea cake.
A bit sinful, but we’re on holiday and the desserts were great!
