Hi everyone,
We were up early at 5.30am today to get the train out to the bamboo
forest. After the crowds in Kyoto yesterday, we decided to do this to
beat the other tourists and enjoy it more peacefully.
We caught the metro and the JR line, and arrived about 6.30am. There
were a few people around, but not many. It was raining and the low
crowds and rain sounds made it all very peaceful. I will say that the
forest was nowhere near as large as I imagined. We walked through it in
about ten minutes. Maybe it would take a bit longer with heaps of people
around. But regardless, it was very pretty.
We then caught a bus to Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple, that someone had
recommended to Dad. We had to wait for just over an hour for it to open,
but we got to sit out of the rain and just relax so it was fine. We had
the place to ourselves until right before it opened when approx 20
other tourists arrived. But we were in first so got to enjoy it
peacefully. There were 1200 unique statues that reminded me of Zoombinis
(from a computer game I played as a kid) or the trolls in ‘Frozen’.
Every one of them had a different expression, some were even holding
animals. It was very cool!!
We caught another bus back, saw the famous Togetsukyo Bridge and then found
a cute coffee shop where we enjoyed a hot drink and a ‘cruffle’, a mix
of a croissant and waffle which was delicious. We ran into a family from
Melbourne here who were friendly.
When we arrived back at the JR station we were glad we had come early,
as hoards of people were leaving the station for the forest. We caught
the JR line and a bus to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavillion. The top two floors are covered in gold leaf, and it was very beautiful, as were the surrounding gardens. The temple was the retirement villa of a Shogun in the 1400s, and the Golden Pavillion is the only remaining building from that time, but has been rebuilt a few times due to fire, the most recently in 1955 after a fanatical monk set it alight.
Afterwards, we boarded another bus back towards the Shijo area which took 40 minutes. The buses here run on time and were really easy to access, and only cost $2 per trip. We went to Nishiki Market, which has been operating in this space in one form or another for 400 years. We enjoyed lots of different foods such as gyoza (dumplings), donuts, strawberry mochi and some icy poles. Dad also tasted some Sake.
We finished off the day by finding the 100m long Nintendo mural inside a metro pedestrian tunnel, and then visiting the Nintendo store. I particularly like the mural as it had speakers on playing the Mario music!!
We are resting back in the apartment now, and are planning on heading back to either the Shijo or Gion areas for dinner this evening.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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