Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Kyoto. Show all posts

Kyoto has so many attractions but the thing is, it may not be easy to reach some of these attractions because of their location. On my previous visit to Kyoto three years ago, I remember I had to take bus to reach certain destination like the Golden and Silver Pavillion. However, some of the attractions are reachable by taking train such as Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama. Group tour seldom (or never?) includes Arashiyama as part of their tour itinerary. I suspect this is because the need to spend the night in Kyoto if the operator include Arashiyama in the itinerary. But, Fushimi Inari will always definitely in the itinerary of any tour operator whenever Kyoto is included.

8D Avia Japan Tour: Fushimi Inari Temple, Kyoto

As such, Fushimi Inari is always flooded with visitors from inside and outside Japan. All of them came to Fushimi Inari with the same goal, to take a look and take picture (whenever possible) with the many rows of Japanese torii gates (i.e. the red temple gate). The path to the torii gates are located at the very back of the main temple of Fushimi Inari.

Basically you don’t have to worry about not being able to find the torii gates because you just need to follow the crowd. The torii gates along the entire trail are actually donations by individuals and companies. If you are curious how much does a torii gate cost, well it costs around 400,000 yen for the small one and it can reach 1M yen for the large one.

The name of the donators will be inscribed at the back of the torii gates. However, the front sides of torii gates seem to be inscribed with either phrases or prayers, I am not so sure. Oh right, before you decide to complete the trail, let me just let you know that the torii gate trail at Fushimi Inari is actually a hike to the summit of the mountain. So it’s not like a walk in the park because you will keep on hiking and the hike to the summit and back takes around 2 - 3 hours. However, there is no restriction on how far visitor need to walk. You are free to walk just as far as you wish before making your way back.

Written characters on Fushimi Inari’s tori gates

To be honest with you, it is almost impossible to have a clean shot of the torii gates (and yourself) at the beginning of the trail. So it is highly advisable to walk further deeper into the trail at least until you pass by the statue of the fox. Oh right, a bit of background may be useful here. Fushimi Inari temple is built to worship Inari, the Shinto god of rice and foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers. Hmm, now that I take a closer look at the fox, it seems to have a message scroll on its mouth. I wonder what the message that it’s carrying.

The trail becomes a bit less crowded as we go along but it will be split into two paths with smaller torii gates in front. But if you don’t feel to walk even further (like what happened with this tour group because we only had limited amount of time to spend here), you can just wait for your chance here to get a clean picture without anybody photobombing you. Tough but good things come to those who are patient. LOL.

Photo spot at Fushimi Inari Temple Kyoto

Anyway, we managed to visit Fushimi Inari within less than 1 hour. Of course, we definitely would not have time to spend checking out the temple market but as far as I remember, the market at Fushimi Inari is not as huge as the one at Kiyomisu Dera so you probably should spend more time there. When we made our way back to the bus, we saw a small Japanese cemetery which is probably built for the neighbourhood. The cemetery is so neat and well taken care of. In Jakarta, this would be practically impossible for public cemetery.

On the way to Gifu, we made a stop at BBQ restaurant for dinner and I notice that there’s capsule machine (a.k.a. Gacha machine) which gives Rilakkuma or Korilakkuma. My goodness, they are so cute and I can’t believe that you just need 300 JPY to get them because I bet this will cost at least double in Singapore. The morale of the story is, let’s play gacha when we are in Japan.

Rilakkuma gacha at restaurant in Kyoto Japan

I managed to get Rilakkuma and pretty much happy with what I get after I assemble him hehe. Konichiwa Rilakkuma!

Rilakkuma from gacha machine in Kyoto Japan

Another interesting thing that I bought in Kyoto is definitely related to green tea. Malebranche’s green tea langue de chat (i.e. chocolate biscuit) is pretty good especially when you want to pair it with green tea during tea time. However, the biscuit does not last long so consume them fast.

Malebranche matcha langue de chat from Kyoto

At this point of the tour, I feel that I somewhat join an Amazing Race competition instead of leisure tour. Why is that the case? Well, as you may have heard or aware, temples in Kyoto are popular amongst tourists, especially temples like Fushimi Inari and Kiyomise Dera. To be informed that we basically only have 45 minutes top to (1) make our way to the temple (2) take picture of cherry blossom (3) check out stores along the temple street is basically kinda crazy. Especially with this kind of crowd that we were dealing with.

8D Avia Japan Trip: Kiyomisu Dera Temple, Kyoto

But there’s nothing you can do other than quickly follow the tour leader in front to make your way to what I think it’s the entrance gate of Kiyomisu Dera Temple. Once we have reached this point, the tour leader quickly briefed us that we better off not wandering deeper to the temple ground because you have to calculate your way back via the same crowded street. At this point, my main motivation here is that yummy looking matcha soft serve which everyone seems to carry along the temple street. I have to get my hands on that baby.

But it would be a waste not to take picture of at least the main temple building and the cherry blossom since it’s not really easy to make your way to Kiyomisu Dera (I remember you have to take bus here cause there’s no train station nearby). The sakura flowers seem to be at the end of their bloom when we visited the temple but for us who don’t have the opportunity to see sakura at our own country, we enjoy seeing them at whichever stage I suppose. Except when all of them already on the ground I guess. Hahaha.

We finally found a good spot to take picture with the sakura tree. The side under the main temple will be a good photo spot for you to take picture with sakura tree. The good thing is, there are not many people here as well. By the way, I heard spooky history of Kiyomisu Dera before where people used to jump from the temple above to kill themselves. Well, at least it does not look so spooky during the day especially with a number of human spotted in the premise. XD

Cherry blossom at Kiyomisu Dera Temple Kyoto

Peach coca cola is currently the trending stuff in Japan but since they are available in Singapore, I did not grab any. After all, I cut back my coke consumption nowadays. But I am still unable to resist the temptation of bubble tea sometimes back in Singapore. The weather is just too crazy hot and humid there. Oh right, i did not realised that the packaging for the peach coke in Japan is somewhat different though since they have the limited sakura bottle for the peach coke. You may want to get it if you are collecting the bottle.

Peach coke at Kiyomisu Dera Temple Kyoto

The tour leader has warned us not to get matcha ice cream from the stall with long queue. Since my brother and I are pressed for time, we just went for the stall with not-so-long queue. Come on, there is no stall with no queue at all at this popular tourist spot, duh!

Ice cream and crepe kiosk at Kiyomisu Dera Kyoto

We took a glance at the crepe too but Kyoto is well-known for its matcha so we decided to focus on our main objective: buy and eat matcha ice cream. There are three varieties offered for the ice cream: (A) Deep matcha soft ice cream (300 JPY), (B) Deep matcha & vanilla (300 JPY), and (C) Vanilla soft ice cream (300 JPY). I stick to deep matcha soft ice cream while brother decided to mix it with vanilla. Both taste yummy and I love the fact where the spoon that we use to ice cream is actually a kind of snack.

Matcha soft serve from Kiyomisu Dera Kyoto

Mission accomplished although we reached the bus at the nick of time. I think I really did a good job here. Hahaha.

Within 4 hours, our itinerary with Avia tour on Osaka is nearly ended. We are about to make our way to the next city on the itinerary, Kyoto. I thought we were going there by bus (which journey takes 1 hour) but turns out Avia tour has booked us a shinkansen trip (with the most expensive ticket to save time) from Osaka to Kyoto. My mom was pretty surprised that the tour includes this short shinkansen trip but pleased, nonetheless. Without further ado, let’s make our way to Shin-Osaka Station to board our shinkansen.

If you have time to spend, I suggest you to spend it by checking out the stores in the shinkansen station. They are filled with many interesting goodies. The first thing that caught my attention is the pretty train bento. Don’t you think all of them looks so yummy? I am not the only one who think that because as you can see, some of these bentos are already sold out at 3PM in the afternoon on a Tuesday.

Japanese train bento at Shin Osaka Station

The souvenir (i.e. omiyage in Japanese) store is also stocked with some of the area’s specialities although you will definitely able to find Kitkat anywhere you go. Mochi, manju, cookies and biscuits are usually among the usual favorite at these stores as well. If you are looking for a limited edition type of Kitkat which is tied to specific region in Japan, you can get them at the convenience stores located in that region’s train station. This is because the international airport may not have these type of region’s Kitkat. For instance, I did not see Hojicha Kitkat (the one in brown box) at Narita International Airport when I went back to Jakarta.

Japanese omiyage store at Shin Osaka Station

Vending machine with various type of hot and cold drink is definitely also available in the station. Even Brown has difficulty choosing one for the train ride. Uhm Brown, you do know that our shinkansen ride from Shin-Osaka Station to Kyoto Station only takes 15 minutes right?

If you don’t know what to buy for your relatives and friends back home, I strongly recommend buying this green tea cookies (the Japanese named it langue-de-chat) from Malebranche. It’s basically a layer of white chocolate sandwiched between two green tea biscuits. I personally think they’ll make good pairing with bland green tea because they are leaning toward the sweet side. The best thing about them is they are available at various packaging so if you don’t want to buy a box of them, you can go for the small bag instead. There are 5 biscuits inside one small bag for JPY 680. It’s easier to give to people when you buy a box of it though because their box packaging is so nice and you don’t even need to wrap it anymore because the store will have already wrapped it for you. Smalles box costs JPY 1,360 with 8 biscuits inside.

Malebranche green tea cookies from Kyoto

Brown did not have a lot of money so he bought the small bag for Cony. Cony loves it nonetheless. Thank you dear Brown. Hehehe.

Malebrance okoicha langue de chat from Kyoto

After we have finished window-shopping (and shopping), it’s time to board the shinkansen. To be honest with you, we were nearly get left out because our tour leader has left with the other tour participants when we arrived at the meeting point. Geez, why could not he count his group before he board the shinkansen, really? Thankfully Irma picked us up while we were confused at the meeting point and hurried us to board the train within 4 minutes. Well, after living in Singapore for 10 years, 4 minutes is a lot of time to board a train.

Shinkansen platform at Shin-Osaka Station, Japan

The ticket that Avia tour bought for us does not have designated seats so we can only board certain free-seating carriages of the train. This works kinda similar to the High Speed Rail (HSR) in Taiwan. Since the train ride is considered super short at 15 minutes, I did not really have the time to look at the cart selling bento inside the train. Too bad, I kinda wanted to try eating train bento on a train ride. Next time, I guess.

For your information, the ticket with unreserved seats from Osaka to Kyoto costs JPY 1,420 while a reserved seat ticket costs twice as much. Oh boy, convenience does not come cheap in Japan I suppose.