kyoto

we ended up taking a bus from hiroshima to kyoto.

there were more rapid ways, but they cost so much more. so, we bussed for a little under six hours.

we got into kyoto and our hotel. a rather fancier place. they took our bags up and all. (turns out we got it on the cheap due to a 72 hour sale.)

we took a walk around to find some dinner. ended up at a place where we ordered our meal through a vending machine. there were actual wait staff and places to sit, but you made your meal order and received a ticket for food from a vending machine.

it was drizzling the whole time. it was a cooling rain for the most part so we didn’t mind. we tried to walk around to find gion and found one of those covered shopping streets with a lot of people wandering about.

it seemed like we were pretty close to gion, but not quite there. after getting a little lost trying to get to the hotel we packed it in and planned a little bit of our next day.

we actually only had that one day there. we had to check out of our hotel that morning so we decided to go back to kyoto station to lock up our bags, then do all of our site-seeing and catch the train from kyoto to osaka.

kyoto might be easier and more accommodating for travelers. it could be that after four days of prior traveling we had figured things out a little more, but it just seemed a lot easier to figure out how to get from one thing to another. and the transportation didn’t seem quite as expensive. according to their own pr, kyoto is more of a walkable town. there are so many sites that walking from one to the other really isn’t difficult if you have the time. the sites aren’t far from one another, so many temples and shrines. but, if you only have a day, and you have some main points to catch. . . a bus ticket will do you well.

all three of our sites to see were along bus routes. (again, there were separate train companies, and separate bus companies. but we knew what questions to ask, and what to look out for.) we quickly figured out that our bus routes could all be combined on a day pass for approximately five bucks.

we were a little intimidated by how much there is to see in kyoto. how do you pick one shrine or temple from another? we got a couple of lucky last minute tips. bruce, a former co-worker chimed in that we should check out the golden pavilion. . . and the couple we met in hiroshima mentioned the zen garden. aside from that i had found pictures of one shrine that i was excited to see, and if we had time left over it would be easy to fill, but we thought we were pushing our luck with three sites.

the golden pavilion (kinkaku-ji temple) was fantastic. it was pouring rain, so we each got to test out our ponchos. i did discover that my camera acts up a bit when it’s wet, so that’s something to think about later.

the ryoan-ji temple, gardens, and the zen garden was a beautiful resting area. the rain had let up a bit, but it was still drizzling from time to time.

we stopped back to kyoto station to refuel a bit. we tried some udon noodles, camille mailed a post card, and i got more money out. (didn’t have the cash to buy a couple of souvenirs outside of the golden pavilion- and they didn’t take cards- grrr.)

then off to the fushimi inari shrine. we hit it just around dusk. i read that a rainy day would be better since there would be fewer tourists. sadly the place was much larger than i expected, so we only walked through a small area of it. extremely picturesque. another nice quiet spot. though i think it would’ve been completely creepy at night. and the town area around it was really cute too.

there were so many places that sounded interesting, a shrine with a thousand statues around it, a temple covered in moss. . . but the day ticked away. and i feel that we filled it pretty well.

then it was back to kyoto station (third time that day) to catch a train to osaka. it’s a pretty great station. helpful people and pretty easy to get around. so, no complaints here.