#NasaanKaKenshin: Kenshin Not Found

I now have a couple of laptops in front of me.  Mine and the company laptop.  Don't ask why, but in my line of work there is no such thing as a holiday.

Anyway, I shall not let that ruin my blogging plans (and I have superb multitasking skills) so let's move on to our last day of walking.  By the way, I would like to report that we accumulated almost one hundred and seventy thousand steps and more than 40 kilometers all throughout Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and back to Tokyo.   

We woke up early and planned to walk around the Shinjuku area.  Well, we really shouldn't trust walking maps because we walked for an hour, but only managed to find the Opera Palace -- which was not even on the map.  

We walked some more and arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see Tokyo from above.

We found the egg-shaped building quite interesting, we didn't know what it was.

From the ground, it looked like this.  #WalaLang

After getting "high" (pun intended), next on our list was the Ueno Park to marvel at more autumn colors.

When we got to the Ueno station, it started raining so we decided to walk around and get something to eat.  This turned out to be super delicious -- whatever this was.

I took lots of tinapay photos!  Enjoy!

When in Japan, you can never go wrong with a transparent umbrella.  We purchased one from a nearby convenience store.  We cannot bring this home to the Philippines so we left it at the hotel afterwards.

It finally stopped raining so we got to explore the Ueno Zoo.  See that GIANT panda over there?  The one on your right?  Yes, that panda.

This panda.

Autumn colors are awesome.

Emong wanted to take a photo of the railroad but all he saw were endless sheets of metal.  So he took this instead.  

Nagalit yata si Ate cos we suddenly stopped.

Our next stop was Asakusa.  

Lined up along the street to the Sensoji Temple were hundreds of souvenir shops.  This is like Divisoria on an off day.

We ate ice cream burgers.  

But they were literally just one scoop of ice cream (mine was black sesame) sandwiched in between wafers embossed with Japanese characters.

It was almost dark when we got to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo.  It had its own monorail service that will take you in and out of the island.

We took some photos in front of the Aquacity and Fuji TV buildings.

But this big guy right here was the highlight of this particular stop.  

Am not a fan of Gundam but I get easily amazed by big robots strategically placed in front of malls.

The Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo Tower

Last but definitely not the least on our itinerary was Shibuya.  This is Paulo with Hachiko at the Shibuya station.  This is the most popular meeting place in the area.  With its very close proximity to the Shibuya crossing, good luck finding your jowa there.

It was exhilarating to join the Shibuya crossing crowd.  

We crossed the streets 5 times to take photos and run around like crazy people.

I will not divulge details on how we got lost in Shibuya trying to find Nike and Muji.  Or how we spent hours trying to find a good place to eat.   Turns out restaurants closed at 10:00 PM so we ended up here -- our last dinner in Japan.

LUCKILY...we decided to walk around after dinner (plus the honey toast place was also unable to accommodate us) and found this standing sushi bar. 

This was the best meal we had in this trip.  Hands down.

We took a cab back to the hotel and starting packing up as our flight was early the next morning.  

This whole trip was bittersweet -- itinerary was just crazy so we didn't get the chance to wander aimlessly.  But seeing your dream country for the first time sucks all the bitterness out and leaves your mouth with the sweetest, most vivid memories in your lifetime.

I will be back this year because I did not find Kenshin the first time around.

P.S.  It's only the second day of the year and Paulo has gifted me with Korea tickets for April AND Ron just booked us for a Cambodia-Vietnam adventure in July!  2015 is going to be awesome!

#NasaanKaKenshin: Kyoto Took My Breath Away

Happy new year everyone!

Hope you noticed my new header and typography.  Haha.  That's one of my attempts in welcoming 2015 with change -- the other one is my hair.  But let's deal with that later.

Anyway, am here to finally share what happened in our Kyoto trip.  

From Tokyo, it was a 3-hour train ride (20 minutes or so from Osaka).  I think I can say that for our 5-day Japan trip, our overall train rides took up almost 1 whole day.  Not the best itinerary I tell you, but we covered a lot of ground.  There's always a next time for a more laid back-type of vacation.

Train, train

On the platform from Kyoto to Arashiyama.

Arashiyama was very tourist friendly.  From the train station, you can walk to the Tenryu-Ji Temple and the famous Arashiyama bamboo groves.  

In Kyoto, it's normal to see women wearing traditional kimono.

Here's a sweeping view of the Tenryu-Ji Temple taken from my iPhone.  This photo does not do justice to the bursts of red, orange and purple set against the mountainside.  

This took my breath away at first sight.  Very zen.

Souvenir shops lined the street toward the Arashiyama bamboo groves.

We grabbed a quick bite (yes, we never had a decent meal in Japan and we're sorry for it).

We are bamboo people.

I think they were doing some anime pose but am really not sure.

Honestly, I was expecting to be blown away by the place -- but it was okay.  Maybe I thought that the bamboo would be glistening against the sunlight (or maybe they really don't so I should just blame photoshop).  

We took a cab to our next destination -- the Kinkaku-Ji Temple (The Golden Pavilion), the most iconic sight in Kyoto.

Along the way, we spotted "very Japanese" scarecrows.  

The big red cat would probably ward off birds the most. 

I have "fall"-en.  I must go back.

(drops 10-peso coin in Japan Trip alkansya)

If you only had an hour in Kyoto to take a souvenir photo, I highly recommend that you...well,  I think this photo speaks for itself.

We arrived at around 4:00 PM local time, just in time to see how the sun prepares to set all over Northwest Kyoto.  

The way light was hitting the golden temple was enough to make tears come to my eyes (not because it was blinding but because it was just so beautiful).

We took A LOT (this is an understatement) of photos with the temple so this model had to wait for her turn.

*heart-heart* ni Emong.

This is how clean the place is.  

Emong liked taking photos of us walking away.

In an attempt to find the train station to go to our next destination, we walked and walked and finally got hungry. 

We stopped by a random restaurant and ordered from this vending machine. 

Last temple on our list (well, we skipped a lot because there just wasn't enough time) was the Fushimi Inari Shrine -- I insisted on going because I loved watching Memoirs of  a Geisha, especially the scene where the young Chiyo ran along these orange gates.

It was dark when we arrived so walking through these gates lined along a mountainside were sort of creepy.  

The shrine had thousands of Torii gates and there were fox statues all over the place.  A hike up to the top of the mountain would take 2-3 hours.  This is something that I would like to try when we go back.

Happy boy with paper lantern.

The only thing that I didn't love about Kyoto was how slightly difficult it was to navigate through the train stations as compared with Tokyo.

Spot the fox here at the train platform.

We finally arrived at Gion, last stop on our list.  Gion is the most famous geisha district and we went there, hoping to see some real live geisha (or even maiko).  We didn't want to take photos because it was rude, but we were lucky to bump into a few.  

This is again one of the places that we didn't get to explore much so we just ate okonomiyaki, the Japanese version of a pancake.

After a very quick meal, we had to rush back to the Shinkansen station to catch our train back to Tokyo.  

It was one of the most amazing places I've visited my entire life.   I fell head over heels in love like the souvenir shirt that says "I left my heart in Kyoto".  I will come back for my heart someday.