#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.