Kyoto 京都, Japan Trip (Day 5)

8th March 2017, Wednesday

Today, we woke up late and had planned to go to Inari. So we prepared and headed down to Kyoto station. We ended up in Hiroshiro Coffee for breakfast, i never try in any of the Singapore branches. But the breakfast set i ordered was nice...and the hot chocolate was nice too. Then we left to take the train but ended up boarded an express train which doesn't stop at Inari station and goes straight to Nara...We were seated comfortable in the train, and we don't want to change the train. Plus, my friends got no objection to go Nara first before going to Inari. As for me, i went both the areas in my previous trips and i wanted to go see Nishiki Market back in Kyoto. In the end, we ended up going to Nara.

We reached Nara in an hour's train ride and we started walking towards Todaiji temple. When we passed Kintetsu-Nara Station, i told my friends i will go back to Kyoto alone to visit Nishiki Market instead. So i left them alone to go explore Nara and have fun with the deers there...hehee...Then i proceeded to the station...because it was not the JR station, i couldn't use my JR pass and will need to buy a train station. I was figuring out how to buy the ticket from the machine as it was in Japanese but in the end i managed to get a ticket for 10 am train. So i went to the platform and boarded the train. Then the train left for Kyoto, i was surprised when the train conductor came to inspect my ticket and told me i got a child ticket instead of an adult ticket...hahahaa..so ma lun...luckily he didn't chased me off the train and just told me to pay the balance amount for the adult ticket...

Child Train Ticket

  Anyway, i reached Kyoto safe and sound, it was already 2 pm..so i headed to the ramen street @ level 10 of Istean building. I went back to the ramen restaurant (Ramen Todai) and ordered a bowl of ramen plus fried rice. Soooo full.....Then i headed out for my adventure, wanted to walk down to the Train Museum. When i walked halfway, i realised that it was almost to 4 plus and checked online that the shops in Nishiki Market were opened till 6 pm.. And so, i headed back and went to the Nishiki Market instead.

Nishiki Market Entrance

There were many shops along the streets in Nishiki Market and noticed that there were many foreigners there too. The shops were selling dried products and fresh seafood, there were different varieties of pickles too. I spent the rest of the day there, finding food and see see look look....it was connected to a few streets like San-jio and Shi-jio.....I finally got a chance to visit an owl & bengal cats forest there, without my friends around. It was actually located in a two-level shop. Owl forest is located on the 2nd level and the cats zoo is located at the lower level. There were roughly 10 types of owls, like the snow owl (the species which Harry Potter used) and the Great Owl. There was a tiny owl too and it was just one round. As for  bengal cats, there were 10 of them for visitors to play with and a free drink is available...There was a time limit of 1 hour per visitor too.....and the staff would pick up the cat and placed it on your laps. But sometimes, the cats just don't want to sit around....hohohoo...

Initially the cats weren't friendly with me, but after that, i got two cats sleeping on my lap....funny thing was one of the cats was just sleeping on top of the other one. When the staff picked up the cat which was sleeping on top to give to another visitor, the cat actually ran back to my side and slept on top of the cat again...so funny....After playing with the cats, i walked along the streets again. There were small small shrines in between the streets too. Also came upon an anime shop where i managed to get some anime items.Then i continued walked between san-jio street (三条駅) and 六条駅....

It started to get dark and it was raining...and the funny thing was i was walking in circles between the two streets...seems like i couldn't find the road out, no matter which turn i took...creepy...anyway, i finally did managed to walk out from the loop and realised that i had ended up in Gion street. By then, it was almost 7 or 8 plus.... While walking back to the train station, i found Maccha House and there was a long queue. A staff was holding a sign indicating 'end of queue' and she informed that they were closing soon when i wanted to queue for the machaa tiramisu. No luck for it....Took the metro back to the hotel...so tired...My friends were already back in the hotel when i reached.

Fried Chicken as Snack...Delicious....

After that, we just exchanged our adventures for the day and we went to bed as we will be going to Osaka tomorrow.

Hotel Stayed:
Hearton Hotel Kyoto