Arashiyama 嵐山, Japan Trip (Day 4)

7th March 2017, Tuesday

Today, we were going to Arashiyama.....finally a new place for me...We woke up early and got ready for our adventure. We headed down to Kyoto train station, it was super cold (Some areas of Kyoto were still snowing) and there was light rain. I wanted to have ramen for breakfast in Istean's ramen street. But we were too early and all the restaurants were not opened yet. So we ended up in one of the bakery and had some breads. I bought a small rice sushi and a hot chocolate for my breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to the train platform to board the San-Li JR train.The train was also crowded and we had to take to the 6th or 7th stop. Once the train arrived in Arashiyma, a lot of people alighted too. It was freezing cold and strong winds were blowing. My pants were dropping too as it was big in size and i didn't put on my belt....regretted didn't bring along my belt... :P
Anyhow, we walked down the street to Tenryu-ji Temple (Tian Long Shi), which was ranked first among of the 5 Zen temples in Arashiyama and it was registered as a world's heritage site too. The entrance fees consists of visiting the temple alone or it can be combined with the garden walk too. We bought the entrance fees for both the temple and garden. We had to change our shoes for slippers to walk in the temple's grounds.

We could see the pond and mountains from the temple, it was super quiet and peaceful. (I enjoyed the peace there... :) ) We spent some time enjoying the view and peace, the water in the pond looked like it was 'dancing' when the wind blows. Then it suddenly to rain heavily and we had to sit longer on the floor for the rain to stop. But it was really cold and the wind kept blowing. Once we saw the rain lighten, we quickly changed our shoes and went to the garden to have the walk. We managed to see two sakura trees in the garden, one was having white flowers and one was having pink flowers. Many people crowded around the trees to get nice pictures with the trees. We walked through the temple ground and walked into the bamboo grove, which was located at the other entrance of the temple ground.

We walked and took pictures in the famous bamboo grove and there were many people wearing kimonos. There was even a couple taking their wedding photos there. With the wind blowing, we could hear the sound of the wind and the bamboo trees were swaying. Don't know why...i find the sound of the wind very pleasant and made me very peaceful and calm...(although i was thinking on my unfinished assignments, totally put at the back of my mind....hahaha).  While we were walking up the road, i saw a kid eating a hot sausage and turned to my two friends that i want to eat the sausage too..hahahaa...One of my friends said i had to walk to the other end to buy it....sooo hungry.... -_-....
We continued walked till we reached one of the scenic railway station, where there were some food stalls. And one of the stalls was selling hot hot sausages...so we bought one for each of us...soo nice to have something hot in cold weather. We also bought one hot sweet potato to eat...

After resting there, we continued to explore the area and saw orange trees in one of the houses. There was one small shrine (Mikami Shrine) we came across too, it seemed to be worshiping a god of hair...I saw some wishes by other people on the wishes boards, they were wishing to have more and healthier hairs. And the temple charms selling were mini combs...quite interesting (who would thought there is a god for healthy hairs)...hehehe....After that, we continued walking the road and we ended up to the main street while finding Togetsukyo Bridge. There were many people and there were trishaw pullers on the roads. There were many shops and food too. As it was around 2 plus, so we decided to get lunch.

Mikami Shrine

Trishaw

We stumbled upon a restaurant named Saga Tofu Ine, which was showcasing their popular items and interestingly, the food was all made of soya tufu. Each of us ordered 3 different sets so that we can try the different sets. Surprisingly, the food was quite nice and the tofu was very smooth. There was even two different types of desserts in the sets. But the whole set doesn't have any meat inside, so meat-lovers people may not like it...hehehe....After lunch, we went out to the streets for adventures again...
We went shopping in the shops (played a lot gashapon machines and collected stations chops), also saw Togetsukyo Bridge from a distance but we got lazy to walk to the other side of the bridge. There was a mountain opposite the river and the water was flowing from the bridge. There was a long queue at a small shop, selling coffee and the coffee smell was aromatic.

Saga Tofu Ine Menu

Arashiyama Set

Saga Set

Soya Milk Obanzai Set

Ice Cream

Togetsukyo Bridge

However, the sky was turning dark too and it was like only around 5 plus. So we decided to go back to Kyoto. Along the way back to the station, I saw people queuing to buy snacks so i decided to try it. We bought from 2 stalls which were having longer queues, and we walked back to the station while snacking. Then we took the train back to Kyoto station and went back to Istean basement to buy snow crabs for dinner when we arrived. But we didn't find snow crabs there (sadzzz)..so we bought salmon, fruits and some chicken wings back to the hotel.

These are niceeee...

We took turns to shower, then we just on the tv and had our dinner. I finished the whole packet of salmon as my friends don't really eat raw...The TV programme was something like those TV products advertisements, where you can call the broadcast telephone number and buy the advertised products. The two hosts were promoting Hitachi rice cooker, saying that the rice cooker cooks more rice than normal rice cookers and the technology used was using water as a medium underneath. What's more interesting was that the hosts announced that they were giving 30 bags of rice (amounting to 9kg of rice) if you call and buy the rice cooker...hahahaa...

Salmon

Mixed Fruits

Honey Chicken Wings

Strawberries

After that, it was sleeping time after a day of walking....*Snorezzzz.....


Hotel Stayed:
Hearton Hotel Kyoto

Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社, Japapn Trip (Day 7)

2nd January 2015, Friday

View outside Hotel Room

Breakfast

Today, we woke up abit late and luckily, the snow had stopped, and everywhere was covered with snow. We got ready and went downstairs to have our breakfast. The breakfast buffet was with simple dishes, not much food. We took our time to have our breakfast and then we left around 9 plus. Then we took the JR line to Fushimi Inari Shrine. We had to take the JR line back to Kyoto station and then changed to the Nara line, roughly 3 stops away. The train was packed with people, and when we alighted at Inari station, it was crowded with people. It was so crowded until we can't really walk out of the station. Slowly, we made our way to the shrine, there were a lot of food stalls before the shrine. There were snow around and the ground was also very wet. For this shrine, there were 2 fox statues standing in front of the shrine (where the foxes were the messengers of the God of Rice). And here, the famous attraction was the vermilion torii gates and there was thousand of the gates. After we paid respect in the main shrine and we went walking through the torii gates. It was a long way and it covered the whole round of Mount Inari, it took us about 2 hours to climb to the top.

Fox statue covered with snow

Tojii Gates

The two dense rows of torii gates of Senbon Torii

View from Yotsutsuji intersection

We had to climb a lot of steps while walking through the many red gates, at a point, the gates were divided into 2 ways, where you can choose to go left or right. We just followed the crowd and continued walking, took some of the snow up to play along the way too...hehehe....And when i turned around to see the gates, there were words engraved in each gate. Along the way, there were other smaller shrines too where there were many people paid respect too. At half way of the route, we reached the Yotsutsuji intersection where we saw the view of whole Kyoto. We just stood there and watched the view for a few minutes, we had to left too as there were many people around. Then we continued climbing up the steps to the top and finally we reached on the top. There was a shrine on the top, and there was a very small sign at the side where it indicated we reached the top of Mount Inari. There were also candles and food offerings to pay respect for the foxes. My friend thought the food were to buy to own to eat, not for the foxes. We queued up to pay respects to the shrine, and then we walked down on the other round. But the more we climbed down, there were ice on the steps which we cannot walk down due to our rubber shoes and there were no dry steps for us to walk down too. So we had to walk back the same way how we climbed up as there were more dry steps. If not, it should be going up from one way and down the other way to complete the whole round.

High Steam Pressure to roast the chestnuts

Hot Chocolate Drinks

Snowing outside the station

Going down the steps was much easy than going up...hahaha...We bought an ice cream too and the staff gave us a fortune paper which was of course, in Japanese. We asked the staff whether is it good, then she said it was good, so we took the paper home. Then we stood there to look at the view while eating the ice cream. After that, we walked down to the food stalls. There were still many people there, cannot even walk in opposite direction. So we just walked and see what nice foods were being sold around, there were games stalls too. There was a stall selling roasted chestnuts too and they used very high pressure to cook it. We got 1 bag to try, it was not bad...Then we also got a small hot drink called Kocha, sweet and refreshing. And then we walked slowly to the train station, it was already packed with people. The staffs don't allow passengers to go into the train platforms before the train arrived. We reached back to Kyoto station at about 3 plus and then we walked in the station. Then we went into a small cafe to have some hot chocolate drinks and played with their wifi...hehehe...After staying some time in the cafe, we noticed that it has started to snow outside. Then we went outside and started to enjoy ourselves in the snow...hahaha...

Big Apples

Snow Crab..Very sweet!!

Tuna & Salmon Sashimi..Nice!!

After playing for some time, we went into Istean basement to see what to buy for dinner. And we saw snow crabs, fresh tuna and fresh salmon, etc and all looked yummy! And of course, we bought a snow crabs, a packet of tuna and salmon sashimi and a very big apple (which the apple ended up back in Singapore..hohoho). And i also bought 2 cooked chicken wings too...hehehe...After shopping for all the food, we made our way back to our hotel to eat our food. We even boiled the eggs (stole back last night) to eat...hehehe... And the snow got heavier and the wind got stronger, more fierce than last night. Luckily we came back early today. After the nice dinner, i went to have a nice hot bath again...hehhee...Tomorrow is another long day.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tetora Otsu

Kyoto 京都, Japan Trip (Day 6)

1st January 2015, Thursday

Lucky bags from BIC Camera

Yawn....Happy New Year, Everyone!! It's the first day of 2015 and today we need to travel down to Kyoto, our next destination. Woke up at 8 am and we just missed our reserved train to Kyoto, so we just took our time and packed our luggage and then checked out from the hotel. Then we made our way to Tokyo station. But on the transfer station, we went to BIC Camera checking out their lucky bags...hehehee...It was camera and video-cam bags, and the items were random, depending on your luck. We got 1 camera bag for $30,000 plus yen and we got a Nikon D3320 DSLR camera. We also bought a lucky bag from Adidas, which consisted of a jacket, a track pants, a scarf, a polo shirt and some more. Then we went upstairs to look for NDS console set as it was cheaper there. My friend went down to buy another camera lucky bag as we were thinking of selling the camera sets when we were back in Singapore.Anyway, we got ourselves stuck there shopping for hours before we left to the train station...hohohoho.....

Once we reached Tokyo station, we went to the JR office to make seats reservation for our next train to Kyoto, which was at 2.33 pm. Then i bought a unagi bento to eat on the train, $2310 yen..not very cheap. Then we boarded the train with all our stuffs...so many bags to carry. I just ate the bento as the train moved, we passed by Nagoya too, some towns we passed were snowing heavily and some towns we passed were having bright sunlight with no snow. We also passed by Mount Fuji, it was having snow on top of the volcano. We reached Kyoto station around 5 plus, and it was snowing in the train station (as it was open ceiling). And we went to check out the streets, there were snow everywhere and ice too. So we decided to go check in to hotel first before going for dinner, then we transferred to another JR line to go to Otsu station (2 stations away from Kyoto). It was really cold and the wind was blowing very strong. There were many posters on snow crabs, made you feel like going to eat. We were really jumping in the cold, luckily the hotel lift is connected to the JR station. But when we were going to exit from the station, there was no staffs there to show them our JR passes. We were so puzzled and my friend went to the other side to ask the staffs in the office. I got hear my friend's voice over the speakers too..hehehe...Then she came back and pressed onto the intercom machine there. We thought we can just pass through the gate, but when i tried to pass through, the gate door blocked me. Then my friend pressed on the intercom machine at the side and told the stuff that we had our JR passes and showed our passes over the camera. Then we took the lift up to level 2 to the hotel lobby.

Hotel Bed

Tracks covered with snow

Kyoto Tower

Then we checked in to our hotel and the staffs can't speak much English well but we still can understand them. The room was much bigger here and the toilet and bathtub was also much nicer. And we got a nice view outside the room, all covered with snow...heheee....Then i went to the toilet and accidentally locked the toilet door from outside. Hahaha...the toilet can't be opened now...so we called to get the staff the door. A young lady came up to our room and then she tried to open the door and was also puzzled why the door got locked. Then she suddenly ran off after telling us that she will be back later. Later another guy staff (who helped us to do our check in) came and helped us unlock the door. Then he also told us how to lock and unlock the door, after the drama, we rested for a while before heading back to Kyoto station for dinner. Before going to take the train, we went to the reception to ask for the breakfast meal for tomorrow and we also enquired on the places to eat during the next few days as it was new year period. The staff took us all the places are closed the next few days. So we booked breakfast meals for tomorrow, my friend asked the staff whether there was warm food in the breakfast buffet. The staff doesn't get it, so my friend asked her whether there was noodle, rice or eggs. She managed to tell us that there was eggs included, cos she can't speak English well but we can see her trying very hard to communicate with her. Somehow we did find her very cute....hahaa...Anyway she kept saying sorry to us when we left the hotel for dinner. We took the JR train back to Kyoto station and it was still very cold outside. So we tried to find food in the station, the station was quite big and there were a lot of restaurants. We went up 10th level in Istean, this level was a ramen street. There were a lot of ramen restaurants in the level. So we walked 1 round to see which ramen restaurant to try.

Fried Rice...Must Try!!

Ramen

Fish Cutlet

We went to a ramen restaurant and bought the items using the vouchers machine. Then we queued for table. We ordered a ramen with pork, a fried rice and a fish cutlet. When we sat down, we noticed there was a basket of raw eggs on the table. Then my friend was saying the raw egg to beat in the ramen and i also saw other people beat the raw egg into their ramen. The fried rice was super nice and i also liked the fish cutlet. The ramen soup was abit thick but the bacon was very tender. My friend even smuggled 2 eggs back to the hotel...hohoho...After the nice dinner, we went back to the hotel. We exited on the other side to take a walk around the surroundings. There were some workers pushing the snow away from the walkways in front of the station. Then we started to play with the snow and even made a small snowman. We also saw a small blue car with a block of snow on top of the car...hohohoho....After that, we went back to the hotel and my friend went and asked for coffee. After that, i went and 'onsen' inside the bathroom...lol...the hot water was very shiok, after that i felt super hot and looked red after the bath...hohoho...Had to open the window to let the cold wind in to cool down. The snow was also snowing heavily and the wind was still blowing strong. Worry about tomorrow that we cannot go out due to heavy snow.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tetora Otsu