For our first day of sightseeing in Kyoto, the program was very diverse: bamboo groove, Japanese temple and the castle.
First things first, getting there and get some breakfast on the way. Our expensive room rate did not include breakfast and we did not feel like paying 33SGD per person for breakfast.
Getting around Kyoto is pretty simple as most places will display names and direction in English. Our travelling was made easier thanks to Wolfram who arranged for a little device that provides us with wifi everywhere. We would have our course managed the old way with maps but it was so much easier to simply follow the GPS step by step.
At Nijo station, we stopped to change train and had to actually exit the subway station to enter 100m further the JR station. Connections between different subway or train lines are not as smooth as we would like them to be. Probably the result of having multiple companies handling them. We took exit 2 which had an elevator and found a bakery that was not opening until 9:30am so we ended up at the convenience store next door. Luckily, in Japan, those have a pretty decent collection of products and we could improvise some breakfast. What we did not know - and found out once we got there - was that there is a pretty decent bakery at the JR station. That's unfortunately typical for us to leave one way and discover later that the other way had everything we were looking for.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
The bamboo forest was nice but no more. I think I was expecting bigger and less crowded, The few paths in the forest were packed with people which did not help creating a serene atmosphere.
Here are some pictures of the bamboos.
Teryu-ji Temple
This temple was the first zen temple established in Japan in the 9th century (!!!). What's noticeable about it is not the temple itself but the garden around it which is the same as when it was first created in the 14th century (!!!).
It's a very nice Japanese garden where you can see yourself walking around or sitting on a bench enjoying the landscape (or the gravels if you are Oskar).
The azaleas were beautiful. I'm sure my Dad would have loved to see them. For inspiration, here are some pictures.
It was very sweet how Oskar quickly understood that people throw coins in this fountain. He asked for some coins as well... and did so for every fountain/pound we saw during our trip.
After lunch, we walked back throug the "Kimomo forest" and headed back to the center to visit the castle.
Nijojo castle was both simple and impressive. It's all made of wood with squeaky parquet to reveal intruders. I had to ask myself how it survived all these years and why no one burnt it down.
The castle itself has nothing special as it was very bare with lots of rooms with only tatamis and mural paintings.
The garden on the other hands was nicer and we enjoyed walking through them.
This was the end of our first day of sightseeing. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner and ended up not leaving again. Oskar had a bit of fever again and his rash was now covering the whole body. He was exhausted and extremely grumpy so we decided to give him a break with the hope that the next day he would be better.
First things first, getting there and get some breakfast on the way. Our expensive room rate did not include breakfast and we did not feel like paying 33SGD per person for breakfast.
Getting around Kyoto is pretty simple as most places will display names and direction in English. Our travelling was made easier thanks to Wolfram who arranged for a little device that provides us with wifi everywhere. We would have our course managed the old way with maps but it was so much easier to simply follow the GPS step by step.
At Nijo station, we stopped to change train and had to actually exit the subway station to enter 100m further the JR station. Connections between different subway or train lines are not as smooth as we would like them to be. Probably the result of having multiple companies handling them. We took exit 2 which had an elevator and found a bakery that was not opening until 9:30am so we ended up at the convenience store next door. Luckily, in Japan, those have a pretty decent collection of products and we could improvise some breakfast. What we did not know - and found out once we got there - was that there is a pretty decent bakery at the JR station. That's unfortunately typical for us to leave one way and discover later that the other way had everything we were looking for.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
The bamboo forest was nice but no more. I think I was expecting bigger and less crowded, The few paths in the forest were packed with people which did not help creating a serene atmosphere.
Here are some pictures of the bamboos.
Teryu-ji Temple
This temple was the first zen temple established in Japan in the 9th century (!!!). What's noticeable about it is not the temple itself but the garden around it which is the same as when it was first created in the 14th century (!!!).
It's a very nice Japanese garden where you can see yourself walking around or sitting on a bench enjoying the landscape (or the gravels if you are Oskar).
The azaleas were beautiful. I'm sure my Dad would have loved to see them. For inspiration, here are some pictures.
It was very sweet how Oskar quickly understood that people throw coins in this fountain. He asked for some coins as well... and did so for every fountain/pound we saw during our trip.
After lunch, we walked back throug the "Kimomo forest" and headed back to the center to visit the castle.
Nijojo castle was both simple and impressive. It's all made of wood with squeaky parquet to reveal intruders. I had to ask myself how it survived all these years and why no one burnt it down.
The castle itself has nothing special as it was very bare with lots of rooms with only tatamis and mural paintings.
The garden on the other hands was nicer and we enjoyed walking through them.
This was the end of our first day of sightseeing. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner and ended up not leaving again. Oskar had a bit of fever again and his rash was now covering the whole body. He was exhausted and extremely grumpy so we decided to give him a break with the hope that the next day he would be better.
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