Thursday, October 23, 2008
Soggy Day in Kyoto
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Today's the day where we get to stay in Kyoto. We were supposed to go on some Kyoto walks. First stop of the day, Kyoto Old Imperial Palace. We can visit the gardens but we cannot enter the palace itself since we did not reserve a tour slot. One can try to see if there are empty slots on the spot but we had quite a few places planned.
The days started gloomy and drizzling. As we were leaving, my friend and I picked up and umbrella each from the hostel. Yesterday, we shared my umbrella which I had on standby. That's the darndest thing about being prepared for rain. I bring the umbrella. I share the umbrella and I get wet. >.> Not fair....
We walked towards the Old Imperial Palace which was a good 40 mins or so walk away. Along the way, we made a brief stop at the Honganji temple. I didn't really keep track of the time. It wasn't all that far, just that we walked slow. Our speed isn't as fast as one would expect because my friend's feet have been hurting since day 2.
We got to the Old Imperial Palace gardens and while we were touring one of the buildings which was open to public, my friend finally couldn't stand the toothache she's had for 2 days. We immediately took the subway (250 JPY) back to the hostel and asked for a recommendation for a dentist, as well as getting the hostel staff to help us write my friend's problem in Japanese so that we could show the dentist in case he doesn't speak English. My friend could mime, surely, but we figured a note would be better.
We got to the dentist and it looked pretty atas. My friend was seen fairly fast and the entire procedure took only about 15 mins. My friend was very impressed by the dentist's skill and I joked with her that she should come back here for her future dental appointments. The visit cost her 8800 JPY. Will have to check whether that is reimbursable by travel insurance.
My friend decided to go back to the Old Imperial Palace and continue from where we had left off. This time, we bought a One Day Kyoto Pass for the subway and buses. This allows us to take the Kyoto subway and designated buses.
We went back and completed touring the Old Imperial Palace gardens. It was rather dreary due to the weather. Didn't manage to get much photos either.
Next stop, Kinkakuji temple. We took a bus from the Old Imperial Palace gardens and got to the temple in good time. There is a gold coloured 3 storey structure in a pond just near the entrance and every one was busy taking photos of it in the rain. My friend and I took some photos and tried to make it to the next location.
We took a bus (and changed a bus along the way) in order to get to Arashiyama Tenryuji temple. As we got there, a bunch of children who were on the same bus as we were went running down the streets and my friend followed them. I asked her if she knew where the temple was, she said that she was following the children. Since I was unable to locate the temple in 30 secs, I followed her down the street. It's a nice area which is an absolute tourist trap. They even have people pulling rickshaws. These are young people and there was actually a lady pulling a rickshaw!
We crossed a nice bridge and got to a rather pretty area. Apparently in one of the parks in this area, there is a Zhou Enlai memorial. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate it as it was soon getting dark and we didn't want to be out in the rain and darkness.
I found a map and according to the map, the temple that we were looking was indeed at the bus stop where we had gotten off the bus so we had to walk all the way back again >.> . Anyway, it didn't really make much difference since the temple closed at 1700 hrs and we had gotten off the bus at about 1700 hrs anyway.
We then walked around the area abit. It's really nice if one doesn't mind it being touristy. As we had nothing much else to do in the area, we decided to head back to JR Kyoto station and see if the weather was fine enough to go up the Kyoto Tower. Before that we bought a couple of rice cracker snacks. I chose soy sauce flavour. For future reference, that is probably not the best choice.
The bus ride back took about 40 mins. The weather was still rather bad so we decided to just hike it back to the hostel instead of going up Kyoto Tower. Therefore, in the end, we never went up Kyoto Tower even though we walk past it every day.... oh well, maybe next time!
Tomorrow will be an easy day. Breakfast at the hostel's cafe, packing bags, checking out and then taking the Shinkansen to Tokyo!
The day of reckoning to our wallets is drawing near, Shibuya for me (SE Character Goods Store!), Akihabara for my friend!
Spent about SGD 220 on food, transport and other stuff so far. Including accommodation costs till date and the Kansai Area Pass makes it around SGD 550. My friend's expenditure stands at about SGD 850.
We still have Tokyo to survive!
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