Kyoto
July 23, 2008 11:40 pm JapanA 3 day weekend just passed and we (Katja and I) went to Kyoto. But since we decided last minute, we couldn’t find any place to stay on Saturday night, so instead used that night to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto by night bus (just ¥5000 each). We saved a whole Shinkansen ticket but I suffered almost 8 hours on a bus unable to sleep. Here’s a photo of me and a not yet opened temple at 5:41AM:
We walked around a bit before heading back to Kyoto station. With my limited Japanese/Chinese skills, I managed to decipher the ticket machine to buy a 2 day pass around Kyoto. I original thought I’d walk everywhere but considering my foot had just recovered from various insect bites the travel pass turned out to be ¥2000 well spent. It was still too early to check-in to our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), so we hopped on a bus to Southern Higashiyama district and followed one of the walks in our Lonely Planet guide.
The best bit came when we could check-in to our ryokan and take a shower! It turned out that both the Sunday and Monday we were in Kyoto, the daily temperatures reached 37ºC! I’ve now got square tan patches on both feet because of the sandals I wore 
We stayed at Ryokan Yachiyo because it was pretty much the only place we could find. It did cost a fair amount but I was really impressed with the place and it was probably one of my most enjoyable stays at any hotel/hostel. It was 100% Japanese apart from the western style toilet and TV set. It gave me loads of ideas for my future house that I plan to have one day.
This is us chilling in our Yukatas:
I guess I could upload a zillion photos of temples, however in some ways I’ve kind of seen enough of shrines and temples in Japan. But don’t get me wrong, it was very beautiful in Kyoto and it was also a more relaxed city compared to Tokyo. Katja seemed to enjoy the beauty even more, which was great.
Here’s a couple of pictures of me looking dorky.
Of course, a stay in Japan is not complete without a ride on the bullet train. It cost ¥13,720 but at least it got me back to Tokyo in a quarter of the time it took by bus!
