Sayonara Japan

No Japanese breakfast today! We wanted to get ready, check out and visit a bamboo forest just outside of Kyoto. But before we needed to pay the Ryokan which didn't accept credit cards so it was off to the 7eleven again and get cash. On the way back I spotted a small local supermarket. We really stocked up on Japanese foods and snacks. Then, after we brought it back to the Ryokan to leave it with our bags we went to the train station and jumped on the train to Saga Arashiyama station in the west of Kyoto.

 Our JR rail pass should cover all transportation to day. It was raining the night before and this morning, so the bamboo forest was damp but this only improved the atmosphere. It was a nice stroll through the forest and we even got a quick peak of another temple and had a big dumpling to go. We planned out each train we had to take to get back to the guest house, pick up our bags and then take the next train from Kyoto to Kansai Airport to be there in time for the plane.

  One thing that should not be missing from a longer train journey in Japan (the Haruka train we took was going to take an hour and a half to get from Kyoto to the airport) is a bento box. We got two different boxes in the supermarket and then went to the train.

 No problems getting to the airport but when we arrived we realized the plane was delayed an hour. No problem so far, so I spent it getting a nice bottle of Japanese Whisky (Nikka "Yoichi" single malt 15 years) and writing on my blog. The flight was a bit choppy and when we landed we knew we had to hurry because the last direct bus to Donong would leave at 21:40 which would give us only 40 minutes to get there. This is usually not a big problem but with Incheon being a huge airport it could be close. We had to get off the plane, take the train to the main terminal and then get trough immigration and customs and to the bus stop.

  To cut it short, we didn't make it. I always seem to end up in the slowest queue at immigration. We got to the bus stop 2 minutes late. I don't understand how a huge airport like this can have services cut at 9:40pm. So now we had to take the subway into Seoul and then change twice to get the right train to Donong. The Arex is a train that connects the airport with Seoul Station and takes about an hour to get there. But by that time it was already time for the last train, which was a problem since we had to change another time and it was a possibility that we would not make that one either.

  Yuni knew there was a but from Seoul station to Guri, from where we could change to a bus that would get us home. We found the right bus and it was approaching midnight... This year we'll celebrate Yuni's birthday on the bus! Another hour later or so we finally made it home. It was nearly 2 am. We caught up with Yuni's parents and were happy to get some sleep.

Endless food...

 Well rested we got up and perpped ourselves for a long day with a full Japanese breakfast. From the amount of food it comes close to it's Irish cousin but I am sure it was healthier. We had Miso soup, Tofu, rice, pickled vegetables, green tea and plenty of other things I am not too sure what they were.

  Our first stop (this time for certain) was going to be the Inarii shrine that we skipped yesterday due to the inconvenient departure time of bus. This time we knwe when the bus would leave and arrived on time. It only took a few minutes to get to the place from where we walked up the hill past a few souvenir stalls to the shrine. This shrine is famous for it's hundreds of Torii (these red/orange japanese gates) that symbolise the gateway between earth and sky. Also present were many stone statues of angry looking foxes who protected the crops from the mice and rats. There were a couple of kilometres walkways which had a Torii at least every meter, so there must have been thousands rather than hundreds of these Torii here. As we have seen about 300m of it and we imagined the rest would look very similar we decided to head back to the bus stop and pick um some Yakitori and sweets on the way there. I also couldn't resist buying a crazy looking drink.

  From the Inarii shrine we went back to Kyoto station with Bus route 5 and then route 101 (this seems to be the tourist bus that passes many attractions and also mentions some very short interesting information about these attractions) to the Nijojo Palace which the imperial residence of the Shogun. The main feature of this place for me was the nightingale floor. These were floor boards that were tinkered with to make squeaky sound when you walked over them. These were used to warn the local samurai of potential intruders. It's said that not even the best Ninja were able to not case a sound. The visit of the palace was followed up by a small walk through the gardens attached to it but unfortunately it now started to rain, so we went back to the bus stop and caught bus number 12 to a world famous stone garden called Ryanji. At this point I would also like to thank Yuni for planning all these bus routes around town, this really saved us a good bit of walking :-)!

  This stone garden is apparently very basic (a 10m by 25m rectangle) with only 15 stones spread over the area. The gravel between the bigger stone represents the sea and the stone certain island or lands. The unusual part of this Stone garden was that from any point there were only a maximum of 14 stones visible. It was interesting enough but I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of destinations.
  Near the stone garden is one of the more attractive sights of Kyoto and a photogenic icon many times synonyms with Japan. The Kinkaku-ji the golden pavilion. It was used by the third Shogun as a holiday villa. Unfortunately it burned down in 1950 and was rebuilt in 1955. The gardens around it really make it look very tranquil (sorry if I may sound too esoteric now but this is really a cool and beautiful place).

  On the way back to Kyoto station sitting and standing in the wet, cramped bus we really felt what we did today. A lot of visits cramped into a short day. A day like this makes you very hungry and what better way to solve this problem by stuffing yourself with Sushi? In 2008 Basti, Jan and I went to a conveyor belt sushi place in Kyoto station and I remember this because it was good and cheap. So, we went and tried to find this place and to be honest with out the help of the station information it would have taken a couple of hours (Kyoto Station is enormous), but we got there pretty quick (before starving anyway).
 One plate of sushi was 130 Yen (a bit less than a Euro) and this was for any sushi. Tuna, Salmon, Swordfish... anything.
  Our 19 plates were accompanied with some green tea, two Miso soups and cold jug of Kirin. All for 24 €... Next time I'll come by again!

  Tomorrow was going to be our last day in Japan and we had to arrange our trip back to Kansai Airport. The cheapest option was going to be a Kansai West JR rail pass but finding the place that could issue this was not that easy. We finally found the right JR office and got our passes. Now it was time to go back to our guest house and enjoy the last evening. We were pretty wrecked but a last bath was a must.

Japanese Style

Today's plan was going to bring us to Kyoto, the other old capitol of Japan. But first we had to be reminded by the receptionist that the checkout time is not 11 or 12 but 10. On the way to Umeda Station where we were going to change trains I realized over again how clean this country is. There not even a bit of rubbish on the tracks or any key scratches on the windows in the train. The seats on the train don't need to a specific pattern to discourage kids from painting on them. Umeda Station was pretty impressive too. It's a head station and each train track has two platforms (one on each side) so that people can get off on one side and when everyone is off the seats on the train automatically spin around and the doors on the other side open so that new passengers can get on.

 There were 4 different types of trains we could choose from to get to Kyoto. Local, Semi-Express, Express and Limited Express (I wrote them in the order that I think is correct in terms of stops/speed). We got the Limited express and we only had 6 or 7 to Kyoto. Of course there still were the Shinkansen that still passed us.
  About 45 minutes later we were in Kyoto and looking for our Ryokan (Japanese Guest house). Not long after we found it (after going into the wrong Ryonkan first).

 It's indeed a very nice place with our room being 6 tamami mats in size and having a little tea table and even our own little stone garden. The Ryokan is located very central just 200m from Kyoto tower near the Kyoto JR station and for it's location it is quite big. It has a public bath. When we arrived we had to take off our shoes and put on slippers to get around the house. Before getting on the Tatami mats we had to take off the slippers.

 The first point of interest was food. We decided we wanted Udon and quickly found a nice place that even made their own noodles. It was really tasty and very filling. After this we wanted to visit the Inarii Shrine in the west. We figured out that the bus we needed to take was bus number 5 and we should be able to use our 3 day Kansai thru pass. But when getting to the platform where the bus leaves we realized it only went every hour and the next one was not going to come for another 55 minutes. Time was sparse on our four night holiday and we decided to go and visit another temple. BKiyomizudera is an old Buddhist temple and an UNESCO world heritage site. The legend says two worriers were fighting on the balustrade in 1694 and one of them fell off into a 11m deep ravine but did not get injured. Since then this place has become the location of men trying to prove them as men by jumping down. In 1872 the government forbid this after 235 people have taken the leap of faith (an astonishing 85 % survived). I decided the view was nicer from the top so did not attempt any jumps. Therefore we went into the womb Zuigu-Bosatsu (known as the motherly Buddha) who would grant any wish if they were sincere enough to come true. The womb was a entirely dark passageway underneath a temple which we had to navigate without seeing anything. To be honest, there was a bit of help in form of a handrail we could follow.


 From Kiyomizudera we headed north through the famous Gion district of Kyoto. Here we could see plenty of traditional Japanese houses and passed by a couple more temples, shrines, pagodas and gardens... It is just incredible how many of these kind of buildings are here. It really felt like we were walking through Kyoto in the 1600s trying to not cause any anger with the local samurai. We left the Gion district through another temple while the sun was setting and bathing our surroundings into an astonishing light. The pictures taken with my mobile (because I left the stupid charger for my camera in my bag in Korea) are nowhere near what the atmosphere was like.

 Our next stop was originally going to be the Ryokan again but by chance (seriously) we passed through the pub area and stopped by a Yakitori place that. Yakitori are wooden or metal sticks with different ingredients spiked on them and then grilled over charcoal. It's similar to Shashlik but with a different twist to it. We didn't really have much since we ran out of money, so after a couple of Yakitori we left and tried to find an ATM. Finding an ATM was not a problem, finding one that would give us money however was. We tried about 6 or 7 different banks corner shops to then learn from a foreigner that the best bet would be a 7eleven.

 Luckily my MapsWithMe App listed one just a 300 meter down the road. And indeed we did get our money there and went right across the road to another bar/restaurant to get some food. This time we had Teppan Yaki noodles and after asking nicely we even got our own Japanese rooms with our own Teppan yaki table. The noodles were accompanied by suchjo which is the Japanese version of Soju. I had some fond memory (at least the beginning of the evening) of this stuff in Hiroshima with Basti and Jan and this time Yuni did not like her drink so I had two... Luckily all stayed within the limits and we could even enjoy a nice hot bath when getting back to the Ryokan. It is just amazing the atmosphere after a hot bath and then having a green tee dressed in Yukatas (a kind of house kimono) sitting on tatami mats in a Japanese room in the middle of Kyoto. I can only recommend to anyone who visits Japan to stay in a Ryokan and the one we stayed in was really nice. It's called "Ryokan Heianbo".