Chan's Gorgeous Travels

After my overwhelming visit to the splendid Kinkakuji temple, famously known as the Golden Pavilion. (I had the spelling right this time, ha ha!) I had Ninnaji on my list for the same day.

Now this was not in the list of temples recommended by the host from the ryokan hotel I was staying from, or maybe it was. However, it still made my final list even after removing many others. I guess sometimes, you just feel a certain "connection" to a place even before you see it.

According to my notes, I needed to hop on a certain bus number. It was difficult to find the bus stop though from the exit of Kinkakuji. It was such a pain having to ask around because all around me are mostly tourists like me and speak a different language.

To tell the story short, I just found myself walking, trying to follow the map. Yes, I remember I was holding a map, though not as detailed as it is a bit zoomed out. And also according to my notes, it was just a short ride from the Golden Pavilion going to the Ninnaji Temple, yeah, yeah -- yeah right.

So I walked to the right of the temple. At first, whenever I ask people "Ninnaji?", they would just act like they did not hear me or see me. They probably had no idea what I am talking about.

Discovering the Zen in Ninnaji Temple

by Cristiane on 8:44 AM

After my overwhelming visit to the splendid Kinkakuji temple, famously known as the Golden Pavilion. (I had the spelling right this time, ha...

Among the thousands of temples in Kyoto, Kinkakuji is the one that outshines just about any other, may it be a temple or shrine. No wonder it is one of the most visited according to my experience, aside from Fushimi Inari shrine and the Kiyomizudera. For starters, a temple is a place of worship for buddhists, whereas "shrines" are for the shinto religion.

Kinkakuji is an intriguing beauty in the pictures and even as intriguing and most magnificent in

Admiring the Golden Pavillion

by Cristiane on 9:26 PM

Among the thousands of temples in Kyoto, Kinkakuji is the one that outshines just about any other, may it be a temple or shrine. No wonder ...

After my visit to Fushimi Inari, there is a very old city feel to the surrounding cafes that follow your way to the Kiyomizu. I was already hungry. When I saw one restaurants grilling some eel in the outside I knew Id be eating there. I ordered right away as I was a bit famished and cold. When I sat down I was psyching myself out to try to finish everything whether or not Id like the taste of eel.

When the freshly grilled eel with rice came, I was glad to also have a hot soup. I was sipping the soup when another man was placed to sit in front of me. He was an old folk, a local. His clothes were old and it looked like he did some blue collared job. He uttered a few words. Nihonggo, which I didn't understand. I just hoped he was not cursing me back then. I was trying to do my best to use the chopsticks as he might get a bad impression.

He finished his meal very fast maybe not less than 15 minutes. I was glad but Im getting cold from inactivity. So shocked that the soup got cold very fast, my eyes searched for some vendo machine where I could get hot coffee. No vendo in sight inside so I tried to pay my bill and tried to get the one woman waitress' attention. She was smirking from the cashier -- until I finally get that I need to go there to pay before walking out.

I need to keep moving so that I will not freeze all my bones. Took some photographs along the way as I had some renewed energy. I hopped on the bus mainly going to the start of the trek to Kiyomizu temple.

So let me just use Kiyomizu rather than the whole name of Kiyomizudera as people here likes abbreviation so much. Yup, I also learned that from one of my Japanese students way back.

I was already starting to regret of not having a comfortable walking boots on this trip. I sure next time to just wear if not a flat boots then a good pair of sneakers. I lost on this one. I think the uphill hike on the concrete narrow street took around an hour or less and I felt at the time it to be never-ending. But I am not saying it isn't entertaining. It sure is a wothwhile walk, albeit a very long uphill battle. You can do plenty of stops anyway so that you can breeze through the many artifacts, souvenirs being sold along the way, not to mention soft ice cream, hello matcha!

But I did definitely feel my toes being crushed brutally and I just felt for not having much of a compassion for myself. I will not do that again, promise. I thought though that it is a good thing that I was just a solo traveler at this time as I wouldn't have spare energy to talk. Sorry if my humor is that bad.

I was out of breath by the time I got to the top but lo and behold, there are still a few more stairs before the main hall.

I wanted to stay longer, probably drink some tea but I was quite honestly feeling the chill already. I followed some crowd who I believe were going the exit. I remember grabbing a few cans of hot coffee as I made my way home. This was my first day in Kyoto so yes, I got lost on my way home to the hostel but was able to make it before dark.

Way to Kiyomizudera Temple

by Cristiane on 9:23 AM

After my visit to Fushimi Inari, there is a very old city feel to the surrounding cafes that follow your way to the Kiyomizu. I was already...

It is very much freezing at I dont know, about 4 to 7 degrees Celsius though as I said, I had a sigh of relief as I entered the Ryokan hostel.

The hostel was a bit small but has a very inviting atmosphere. Just in front of the information desk, there was a luggage area where different kinds of luggages were lugged. I thought I needed to secure my laptop inside my bag before I embark on my tour.

I sat down for a while in a two-seat sofa and grabbed some cool magazines stacked under the coffee table. I noticed that I enjoy browsing through local publications when I travel, and so I did.

I was pondering whether I should follow the set of temples instructed by the helper or I should revise my schedule for the day, when I saw this tall tan skinned man that looks like a latino. He was obviously looking at me and I thought maybe he was traveling solo and looking for company. I just smirked and was not really feeling friendly at the time because I was tired and somewhat hungry so I just focused on my notebook schedule.

I first plotted to see the Fushimi-Inari shrine for the day. Gahd I can see the clouds go down at street level. The weather is freezing and it is a bit cloudy. Good thing the tourists who flock the sites wore bright-colored puffer jackets, and that includes me. So that made the atmosphere a bit bearable. Plus, I think my face is glowing so who would'nt want that.

I would say that I found hopping on buses in Kyoto a bit of a challenge because most of the time, the speaker is not in English so you really have to pay attention whether it is your destination already or not yet. Though when it comes to Fushimi-Inari, there are always a crowd of tourists so basically you just have to go with the flow. The buses can be jampacked, too, so that means you could be standing up.

Just following the crowd makes sense since Fushimi-Inari is the most popular shrine in Kyoto I believe.

Beautiful Fushimi Inari

by Cristiane on 9:01 AM

It is very much freezing at I dont know, about 4 to 7 degrees Celsius though as I said, I had a sigh of relief as I entered the Ryokan hoste...

I would like to start my Japan diary from here because this is probably where the highlight of my Japan trip started.

I chose the Nozomi line which is the fastest of the three train types. The schedule was at 6 am. I intended to make it that early because I wanted to start exploring the city the whole day and not waste time, aside from the fact that I needed to first find where my boarding house is situated.

It was winter so it was chilly in Tokyo. My hotel is in Shinjuku, but the bullet train will be coming from Shinagawa station, apparently one subway ride from Shinjuku. So I woke up early I'm not sure anymore about the time but it was surely before 5 am -- I remember to have alloted enough time for walking up to the subway which is about 10 minutes walk from Nishitetsu Inn. I managed to walk while my ears were bitingly cold even while wearing a pair of earmuffs and a face mask. I really look and feel so weird.

I didn't expect that at 5 am, the station, Shinjuku station, which is one of the busiest of Tokyo's subway stations, will be that crowded. Anyway, I was able to find a seat but many people are standing up. The ride took me about 15 minutes, or maybe 20 minutes, to get to Shinagawa station. And I was looking for the correct platform which happen to be almost at the very end of the line, so I was hurrying up because it was almost 6 am and I was slowed down by my heavy baggage -- I have a medium-sized trolley and a huge bag full of quirky items I bought from Tokyo.

I was panting and felt warm in the cold winter which is good because it gave me a bit of a morning exercise, though I was honestly looking "hagard". I saw my platform number and immediately saw the train coming exactly at 6 am. It was on time. I took a picture using my smaller camera but didn't manage to capture a decent one since it is fast and I do not want to be left behind.