Hiroshima was hot at even 8.30am so we were pouring in sweat, but we made the train. Time to cool down for the next hour and a half in the green car (first class). This was by far the most relaxing point of the morning.
We had a change at Shin-Osaka again but from there it was just a fifteen minute train ride to Kyoto.
We took a brief ride on the subway to the hotel which was a 20 minute walk from the station.
The hotel is a Ryokan hotel which means it's a traditional Japanese hotel.
When we arrived we were greeted very nicely by the hotel staff and one particularly liked a cat cartoon character I had got out of a capsule machine in Shinjuku a few days earlier. We dropped our bags and got some advice on local attractions and headed out towards town.
We stopped at a French restaurant cafe for a bite to eat and got talking to the French owner who has been her ten years. He was saying that it was easier to make a business work here than it is in France. So it must be pretty bloody hard to get a business going in France with that being the case.
Then we headed out to the Chion-In Head Temple of Jodo Shu Buddhism. When it comes to these things you kind of feel obliged to do them as they are the tourist attractions. I was saying to Mark that I had seen stuff like this before when I visited China and was a little worried that it would appear to be much the same.
There was some nice gardens complete with Coy Carp in the pond. We walked up to the temple.
Here you can kind of the see the temple, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the Buddha of course.
We proceeded round and were able to witness prayers being chanted for those of a Buddhist orientation there. I suppose if you are quite spiritual then this would be a sacred place for you and would be of the utmost importance. So we were respectful to those around us, even though in all honesty it was just a nice building to me.
More nice gardens, but all this did was re-emphasis my initial notions that once you've seen one shrine, essentially you've seen them all.
From here we headed out for a walk around the Gaiko/Maiko area and we did see some Maiko women. Or maybe it was just women wearing kimonos.
Here's Mark at a bridge over the river.
We did notice in Kyoto that the cars started to get a little more interesting with far more modified cars around.
This one was notable for it's extreme camber and being very low. This is known as the 'VIP style in Japan, basically luxury cars are lowered and fitted with additional tuning parts.
Now that's what I call negative camber!
We headed back to the hotel where we greeted with green tea and some interesting traditional sweets which seemed to consist nearly entirely of cinammon. Mark liked them, I didn't, not being a fan of cinammon.
We were shown to our room which is in the traditional Japanese style with tatami mats, low tables and our beds on the floor.
We were provided with hot and cold water and we have opted to have a traditional Japanese breakfast in the morning at the hotel as in all honesty I'm not sure what a traditional Japanese breakfast is. We shall find out!
Then we had a nice siesta for a few hours as it had been a long day with miles of walking. When we arose refreshed we asked the hotelier for advice on where to eat. He suggested that we try a restaurant literally opposite the hotel.
So off we went to Apollo restaurant which is a traditional restaurant. Mark had tendon beef tempura (deep fried beef in batter) with fried egg and rice.
I opted to go for the popular choices and the waitress suggested I try their famous crispy dumplings which the restaurant has been cooking for thirty years.
These turned out to be simply amazing and whilst I chatted away to an English couple sitting next to us, Mark managed to nab two of them! Just wow, I very nearly ordered another lot, they were that good!
Then I had 'ten skewers' which was variously deep fried beef, other things (I don't actually know what!) and salmon. Now salmon is something I've never enjoyed, but I've found myself eating it more whilst in Japan and actually enjoying it! There's a first for me!
Another amazing meal put away we headed off to what was seemingly one of the noisest bars in Kyoto for a beer to relax for a bit before coming back to the hotel.
Kyoto is a place full of history as it used to be the old capital of Japan back in the feudal days of the Shogun and the like. There are a lot of tourists, both foreign and Japanese. Almost a bit like everyone (well most people) from the UK will visit London, it's a similar thing with Kyoto as the real history is here rather than in Tokyo.
This makes it a lot easier to navigate in everyway than those places off the beaten track like Nagoya and to an extent Hiroshima. English menus are easier to find and more people seem to speak English. Whilst I agree it's great to explore and go where people don't normally go sometimes it can be a bit hard going and in some respects visiting somewhere where the language spoken and written is less of a barrier enables you to gain more from it.
I must say the hotel staff in this traditional hotel have been the most welcoming of all. :)
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