these is where chinese come in handy.. all the names of the places are in chinese they have digital signboards on the bus indicating your next stop.

Khaosan Kyoto

The Nozomi Shinkansen was indeed blistering fast. We safely arrived in Kyoto is just under 2 hours and 15 minutes for a journey for 460KM!! No doubt the insane ticket price played a huge role in achieving this amazing feat. Though viewing the scenery outside the extremely fast moving train might cause you to get motion-sickness in no time.



The sheer size of Kyoto Station just astounded me as we left the platform. It's a bit pity that I didn't have much time to explore this place. The futuristic architecture is really quite beautiful. It took us quite some time to get our bearings and find the platform to our next train ride.





Our first destination upon arrival was to head to our sleeping place: Khaosan Kyoto which is located in the heart of Kyoto city and is of close proximity to the various popular tourist destinations such as Gion, Nishinki market and Kiyomizu temple. After taking the subway and dragging our luggages for about 15 minutes on the road, we finally made it!









We were very happy with what we saw as the place is so much more spacious than Khaosan Tokyo Ninja back in Asakusabashi. The best thing was this place has a lift! No need to drag our heavy luggages up four flights of stairs.





We stayed in the 6 dorm room at ¥2300 per night. Not much complaints here. At least there were more space on the floors to put our stuff. Alas due to our tight schedule we didn't spend much time in this place. Definitely will reconsider this place if I were to return to Kyoto on a budget travel!

One of my favourite foods in Kyoto :

hmmm not very sure about the address. we just randomly went to try this shop. it's somewhere around this famous river, can't remember the name need regentcid for pointers





it's a famous shop? i randomly walked into it while looking for not cut throat restaurants outside of Gion area

This post has been edited by zstan: Apr 1 2014, 10:45 AM

hopefully the increase in sales tax will cause yen to slide down further

oh well. so the only place we can go is Japan then. and korea.

i will just sumimasen and wave my hand desperately

i bought a gold coin from osaka castle with my name engravd

2nd choice definitely. Tokyo station is crazy huge.

Japan Trip 2013 - Kiyomizudera at Night (& a little bit of Gion)

From Nishiki we then walked to a subway station (Keihan Main Line) and then took the train towards Kiyomizu Gojo Station.

DSC07318 by zstan, on Flickr

DSC07320 by zstan, on Flickr

From the station we then had a good walk up slope to Kiyomizudera, which is one of the the world's UNESCO Heritage Site and one of the must visit spots in Kyoto. It was a good 20 minute walk. Not like we needed more exercise.

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The journey up to the temple was rather picturesque as we passed by ancient and untouched wooden houses from Japan's past and houses with unique architectural designs. It was a great breath of freshness compared to the concrete jungle of Tokyo.

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Making great use of limited space to build a house

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There was also a surreal feel passing by this place, as the sky grew darker, compared to walking around this area in broad day light. The darkness and dim lights just adds some mystery into our journey. Having said that, most shops were already closed by this hour. This reminds me so much of my Jiu Fen trip back in Taiwan.

DSC07357 by zstan, on Flickr

To make matters worse, as we reached the peak of the hill, we were welcomed by a huge sign indicating that the temple has closed. Another mistake of not checking the opening hours of this temple. In Kyoto everything just closes much earlier than Tokyo.

It was quite understandable too as the whole temple area was pitch black and no amount of spot light can showcase the temple's glory of its own. Upon further contemplation and discussion, we decided to cancel our day trip to Nara the next day and come back here again. It is really a waste if we do not explore this place. After that we then proceeded to further the explore the place and then find a place to settle down for dinner.

DSC07376 by zstan, on Flickr

DSC07384 by zstan, on Flickr

Apparently the Japanese are really, really conservative with their energy and lightings as the whole area was almost completely engulfed in darkness. There is hardly any lamps near the temple area. It was really scary to walk under near pitch black conditions and with not a single soul on the streets. The pictures does not do the darkness any justice as I was using a really low shutter speed and crazy high ISO for the shots. Fortunately as we got closer to Gion, there was more street lights. Having said that, we still felt really safe despite walking in the dark.

DSC07394 by zstan, on Flickr

DSC07394 by zstan, on Flickr

Our initial plan of having dinner in Gion was called off as we were thrown back for the crazy prices of their menus. Maybe next time when I've earned enough cash to travel luxuriously.

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Typical restaurant around Gion area

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On our way back to Kawaramachi area in search of cheaper food, we were so lucky to spot a real Geisha! Geisha's are very, very rare during the summer season since they don't perform during summer. A blurred shot but nonetheless.

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thanks! the days photos look much more bland though in my opinion

i think they close right on time or slightly before 6pm. very frustrating to do last minute shopping.

There's a lot of souvenir shops leading to Kiyomizudera. i think that's the best place for souvenir shopping for tourist. Reagent Cid may disagree

Takasegawa Teppan Doujou

So after scavenging the streets for dinner with a rather tight budget in mind, we then bumped into Takasegawa Teppan Doujou which is located nearby just a little way up the street from Shijo-dori and Kawaramachi station.

DSC07414 by zstan, on Flickr

DSC07403 by zstan, on Flickr

In a nutshell, this restaurant serves one of the best teppanyaki at a decent price that I have ever tasted. Oh not forgetting to mention that the chefs look pretty good looking too. A plus for girls. The restaurant is on the small side. We were seated in a row right in front of the kitchen counter with the grilling area at our face. Then again most restaurants in Japan are small in their own way. Nevertheless we wasted no time in going through the very simple menu which is rather gaijin friendly with English wordings all over.

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It's good to have friends who enjoy food as much as you do as we were able to try a couple of dishes and share out the expenses.

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Bacon & Eggs. So deliciously sinful!

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Chicken breast meat wrapped with cheese + some funky tasty leaves.

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Grilled scallops. THIS IS THE BOMB!

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A big jug of Asahi Super Dry to complement the teppanyaki!

We were very very satisfied with the food after our initial disappointment of not being able to visit the temple. I personally recommend this restaurant to anyone who happen to drop by this area. Oishiiiiiiiiiiii.

Total cost: ¥1550

This post has been edited by zstan: May 18 2014, 01:02 AM

share cost with a few friends mah

don't waste your time with the Skytree unless this is the first tower you will be visiting.

yeahhh damn nice not sure where to find in malaysia though

yeah lor. the biggest scallop i've ever eaten here is probably the size of a 50 cent coin

yes it's accurate but doesn't apply to all schools. for example primary schools may start at a different time from high schools but they will start mostly at the end of august/beginning september.

but melbourne is not humid. you'd be sweating in a few minutes just after walking outside.

Errr you all going when? March as well? March is a peak period for Japan so naturally prices are crazy for that period. If during summer then much easier to get cheaper prices.