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Old 3 Jan 20, 09:18 AM  
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kk20
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Adventure to the land of the rising sun Day X Kyoto Bit

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Rather than detail 3 full weeks of trip, I have broken the Disney portion down already, this is the Kyoto Section. I wont be putting all the little bits in, just the highlights!

Before we get to Kyoto, we first need to navigate the train system. So far we have only used the Limousine bus and the monorail. Going to Kyoto we will be using a JR Pass for a train to Tokyo central then the Shinkansen to Kyoto. At the airport we set our start date for the JR pass to today (so it wasnt being wasted whilst we were in Disney). I dont have any picture of the Maihama station as I was a little stressed (with no reason). My Japanese is rudimentary and gets me by but cedrtainly workable, however I cannot read a single "word" of it. Luckily everything in the station is dual alphabet, I wave my JR pass at the attendant, find the correct train using "HyperDia app" and easily get to Tokyo station.



After a breather, we realise that it is quite easy to navigate the station and find the Shinkansen platforms easily enough. Again, wave the JR pass at the attendant and join the platform. We grab a bite to eat at a local stall and wait for the train (which arrives exactly when the ticket says it will).



The train journey is smooth and quick. Far too cloudy to even hope to see Fuji-san though.



Stepping off the train in Kyoto is our first lesson in heat. It is about 32C and you can feel it even up here in the shade. Our AirBnB is just down this street (about 3 blocks). The AirBnB is lovely and the host nice (a 5* review). The property is a traditional tatami floored and walled house. There are two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen/diner - very good size of a Japanese city house!



A little shrine is on the corner and there are hundred of water bottles adorning the streets around the shrine.



For the next few days we visited shrines, markets and shops. I wont go into too many as we have literally hundreds of snaps for various places we visited. Kyoto is lovely and very easy to get around. We used buses, one taxi ride and trains. JR pass is quite usable but not always - hyperdia will help a lot.

Disney isnt our only passion, our other is Totoro and pretty much anything Ghibli. There are a few cafes and Ghibli themed shops around, some "official", some not so. The not so ones had the best mugs and were substantially cheaper of course...



Kyoto is very narrow in places. Even cars have to fit down narrow "one way" streets shared with pedestrians although there are plenty of paths.



There are plenty of temples, and we found it was a good way to relieve ourselves of the smaller yen coins. Kyoto is known for its temples and there are quite a few. It was a little busy in the "greater known" temples but if you took a little detour you could find tranquility.



Taking a look around, you do see that even in the hustle and bustle life continues. This street is a busy street on the way to Kodaiji temple, yet a bird still nests in the middle of it. We stood for a while and watched the bird flying in and out feeding the chick. There seemed to be a few dotted about too.



There are well known brands secreted amongst the old buildings. we saw a Starbucks (that happened to have a shrine just in the doorway) that didnt look out of place. We didnt venture inside so I cannot say what the interior was like.



As I said previously, we did a lot of walking but also took the subway/train wherever we could. We did avoid taxis due to cost really, taxis are not cheap. If you did need a taxi, there were often signs on the ranks that had "international language" on them. Some of the trains were quite old and looked nice, however the interior were definitely modernised with LCD screens showing current/net station (in Japanese and English) and air conditioning.



Due to us stopping in an AirBnb we were avoiding eating out during our Kyoto leg, this was supposed to be our sightseeing, culture and cost saving portion. That meant that we needed to shop for food. We planned our accommodation to be a 5 min walk from a shopping complex. In reality we need not have bothered planning so tightly, in Japan you can get everything you need from even the smallest of 7-11 or Family Mart. We found Family Mart to be cheaper but smaller choice and 7-11 to have the best variety of ready-meals. Still, having an Aeon Mall on hand was good.



That being said, deciphering your meal was often a task/treat/horror (depending on your sense of adventure). Yomiwa app does a decent job of translating if you are truly stuck.



We never went hungry though. Dont expect to walk away without a mountain of plastic, the Japanese love to overpackage things. This was the result of giving the kids free run for a snack:



In short, dont worry about trains (hyperdia will sort you out). Dont worry about food (7-11 is full of ready meals), dont worry about heating food (7-11 and family mart have microwaves and cutlery), dont worry about language barrier (but at least learn some japanese, I used LingoDeer for 6 months and learnt more than enough to be understood). As for sightseeing, we went to quite few places and here is a small snapshot:

Nijo-jo Castle was excellent. Highly recommended. The architecture was pristine and the grounds really nice. There are various different language tours that were good quality.



We did give this fellow a wide berth. The wasp was the length of my finger (and that wasnt an exaggeration). Eeeek.



We visited Arashiyama fairly early in the morning for two reasons, one: the crowds and two: the temperature. It is very humid in the bamboo so we went in the cooler morning. Crowd levels were fine. The forest is quite eerie and there is a calm in the area.



A mention for Kyoto station is in order. It is massive, really big but strangely hard to get lost in. There only seems to be one way around the station, for example there is one major cross bridge to get across the tracks, there is one way to get around the "underground" shops and one way to navigate the (13 floor? I cant remember now) western shopping mall. That being said, there is enough in Kyoto station to keep you busy for the whole day if you so wish. Plus there is a light show on the steps and a good viewing platform.



It was raining when we were exploring the station so we didnt linger outside for long. The station has a "skywalk" that traverses the roof on the inside. This is just under the roof and connects the department store with long escalators.



We had prebooked a Yukata fitting to coincide with a tea ceremony and a walk around Nara. Nara is a 30 minute train ride from Kyoto station and our hire was from WaPlus which was a couple of minutes walk from the station. Sanjo Dori street runs the length of Nara and connects the station to both the Kofuku-ji pagoda and the Nara park.



We didnt feel out of place walking about and didnt feel awkward. I would recommend some good split toe socks if you intend keeping the wooden sandals on (not as uncomfortable as you think). As a side note, the split toe socks we bought were awesome. Very cushioned and we use them at home a lot, we wish we had purchased more!

Rather than walk the short way to our pre-booked tea ceremony we hired a taxi. This wasnt really necessary as it wasnt far but we werent to know to begin with. The tea ceremony was informative and very serene. We pre booked with Eena House (Nara Igoto) and cannot recommend them enough.



We walked from Eena House to Nara park stopping at a 7-11 along the way for a meal. Again, noone was staring or laughing at us all dressed up, it was quite normal.

Nara Park is quite large and far more open than we thought. There are no fences keeping the deer enclosed, they cross the road as much as the humans. I recommend feeding the deer in the morning as by the afternoon they are full and will simply ignore people. They are wild animals and we saw some "pushy" tourists being pushed and butted by the deer (served them right). Expect to be mobbed when the deer see you with "crackers" though. Our kids had already watched the youtube so were already expecting to hide the food in a bag and raise your hands when you wanted to feed a different deer!



And yes, the deer will bow if you do. Yes the stags will come up and gently prod you with their antlers! Again, very calm and very nice. Only the pushy foreign tourists spoilt things with a pushy-ness and loud complaints. Still, the park is large and if you ignore the "first bit" and walk through, there are quiet places you can go where there are only a few people about.



Heading back to the staion, we passed Kofuku-ji, but being a little footsore now we didnt spend as much time as we hoped here.



Over the next few days we visited some more touristy spots. Including Fushimi Inari. This is a very famous temple and was a bit overwhelming. The train station is pretty much over the road and w werent prepared for the press of people to begin with. Of all the places we went to, this was the "least" Japanese to begin with, we were getting used to the politeness, the crowded-but-respectful way of life. This was the exact opposite, it was a mad press of shouting, pushing, drinking/eating in public, litter and general mess. Not nice. However, if you walk quite a bit along the toji path the crowd thins out, the instagram "tutting people" disappear and you can get back to the quiter surroundings. I felt genuinely sorry for the monks who were praying and this is a holy site, whilst I am a hypocrite (being a tourist visiting the temple to observe - not to pray), I desperately hope I am not viewed as one of the crowds that were pushing, spitting (horror!) and littering.





Our time in Kyoto was drawing to a close so we had allocated time to shopping at the end of the stay. We not only love Disney and Totoro but also Pokemon. A trip to a Pokemon shop was in order and (in hindsight) the Kyoto store was better than the two Tokyo stores we visited. Since I was also my birthday "month" we got a discount card and a few treats! This was nice. I wanted a pokemon Kimono was wasnt allowed to get one. There was also pokemon wallpaper, furniture, plates, pans etc not just the usual plushies!



We were lucky enough to visit when the Gion festival was running. The floats were constructed on the streets over a couple of days. there were also lots of street food and stalls all over the place (in central Kyoto).



But the weather can change at any moment, this photo was taken a couple of minutes after the last one!



A mad dash to a 7-11 greeted us with one of the best Japanese phenomina; of course EVERYONE wants to get off the street so all the shops develop a "snake" queue of people wanting to actually shop and those who are sheltering. That way everyone gets into the shop, everyone can navigate the shop and everyone gets out of the shop when needed. If you like orderly queues you will love Japan.

The actual festival had huge floats with musicians. The floats were pulled by approximately 50 people each. There were ticketed viewing platforms but there were always places to see and hear the floats (which were spectacular)



With our visit to Kyoto coming to an end, we take one last look at the tower before heading to our Shinkansen back to Tokyo.



Not all the Shinkansen are boring white either. These two love birds were quite colourful.



And what trip on the bullet train would be complete without a feast? These bento boxes were purchased from the station. The food on the station was not really more expensive than supermarkets and were of better quality. Sometimes you had to guess what you were purchasing but more often than not you got an idea - foods were grouped together and some had "windows". None of us ever got a box that we didnt like (we all feared opening the box with tentacles!)



Summary: Kyoto was great and at the end of our holiday we all thought Kyoto was the best part. The people are lovely, genuinely kind and nice. After visiting cafes and small eateries with staff who spoke no english, we found people to be patient with us and our pidgin Japanese - sure, we elicited giggles when we mispronounced works or said something odd, but this was in humour not in mock. Our day in Nara stood out as a highlight too.

Ironically enough, we would give the more touristy areas a miss, or (as we learnt in Tokyo), go at night or early morning - save the middle of the day for shopping or eating.

Edited at 11:15 AM.
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Old 5 Jan 20, 01:33 PM  
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redfox5
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Great trip report. I loved Kyoto and wish we had spent more time there. Loved reading about Nara, that's on my list for the next trip.
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Old 5 Jan 20, 01:39 PM  
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Very interesting we are considering a Japan trip in 2021. What would you recommend over 2 weeks- I don’t mind hiring a car and driving where necessary.
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Old 5 Jan 20, 04:19 PM  
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Originally Posted by YorkshireT View Post
Very interesting we are considering a Japan trip in 2021. What would you recommend over 2 weeks- I don’t mind hiring a car and driving where necessary.
Me too Disney looks awesome I’m loving the civilised queuing! We were in DLP for Xmas Day and they have no idea of personal space however it was lovely. I read your trip reports looks like you had a great time too.
Following this with interest as initially I was gonna try complete the ‘6 park challenge’ but not sure the dynamics would work
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Old 5 Jan 20, 10:05 PM  
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Thank you for such fascinating information about your trip! Glad you so enjoyed it
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Old 12 Jan 20, 01:42 PM  
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Car driving is unnecessary (I'm a fly drive person usually) and possibly a bit mental - unless you read Japanese, we had no issue getting everywhere via train (apart from one temple). For two weeks I would pick 2 major and one minor city. Spend 5 days in each major and factor a few days extra for Disney and minor city commute. Osaka is commutable from Kyoto and Kyoto (outside Disney) was our favourite. For Tokyo consider staying in the Disney area and commuting from maihama station - you will need to take trains anyway. Use hyperdia to see the times for getting around. The hotels are larger (for the money) and regularly serviced via the station.

I didn't talk about queuing here and will probably edit the report. Japanese queuing is simply awesome. Train stations, shops, tills, food, ticket counters - it just works. There are markings on the floor, lane numbers and colour coded lines.

Stopping 5 min walk from Kyoto station was a masterstroke, it cut down on travel time and had loads of amenities close by. A traditional house felt authentic but also had lots of space. Japanese launderettes were easy to use, typical put coins in for fully automated wash, detergent, dry. We laundered in the evening.

We will return for certain.

Edited at 01:55 PM.
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