by | § ¶ | trackbackOsaka, Kyoto and Nara
Well it went great. five short days in Osaka, Kyoto and Nara went by just like that. A solid combination of a favourable exchange rate, the early autumn climate and great independent traveler guides helped made this trip a totally enjoyable one.Day 1: KIX, Osaka Castle, Namba, Umeda
We spent day 1 in Osaka familiarizing ourselves with the two chief interchanges of Namba and Umeda. Two massive stations (with separate railway operators) sprinkled with shopping malls, tunnels and numerous exit points all hidden away from the skyline and thus any possible chance of navigation by landmark. You could shop all day within these two complexes without seeing the light of day in Osaka. We also went to visit Osaka Castle (actually the only castle planned for this trip). Although grand on the outside, the castle was so modern inside it even had elevator ladies! But at least we had a good view of Osaka city from the top.
Day 2: Kyoto, Arashiyama, Tenryu-Ji, Ryoan-Ji, Kinkaku-Ji, Dotonbori
Day 2 had us heading north east to Arashiyama in Kyoto where we visited Tenryu-Ji where we had an exquisite zen vegetarian lunch at 'Sigetu' within the temple grounds. This was followed by a post lunch stroll in the beautiful bamboo forest behind the temple grounds. We were lucky enough to spot a geisha go past us on a rickshaw along the bamboo lined road! We then made our way eastwards to Kitanohakubaicho to visit the zen rock garden at Ryoan-Ji and the jawdropping Kinkaku-Ji. Seriously, my photos do these places no justice at all. Plan your own trip there. Now!
Day 3: Kyoto, Gion, Kiomizu-Dera, Fushimi Inari, Pontocho, Yodobashi Camera
Day 3 was spent back in Kyoto around Gion. We found out that we arrived in Gion too early for geisha spotting and only spotted them after we returned later that same evening. Even then, we only managed to get a fleetingly short glance at two maiko as they made their way down Pontocho greeting the restaurant owners one by one. In between, we managed to squeeze in visits to Kiyomizu-Dera and also Fushimi Inari where we took an hour long trek up the hill past hundreds and hundreds of Torii. It was a great getaway from the crowds that have been with us at almost every other historical site during this trip.
Day 4: Nara Koen, Todai-Ji, Kofuku-Ji, Home Visit
On our last full day in Japan, we visited Nara Koen where I got attacked by a rather aggressive tame Nara deer. It seemed that they have learned how to differentiate between sellers of 'deer cracker' and the tourists who buy them. Once again, we tried another traditional Japanese lunch set on the recommendations of our guide book, this time round, it was a cha-gayu (green tea porridge) bento at 'To no chaya' (Tearoom by the Pagoda) in the shadow of Kofuku-Ji pagoda. The world's largest wooden structure at Todai-Ji was interesting. And the ever boisterous school excursion kids got even louder when they realised that they could crawl through 'Buddha's nostril' via a hole in a large supporting pillar of the main hall. We finished our visit to Nara with an evening in the company of my Dad's business associate's family who happened to stay in Nara!
Day 5: Osaka Port, Nipponbashi, Den-Den Town, Shinsaibashi, KIX
We rushed through Saturday with visits to Osaka's port to take in the sea breeze, then to Den-Den Town to cheap out cheap tech gear. I think we spotted more manga stores and model kit stores than gadget and PC shops. Perhaps we were too early (again). Our last couple of hours in town were spent shopping at Takashimaya's foodhall for those oh so kawaii packaged sweets and other assorted goodies such as yatuhashi (giant her giaos) and dango sticks.
Good stuff that happened
Last minute shopping and dining at KIX was pretty good and unlike Changi, did not have inflated tourist prices. But get there before 8pm! Kansai Thru Pass made traveling extremely hassle-free in the region. Independent guides such as Japan-Guide.com, Japan National Tourist Organization, Wikitravel, Wikimapia and Fodor's Japan (loaned from the library) proved invaluable in helping us plan this trip. The SGD/JPY exchange rate highly favours us right now. So much so that I can say that Japan is not expensive at all for us and even cheaper than Singapore in some areas! Chance encounters with fellow tourists, like the Japanese and Korean couple at To no chaya who between them spoke at least 6 different languages. Visiting a brand new Japanese home was really cool too. We saw all the modern high tech Japanese fittings, had home cooked Japanese fare, quite a world apart from regular restaurant grub, and green tea prepared by dear host's ojisan who's just 92 years young!
Other good stuff included... Weird ass variety TV shows. We understood nothing that was said but yet we kept watching and watching. And a fantastically varied adult entertainment industry. Period.
And then there were the Bad stuff
On the flight to my transit point at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi, I was thrilled by the glossy inflight magazine spread of the new airport's exterior but little did I know that the place is still very much a work in progress! Inside the ultramodern shell, the complex was still a maze of corridors left undone, bare concrete walls, stationary travellators, missing signages and unfinished restrooms. Half the passengers were busy getting lost and the other half were busy taking photos of the unfinished product. Thankfully I avoided the lost baggage nightmare by lugging around as much as I could instead and checking in everything else with the girl on her direct flight. Then there was the darn camera. I can't figure out if it's the camera (Canon IXUS 55) or the battery that's at fault but it meant we had to fall back on our phone cameras after only about 70 shots! Our photo output was thus much lower than we'd hoped.
More comments in my flickr photo set.
Keywords: holiday,japan,kansai,kyoto,nara,osaka,travel,trip
by | § ¶ | trackbackNihongo Ga Wakarimasen!
We're heading to Kansai for the week!