God, I miss Japan. This was one of the craziest trips we have done, partly because we didn't plan it out very well but still wanted to see as much as we can. We flew from LA to Tokyo, and flew to Hong Kong from Tokyo. We arrived on an evening, and first thing we did was take the bullet train to Kyoto. (If we have planned the trip a little better, we would have flown to Kyoto and left from Tokyo) Anyways, then we stayed in Kyoto for 1.5 day, then took the bullet train to Osaka, and spent half day there, and then took the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo. We spent 3 days in Tokyo, and took a super early flight to Hong Kong. We, on average, slept for not more than 5 hours for 6 nights in order to maximize the 5 days we had. It was absolutely crazy, but we saw so much, and it was worth it. I wish I had more time to explore more, and I will definitely go back to Japan one day.
* Excuse my pictures, it was more than 2 years ago, and I didn't take pictures of everything we saw...... (how could I? Why? I didn't have a blog back then.... I guess....?)
After a long flight from LA to Tokyo, and the train to Kyoto, we woke up at 6am to explore Kyoto. We got some breakfast from a bakery, and got some warm drinks from the vending machines. There are vending machinese everywhere in Japan, with great varieties of drinks, warm or cold. Kyoto is definitely my favorite city in Japan (so far). It is absolutely beautiful, everything was how I imagined Japan would be. All these gorgeous temples, small streets, small houses.... I don't know how to describe it, but it was just..... very Japan!!!!
Nishi Hongwanji (本願寺)
This is built in 1951, and it is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. It was just a beautiful wooden structure. Before you go into the temple, you need to take off your shoes, and it was very peaceful and quiet inside the temple. Besides the different buildings, the garden was gorgeous. We went in December, so it was in between fall and winter, you can still see a little bit of fall color on the trees, and most of the leaves are falling. We went early, so there are not a lot of people around, and we had the most amazing morning stroll.
To-ji (東寺)
Another UNESCO world heritage site, and is located not far from Nishi Hongwanji. This is the symbol of Kyoto and originally dated from 826 but was then rebuilt in 1644. The five-story pagoda of To-ji is the tallest wooden tower in Japan, and the entrance into the pagoda is only permitted a few days per year. On the way to the next destination, we went to some tsukemono shops in the afternoon. Tsukemono is basically different pickled vegetables, and they were once made at home, but nowadays, people do not have the time, but it is still vital to Japanese food culture. They have samples for almost all the different kinds of pickles (there are more than 50 different kinds, it's crazy!), and they are all delicious! I never like pickles, because I think vegetables should be eaten fresh, but I have to say, I love those tsukemono.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove (嵯峨野・嵐山)
The subway system in Japan is very very extensive, and you can go almost ANYWHERE with it. We took the subway to arashiyama station and spent an afternoon there. There are a lot of little restaurants, souvenir stores, and of course some temples and the bamboo forest. We had lunch, shopped for some souvenirs, saw the infamous Togetsi-kyo Bridge, walked along the bamboo forest path, and another UNESCO world heritage site Tenryu-ji.
Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)
Kyoto has too many awesome temples, and we couldn't make it to all of them. The last temple of the day, we were struggling between Kinkaku-ji or Ginkaku-ji, and we went the Kinkaku-ji. The whole structure is covered in gold leaf, and houses the relics of Buddha.
At night, we went to Gion (祇園), Kyoto's most famous geisha district. It is filled with shops, restaurants and teahouses, where the geisha entertain. We walked around the area, and saw one geisha. We were super excited when we saw her, but she seemed to be in a hurry, so we didn't bother her for a picture. That pretty much concluded our day. It might not seem like we went to a lot of places, but we took our time in each place, and it takes time to go from one place to the next, so I think we did good.