Kyoto Trip - Day 01

Woke up around 4:30am on 4 Aug.. Had to meet the group in Tokyo Train Station at 6:45am.. Didn't really sleep well the night before as I had been sleeping late the past few nights due to the eGov ranking tasks...

Anyway, met with Chua-san at 5:40am at the dorm's lobby and we took the train to Shibuya. Then from Shibuya, we took the Ginza line to Asakasa-mitsuke and changed to the Marunouchi Line to Tokyo.. We reached Tokyo Station around 6.30am.. Went to get some sandwich and a drink on the way to the rendezvous point.. Met Alex-san on the way... Around 6:45am, Raila-chan arrived.. and Kim-chan was still no where to be seen.. She has our tickets for the Shinkansen and the hotel accommodations, so we were pretty anxious.. Luckily, she made it by 6:55am and we get up the train on time, at 7:06am.. :)

Didnt manage to take any photos of the Shinkansen train on the way to Kyoto, but did took some on our way back.. The train was clean (not a suprise) and spacious.. plenty of leg space.. It's arranged in 3-2.. Think we took Hikari for both to and from Kyoto.. The journey took about 2.5 hours.. As usual, Chua-san slept almost immediately after we were seated.. The gals chatted away while Alex-san was working hard on his PC... The journey was very pleasant.. :)

We reached Kyoto Station around 9:40am.. We went to our hotel to deposit our luggages as the check-in time is after 1pm... No problem there.. Then we started walking to go to our first destination, Sanjusangen-do Temple (三十三間堂), the Temple with a thousand buddhist deities...

From the map that we have, it seems near enough from the Station, so I put it as a walking trip.. With the temperature getting hotter, the 'short' walk turned into a 20-min walk.. And the map that I've seen (on the Internet) and on the booklet was badly scaled.. We had to ask people along the way if we were going the right direction...

We managed to get there around 10:30am.. It was the first Temple I've ever visited in Japan, and I just fell in love with this particular Temple...

Everything there looks sooo beautiful.. The trees, the stone paths and the Temple buildings.. I took lots of photos, in fact throughout the trip, I took more than 400 photos!! :D

And when I went into the Main Hall, I was transfixed.. There were 1001 statues of Buddhists deities, with an additional 28 bigger ones lining in front of them!! Too bad we are not allowed to take pictures of these statues... I donated some money to light up 2 candles on each side of the main altar.. I could really spend the whole day just looking at these statues.. they looked sooo serene... There are 33 different kinds of statues within those 1001 deities..

On the way out from the main hall, as usual, there are pendants, scriptures, tablets, etc for sale.. I bought a small pendant for 'Dreams come true'.. :) while Kim-chan bought one pendant for her sister for 'Safe Delivery'..

Of course after getting out from the main hall, we went around taking more photos... We spent about 2 hours there.. After that we walked back to the hotel (New Miyako Hotel) to check in..

On the way, we decided to have our lunch.. And the Kyoto Station has lots of restaurants with some cheap food to offer.. we went to one small restaurant and had our lunch.. I had Gyuu-don (牛丼) with yaki soba.. Ooishi.. Alex-san and Chua-san had the same thing too, while Kim-chan had Omelet rice and Raila-chan had Curry rice..

We got back slightly before 1pm and managed to get into the queue for check-in. We were lucky enough to get rooms right next to the lift lobby.. I heard so many ghost stories about corner rooms that I was praying hard not to get them... In the end, we got Room 836 and Room 837, the guys took the latter room.. The room's window oversees the Kyoto Station.. not a bad sight.. :) The room is wider than I would have expected and is pretty new.. So no complains about the room.. :)

After we checked in, we had to accompany Raila-chan to her hotel for her to check in.. We asked the hotel staff the direction and was shocked to hear that it was 2 train stations away! From the map, it seems that our hotels were near to each other.. well, so much for touristy maps.. So we had to get on the train to get to Shijo Station (四条駅) and walk from there.. Took us about 5 min to find the hotel.. and Raila-chan checked-in without any problem.. She was given Room 1016, which is also near the lift lobby..

Then off we go to our next destination, Tenryu-ji Temple (天竜寺) in Arashiyama (嵐山).. We walked from the hotel to Shijo-Oomiya (四条大宮駅) Station to take the Keifuku Railway.. The journey was about 30min..

We reached the Temple around 3pm and started our tour.. Luckily there wasn't many tourists there..


We paid the entrance fee to see the garden and the Main Hall... Lots of people were there taking a rest at the Main Hall, sitting down on the tatami and admiring the scenery of the garden.. It has a nice pond that reflects the trees and rock formations surrounding it... It was very beautiful... Just like those postcards.. The place was quiet too.. It was cooling too, as the ceiling of the Main Hall was high..


In front of the Main Hall, looking out into the garden is a picture of the Cloud Dragon (雲龍図).. I managed to get a picture of it, although there are lots of reflections..

After a short rest at the Main Hall, we walked around the garden.. Again, the garden was big and well-kept.. Lots of stone paths and stone stairways... All throughout the walk, Alex-san was teasing Kim-chan with the rest 'chipping' in with some remarks here and there.. The group was bonding, which was good.. :) Although I would have preferred that the bonding not to be on Kim-chan's 'expense' so to speak..


We went to Togetsukyo Bridge, beside Tenryu-ji.. We walked along the banks of Hozu River.. Again, the scenery was fantastic... We would have walked further down the river had not one of us was having some problem with her legs.. The rest was understanding enough to go along..

When we got back to Shijo-Oomiya (四条大宮駅) Station, we decided to find a place for dinner.. We went into a small isakaya.. we ordered a couple of dishes and ate.. As Raila-chan was not a fan of seafood, she ordered separately.. After that we accompanied Raila-chan back to her hotel before getting on the train to get back to our hotel near Kyoto Station... Along the way, we went into a 100yen shop and a convenient store to get some food for the next day's breakfast..

So much for Day One...




Click here for the photos I took during the trip...