Kansai Trip: Day Four

Today we went to Kyoto.. and the main item of the day was to visit the one place that I made a big boo-boo last year. I did not check the opening days of Nijo Castle (二条城) and in the end my classmates and I could only see the castle from outside and couldn't get it.. Sorry again, mates! This year, I made sure my sister and I do not visit Nijo Castle on Tuesday..

We took the train from Osaka Station which cost 540yen to get to Kyoto. And lucky for us, we managed to catch the special rapid service, so we got there in less than 30minutes!! :) Then I proceed to get us a one-day bus pass (at 500yen) that will enabled us to travel unlimited times on the buses within Kyoto..

We got to Nijo Castle around 10am.. paid the entrance fee of 600yen and went in.. Here are some of the photos...
There are 2 palaces within the Castle, the Ninomaru Palace (二の丸御殿) and Honmaru Palace (本丸御殿). The roof of Ninomaru Palace (二の丸御殿).
Ninomaru Palace is designated as National Treasure. It has wall paintings in every room which carried different meanings and significances. Every motifs were chosen according to the unique function of each room. As expected, no photography is allowed and all visitors are to walk without their shoes..

Then we proceed to Ninomaru Garden (二の丸庭園)..
After the Garden, we passed by another moat and got into the compound of Honmaru Palace (本丸御殿). The palace was off limit but nonetheless the vicinity is just as beautiful..
On our way out, we passed by some plum-tree grove, cherry-tree grove and some nice sheltered pebble paths..
It rained earlier when we were going to the Honmaru Garden area. We had to seek shelter in one of the guard house overlooking the inner moat... We waited for almost 30 minutes.. The rain became a drizzle and we walked on.. however, by the time we got out of Nijo Castle, the sky was getting very dark.. We decided to take a bus back to Kyoto Station to have our lunch and see how the weather will turn out..

We barely got up the bus when it began to rain really heavily.. since we didn't expect it to rain, we didn't bring any umbrellas along.. so after some discussion, we decided to go back to Osaka and check out the food stalls at the basement of the various departmental stores, especially Hanshin Dept Store which has a food market..

Luckily, it has stopped raining by the time we got back to Osaka.. In the end, we bought almost 4000yen worth of food and went back to our apartment for a feast.. :) And that will be another blog entry, I promise..


More photos from Day Four..
p/s: Same photos available in my Facebook photo album.