Saturday, May 14, 2016

160514 Kyoto

finally updating on my kyoto trip er hurhurhur. so we woke up early and got on the train to kyoto~~~ mr k keeps insisting that we have to take the reserved seats/bullet train or just pay more so that we can sit all the way and he can sleep in. in the end we just took a normal connecting train and there was more than enough seats. yes, on a saturday morning. the train station was crowded but you need to q to get in so it made it easier to get a seat if you're at the front of the line. hehe.

inari fushimi is probably the biggest spot i missed when i was here last time. so after stopping at kyoto, we transferred to inari (i think it was just 2 stops away).



a map of our adventure today..


and we're starting the walk up!


ooh, just a few steps up and there's stalls selling souvenirs, yukata, food and stuff. one of the foxes is drawn very artistically...


and we're ready!

at the beginning, you'll find it super hard to take photos because there's just so many people. but halfway through, there'll be less and less people and you'll be able to take photos without any passerbys in the background. and anyway, where you take the photo at won't matter because they will all look the same.


first temple stop..



this dumy is just chionging in front of me. jeez. and leaving me behind >:(


and we reached enough to see the panoramic view!



and he continues to walk in front of me. wey wey. while being on his phone. sians.


but at least to this point, there's really not a lot of people and i can take pictures!


as you can tell the photographer was very terrible.


and we reached another temple! it's just like this... more gates and more template, more gates and more temples. and they all look about the same. and we kept thinking it was over but it wasn't.




we really thought this was the end.


hell, no it wasn't.

so since there really isn't anyone at this point, i could do some jumping pictures.


and the next one is really the end!! i had to retake this so many time because there's either people at the background or his expression sucked.



and we're finally going down, after climbing up all the way without rest cos mr k says it will offend the gods if we rested. bullsh*t. we got into such a fight on the way down. zzz


and at the bottom, there seems to be an idol group milling around with lots of photos swooning. my photo is not so brilliant either so they look like normal people here...


we explored the inari neighbourhood and tried the soy ice cream here. mr k didn't like it but i do.


then we went to gion to look for food.



went for this 24/7 ramen shop, which is supposed to be pretty popular with foreigners.


90% of the people here eat by themselves, so the dining area is all cubicle-styled, but thank goodness they had one catered for non-loners. usually there's a long queue just after 7, but we came around 630 and could get in immediately. this picture was taken nearer to 7 (when we were done) and there's already a q building!


ordered extra rice and egg for the hungry mr k. but i think i ate most of it.


so we went looking for the next place, which is a soba shop. this is in a quiet alley and is actually a 2 star michelin shop! yes, the soba is also that price - one set for like 1.7k yen. ouch.


we got the set with tempura. the soba is thin and nice and soaks up the soy sauce. but the tempura looks really little and it's really fried prawns (not even the longish prawn thingy)


they give you the 'soup' that was used to cook the soba to drink afterwards. 


and next up, we just wandered into a street with a famous polo melo ice-cream bread.



it's really super nice!! worth eating! the signboard says it's the worlds #2 best polo ice cream melon pan.


then we walked along the streets of gion.. and chanced by an owl forest! i think the entrance fee is a few hundred yen per person, and there's also a jaguar cat museum next to it.



they are real owls! they look like dolls.. and their round beady eyes looked like crystals. so pretty! they are chained to the twig and you can also touch them (except for the first guy in the picture, he bites).

there's a squirrel out of nowhere as well. aren't these food for the owls...


look at these prettyyyyy... they are like a cross breed of a bird and a cat.



these are really tiny. like the size of my fist (the one on the right)


and look, there's hedwig!!


last few owls before we exit



and we're off to dinner. went to a steak place, and it's supposed to be a few hundred years old (like, it existed in the kenshin era).


ordered their standard set, and the japanese wafu styled set, together with red wine.




and then we're off to home. it's the last day so we kinda want to stay out longer, but we're also beat from all the walking. back to osaka station and home...


we rested a while and dragon blazed a little, then went out for a little walk and bought oden from the convenience store. been craving daikon oden!


the store we went to didn't have all the matcha drinks/hot drinks i wanted. zzz.
and there was supposed to be an agenda on mr k's mind, but seeing as how sleepy i was, we just went home, ate and slept till the next morning.

there was an awkward box popping out of his jeans. so much for a surprise. in any case, the next morning, we went to the airport and checked in.

mine was a super long q, and we should have checked in at mr k's side first, even though his flight would leave later. he told me later that it didn't even take 10mins for him, yet we queued 45mins for mine. and i was the last to check in, so much so the officer took me personally to the gate. if we had checked in together then we would have been able to enter together T_T

sighs.

well anyway, last pic before we depart... (",)