2nd Day in Kyoto: Exploring Kyoto and Temple-Hopping

Saturday morning I jumped out of bed, excited about being in Kyoto. Kyoto is one of the most famous places in Japan, and it would have been embarassing to return to Norway after almost five months in Japan without paying it a visit.

I bought a 1-day bus pass that costed 500 yen, grabbed a map and off I went, ready to see what Kyoto had to offer.

Temple of the Golden Pavilion
(a Zen Buddhist Temple)

Love these girls

I spent the entire day temple hopping from one place to another. And to be honest, considering that I hadn't done any research beforehand, it soon got a bit old. I don't think temples are that interesting, and besides, they are not that photogenic.


When I was waiting for the train to take me to see the Fushimi Inari shrine, we were informed by the speakers at the station that the train was ten minutes late because someone had killed themselves at the tracks at some nearby station. None of the other passengers waiting even blinked.

Just another day in Japan, I guess.

Fushimi Inari Shrine
Also seen in the movie
Memoirs of a Geisha

Looks good, yeah

By six p.m it was already dark, and I returned to the hostel where Wictoria & Co were staying.

Wictoria

I knew I shouldn't have watched that videotape

Lotte

Heidi is carrying ten weapons at all times

Faceplant!
Some random guy
in the bar

Trip to Kyoto: Riding the Bullet Train and Chasin' after Geishas

On a whim, Heidi and I decided Friday afternoon to spend the weekend in Kyoto. Since we had Monday off school because of some weird national holiday, we could even stay an extra day.

We wanted to splurge, so early Saturday morning we took the bus to Tokyo and got ourselves a ticket with the Shinkansen, bullet train, to Kyoto. The ticket one-way costed around 12 000 yen (ca. 700 NOK). It took us 2.5 hours from Tokyo to Kyoto, which normally would have taken 8 hours by bus. Expensive, but very convenient. Besides I've always wanted to ride the bullet train and go to Kyoto.



It was such a beautiful and clear day, even Mt. Fuji was visible from Tokyo! And when we were riding the bullet train it got even closer. Unfortunately we sat at the "wrong" side of the isle, so I had to climb over a sweet mother and her baby to take this photo.

To think that we traveled all the way to Fujiyoshida a couple of months ago in hopes of seeing it, but it was so cloudy, we couldn't see a thing. And now here it was, on a day and from a spot we didn't expect to see it at all. Ironic.

Magical Mount Fuji

After a painless train ride we were in Kyoto by midday, and we walked around and explored for a bit.

Heidi

Origami

This boy's smile is so fake it hurts my heart

Yum, yum!

Then we came across these guys who were giving away free shoulder rubs as a part of the "free hug"-campaign. They were so nice and talked with us. And the shoulder rub was great!

Baby with pink cheeks and proud mother

In the afternoon we checked in at our hostel - bAKpAK Hostel Kyoto. Our room was great and the price was pretty great too: around 5000 yen (ca. 300 NOK) each for two nights.

In the evening we went to the hostel where Lotte and Tina were staying. Wictoria also showed up! All the cool people went to Kyoto for the weekend, yay!

Lotte and Tina

Wictoria and Tim

Heidi got a little tired at the end, ehe