Japan - Kyoto

It’s been a while since our last trip to Singapore. And I don’t remember much about our Singapore trip. One of the reason I lost most of the pictures <that is the logic uploading thousand of pics in FB> and two, I did not documented it in my blog <I don’t have a blog yet back then>.

What I remember is we stayed in Grand Hyatt Orchard Road, eat nasi campur for 10 dollar per plate and went to Night Life Safari. Literally, that’s all! <hubs even worst.. He doesn’t remember a thing!>

So we are going to Singapore again and will only be back on Sunday. Don’t worry; you may e-mail/PM me for any inquiries because our hotel has free wifi! Hihi.. I will make sure I reply as soon as we reach our hotel k.

<I wonder when I will finish this Japan travelogue post. Hope can finish before our Bandung/Jakarta trip.. huhu >

Have you watched ‘Memoirs of a Geisha?’. If you do, you must remember the scene where the small girl in kimono runs through numerous red torii gates. For some reason, that is the most remembered scene to me. It is simply amazing and passing through the tunnel of the gates is awesomeness.

If you have a limited time in Kyoto, make sure this place to be one in your top 3. Fushimi Inari Shrine worth your time at 0 costs! <Seriously, there is no entrance fee!>.

Getting there:  Just take the train from Kyoto station <JR Nara Line> to Inari Station. Fushimi Inari Shrine just across the street of Inari station.

When you first arrive, there is a small street of souvenirs shops and stalls selling typical Japanese food. The souvenirs in here are waaaaay much cheaper than any other place we’ve been to. You might want to shop for souvenirs here especially the geisha fridge magnet!.


 

At the foot of the mountain is the temple. This is a very colorful temple with lots of red and orange. After walking through the main temple you then find the corridors leading up the mountain of tori gates.

 

 

 And this is the really special part of the temple. When you go up, you just see plain orange but when you turn to look back like the picture below you see all the business names written on the gates. Each tori gate has the name of donor engraved on them <the more donation they have given, the bigger the tori and more prominent>. The thousands <I heard millions> of tori gates leading up the mountain makes the most amazing view. You can easily snap hundreds <even thousand> photos here.

 

 

The fox is a sign of the messenger and that is why he is seen all over the shrine area hold a key to his mouth to the rice granary.

 

 

From Fushimi Inari Shrine, we head to Umahori from Inari Station <400 yen per person> for romantic train to Arashiyama. The Sagano Scenic Railway also known as the Sagano Romantic Train or Sagano Torokko is a sightseeing train line that runs along the Hozugawa River between Arashiyama and Kameoka. It’s charming, old fashioned trains wind their way through the mountains at a relatively slow pace,<taking about 25 minutes> to make the seven kilometer journey and giving us pleasant view of the scenery as we travel from Arashiyama through the forested ravine and into rural Kameoka.

 

From Umahori station to Kameoka romantic train station is 15 minute walk. There is no clear sign to this station so we just walk along with other locals and tourists. We enjoyed the walking very much. The scenery is just breathtaking.

 

So here we go, we will take our romantic train from this station to Saga-Torokko.

 

 

 

 

Our next pit stop is Bamboo grooves. Walk out from this station, turn left and go straight. Don’t worry you won’t get lost here. I initially thought that the bamboo path was the only interesting thing to see but it was more than that! The mountain and river view was very calming. If we had time, we would have enjoyed the river boat ride too.

 

 

There was plenty of small stores around the area selling souvenirs and snacks and also restaurants when hunger strikes. For something different, there's the rickshaws for hire.

 

We had to pass Gion district and other few places this time around. 1 whole day is not enough to cover the whole Kyoto. It's getting dark and the kids look tired so we called it a day.