Today began as the alarm went off to get us up for the 9am train, I'm not going to deny being awake for several hours due to my sleeping pattern not quite aligning with the time zone, but I'll you don't need to know this.
Breakfast was an array of buffet options including sushi and a display of tofu. I plumped for a little Japanese breakfast, sausage and bacon and a croissant. Perfectly suitable in my opinion.
We made our way to the train for the first leg of the journey to Nagoya, a 2hr 30min train ride through hills and valleys to a fairly bland city seemingly in the middle of nowhere. From there we boarded a shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The distance was about the same as the first part of the leg but it took us only 45 minutes to do the second half. Rolf is pictured in front of a train similar to the one we rode.
On arrival in Kyoto we made our way to the hotel to dump bags and then outwards to the temples that were due to be visited this afternoon. A hop on the subway later and we were out into the edge of Kyoto and walking along a randomly chosen path (me thinking let's go this way) following a water channel, into the edge of the first temple. It happened to be shut from the 1st to the 11th of April so we left via the (*massive*) ceremonial gate, heading for the first open temple.
This was indeed open and a walk around it, the sculpted gardens and the exterior later we were on our way to the "philosopher's path". This path is a 2km ish long path leading between two temples, alongside a canal planted with cherry trees along the whole length. The first few hundred meters of trees were not yet in bloom but upon rounding the next corner we saw the views that the tourist guide books harp on about. Every few seconds we had to get out of the way of yet another Japanese tourist taking photos of themselves with the, or just of the cherry blossom. Many people were carrying camera equipment that would make even me look very amateur...
At the end of the path was the Silver temple; known as such as it was intended to be painted in silver, until those building it ran out of money. It has a very large ceremonial garden though, including several raked sand/gravel gardens. They are very impressive to look at, but seem to be ready to be mashed to bits by a heavy rain shower.
Towards the end of the day we walked down to the area known for the geisha and stopped here for dinner. A couple of beers and jugs of hot sake later we wobbled out, back through the tourist trap area and out to get a subway back to the hotel.
Breakfast was an array of buffet options including sushi and a display of tofu. I plumped for a little Japanese breakfast, sausage and bacon and a croissant. Perfectly suitable in my opinion.
We made our way to the train for the first leg of the journey to Nagoya, a 2hr 30min train ride through hills and valleys to a fairly bland city seemingly in the middle of nowhere. From there we boarded a shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The distance was about the same as the first part of the leg but it took us only 45 minutes to do the second half. Rolf is pictured in front of a train similar to the one we rode.
On arrival in Kyoto we made our way to the hotel to dump bags and then outwards to the temples that were due to be visited this afternoon. A hop on the subway later and we were out into the edge of Kyoto and walking along a randomly chosen path (me thinking let's go this way) following a water channel, into the edge of the first temple. It happened to be shut from the 1st to the 11th of April so we left via the (*massive*) ceremonial gate, heading for the first open temple.
This was indeed open and a walk around it, the sculpted gardens and the exterior later we were on our way to the "philosopher's path". This path is a 2km ish long path leading between two temples, alongside a canal planted with cherry trees along the whole length. The first few hundred meters of trees were not yet in bloom but upon rounding the next corner we saw the views that the tourist guide books harp on about. Every few seconds we had to get out of the way of yet another Japanese tourist taking photos of themselves with the, or just of the cherry blossom. Many people were carrying camera equipment that would make even me look very amateur...
At the end of the path was the Silver temple; known as such as it was intended to be painted in silver, until those building it ran out of money. It has a very large ceremonial garden though, including several raked sand/gravel gardens. They are very impressive to look at, but seem to be ready to be mashed to bits by a heavy rain shower.
Towards the end of the day we walked down to the area known for the geisha and stopped here for dinner. A couple of beers and jugs of hot sake later we wobbled out, back through the tourist trap area and out to get a subway back to the hotel.
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