After our lunch, we took the JR train back to Kyoto and onwards to the Arashiyama area in the north-west. After a short walk through a certain neighborhood area from the JR Saga Arashiyama station, we came to the main road - Saga Tenryuji michi. I bought a hot chocolate from the vending machine along the way. I wonder if it was the sunshine that day, or the many kawaii shops along the road, but the Arashiyama neighborhood seemed to give out a youthful and uplifting vibe of its own. There were lots of young people there, especially the cheerful rickshaw runners who couldn't seem to contain their excitement over everything and everyone they came across. They make a refreshing eye candy for the female gender (or any other gender interested in good-looking & well-built young men for that matter...)

The scenery was another plus point. The mountain range stands in the north, and a river runs through the area. The Togetsukyo bridge crosses this river, and marks the point where the more upstream Hozu river becomes the Katsura river. Therefore, the river on each side of the bridge is called by a different name. One thing I noticed about the rivers in Kyoto is that, either intentionally or unintentionally, the wild vegetation were left flourish, forming dry patches of land on which birds such as cormorants take refuge on. The river banks were also often left in its natural state, hence preserving its original beauty.

We came across this gentleman who was wearing a clown outfit. He approached the children and smiled to and greeted everyone around him. Contrary to common expectations, he did not appear to be advertising something, nor asking for money. Perhaps he is merely another beautiful soul wishing to bring a little happiness to the world around him, in his own way. He seemed kind of lonely though....

Moving on, it was around 3 pm, and my feet felt rather numb from all the walking we did. Nevertheless, we had to keep going. The streets in this part of Kyoto felt different from those in the other areas we went to. The atmosphere there was of an austere calmness of the old traditional kind unlike the vibrant Gion or the cheerful Arashiyama. We came across a group of primary school students, probably on their way home.

After about 45 minutes of walk, we reached Kinkakuji. The history of this golden pavillion dates back to the 14th century, during the Ashikaga shogunate. However, similar to many other temples in Kyoto, the one presently standing is the restored version. The beauty of Kinkakuji lies in its brilliant golden coloration which shines brightly despite the changing seasons. Covered in 24K gold leaves, the expensive-looking structure is understandably listed as another UNESCO world heritage. The pavillion faces the west, and thus receives (and reflects) the late afternoon sun, making it shine even more during this time of the day. We were lucky to be able to snap this last picture of the day before Mike's Canon EOS450D ran out of battery. Otherwise, he would have cursed himself even more for leaving the spare battery back at our inn.

After exploring the area for awhile, together with the massive horde of tourists, we decided to call it a day. We took a bus back to Kyoto station and walked back to Tomato. Mike hurriedly packed his stuff to catch the last shinkansen to Tokyo. I borrowed the phone at the reception counter to call the Friendly Limousine bus to confirm my return trip from Haneda to Narita airport two days later. When I told the receptionist that I wanted to use their pay-phone to make the long distance call, he immediately advised me against it as it would cost me a lot of money. The super nice guy offered me to use his keitai to make the call, and he even helped me to reserve my tickets over the phone. On top of that, he didn't even ask me to pay for anything! For this, I am really grateful and therefore would like to recommend you all to stay in this awesome place if you ever visit Kyoto:

Tomato guest house - a peaceful 10 minutes walk from Kyoto station, where you can take trains/buses to almost anywhere around town. Nice tatami rooms, clean bathroom and toilets, good service, all at an affordable price. What more can you ask for? So go visit their website! ^_^

Enough of the advertisement. And so I sent Mike off at Kyoto station, then walked around the area to find dinner and explore. It was a mixed feeling for me that night - I was sad and a little lonely, but I also cherish being alone with myself. In fact, I feel rather excited on my upcoming journey to Nara and Osaka.

The time was 6.30 pm, and it was already dark. I walked around Isetan to see if I can find any good buys. Looked around at the clothing and shoes on sale. According to the season, they were selling winter wear. I found that, as several friends have advised/warned me, the winter wear here were of better quality and a lot cheaper compared to those in Singapore. I was even searching high and low for boots before my departure, and here they sell nice looking and affordable boots like everywhere. I thought one might as well set off with minimal amount of clothing (sufficient to avoid unnecessary detainment) from Singapore and buy everything here. Nevertheless, due to my limited capacity to carry things (I was backpacking), I didn't find anything which was really worth the space. I went to the shopping arcade below Kyoto tower afterward. There were a lot of cute souvenirs here too. Basically, they have almost every kind of souvenirs from all around Kyoto, so you actually didn't need to haul that big sack full of souvenirs as you travel around Kyoto - you simply shop here before you depart! Having said that, I didn't really compare the prices to the last yen, and I'm quite sure there are things that they may not have here, such as the cute maneki neko figurine which I fell in love with in Fushimi-Inari. So, explore, people!

As I was still going to Nara and Osaka the next day before I return to Singapore, I decided not to buy any souvenirs to burden myself with. And so I went out again. The area around Kyoto station was rather nice, so I took a stroll around and enjoyed the winter night's chill for awhile.

My efforts to find a cheap restaurant for dinner didn't really succeed. Not that they are unreasonably overpriced, but I treat myself harshly when it comes to my own personal needs. Since none of the restaurant food there fall below ¥800, I settled on the usual. And so I went to Lawson and bought these:

A katsudon set, microwaved (~ ¥350) - taste: 4/5, serving size: 3/5, affordability: 4/5

and a banana bread for after dinner sweets (¥135) - taste: 3.5/5, serving size: 4/5, affordability: 4/5

I ate dinner back at the inn. The kind owner had told us that I can use the same room for that night and yet they would only charge as single occupancy to save my trouble of moving into another single room. How nice of them!

A little insecurity crept in, I sent an sms to my parents. Mike also sms-ed to tell me that he had just reached Tokyo. I tidied up my backpack and prepared for my trip as I was planning to set off early in the morning. Went to bed at around 9.30 pm, but couldn't really sleep well due to the cold, and perhaps, also loneliness.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment