In the Robot Restaurant, between the thumping blasts of
music, a 20 something English Rugby fan asked me what our plans were between
matches. His was a spur of the moment decision to come to Japan so had no idea what to
do next.
I said our next stop was Kyoto.
His response was ‘what!- what is it about
Kyoto? Every English person seemed to be visiting or mentioning the town of Kyoto’,
and he stated that he felt he was
missing out. To be honest, I think he
was.
The Rough Guide to Japan has Kyoto as its number 1 thing not to miss on a
visit to Japan, and the book has a large chapter dedicated to Kyoto, Nara and
the surrounds.
With only four nights and three days in the area I felt we would
only be scratching the surface of this ancient capital city.
On our first full day in Kyoto we woke up to rain. This was
a shame as we were up early to cycle around Kyoto. And were due to meet a guide from Urban Adventures at the tourist information office on Kyoto station at 08.30.
Our guide, Nobumasa Miyake was waiting for us at the meeting point. We
were the only ones booked for this tour. We walked across the main road and
around the back of the Kyoto Tower to a cycle shop. I think it was Kyoto Eco
Trip. Here we were fitted for the bikes and I picked up a packer-mac.
It was dry when we set off through the streets to the Kamo
River, but as we cycled alongside the river towards the Gion area, the heavens
opened. At one point the deluge was so bad we sheltered under a bridge for a
while. I needed the white packer-mac, and it did offer quite good protection.
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| Very wet Cycling tour of Kyoto |
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| Very wet Cycling tour of Kyoto |
Our first stop was at the Heian-shrine, where our guide taught
us how to get ready to go into the shrine- I named it 'teaching us to shrine'. We had plenty of time to see the shrine and visit the gardens that are part of
the shrine complex.
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| How to Shrine |
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| learning how to shrine |
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| Heian shrine |
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| Heian Shrine Gardens |
Then we went past canals and the zoo to the Nanzenji Temple,
set in a wooded area this Temple also has a viaduct in the grounds.
We then cycled along the Philosophers path, stopping for a
drink about half way along.
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| Very wet Cycling tour of Kyoto |
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| Kyoto |
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| Kyoto |
The next stop was at Chionin Temple then on to a steep
street lined with old wooden houses and the Hokanji Temple and Yasaka pagoda.
Then back to the start to drop off the bikes. All in all the
route was about 15Km, very easy riding as it was mostly flat, and as usual a
really enjoyable way to capture the city-even in the rain.
We went to the apartment and dried off.
I had planned
another ‘Day in Kyoto itinerary’, using this book from the tourist information
office but realised it was to ambitious.
In the afternoon the sun started to come out so we thought
we would try our luck at using the extensive bus system. From the apartment it was
a short ride on the Kyoto City Bus to the Golden Pavilion.
It was really busy at the Golden Pavilion, crowds of very
well behaved school children were visiting the site and there were a lot of
Rugby fans among the masses.
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| Golden Pavilion |
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| Golden Pavilion |
We got back on the bus, but it went in the opposite
direction than we were expecting. So we got off at the next stop and visited a
temple with amazing guardians at the gate and a pagoda with monks worshiping.
We did manage to get the correct bus, going in the correct direction back to the apartment and later went
to a very small traditional restaurant a couple of doors down from our accommodation.
Here we sat on the floor, but were offered a menu in English. Looking at what
the Japanese visitors to the establishment were eating, I think the English
menu had very different food on it than the Japanese one did. Basically we were
left with a choice of salad, steak and chips. So that’s what we ordered.
The salad was really tasty then we had THE BEST steak and
chips ever! It was Wagu beef steak and it was melt in your mouth delicious. Highly
recommended….if only I knew the name of the place.
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The BEST steak ever -Kyoto
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