Nihon Part IV

Day 6:

This is our 2nd day in Osaka, so we had previously arranged to join a 1 day tour in Kyoto. Our tour actually includes an escort who brings us to Kyoto to meet up with the tour guide and the rest of the group. So early morning, we made our 5 minute walk to a nearby hotel, where we were being picked up by the escort. It turns out that a family of 4 were also joining us from this pick up point to Kyoto. It was actually quite funny observing our escort because he was so stressed about time constantly. It was obvious because he kept flipping his phone every 3 minutes to check the time and when the youngest kid of the family of 4 walked too slow, he would say in a progressively louder voice, "please! hurry. Please! Hurry! PLEASE!" Moreover, he had a JTB tour flag with him...it would've been okay except the flag had been so overused that it was already white turned to yellowish brown. I wouldn't be surprised if it smelled. P and I found this quite funny as he waved the dying flag at the busy Osaka station for us to get to Kyoto; we obviously tried to keep our distance as we didn't really wanted to be associated with him and the "tourist" label. Within our tour, we actually got to know 1 lady quite well, it turns out she was a Brazilian nutritionist type physician and her husband was busy giving a conference as a doctor in cardiology while she joined this tour on her own. I later also found out that many of our fellow tour participants had very well-respected jobs and income. I wonder if this is common with these English cultural tours.


If one is familiar about Kyoto, he/she would know its probably the richest in Japanese history and culture; that is why we find it valuable to join the tour although we aren't really that interested in seeing shrines and temples all day. Nonetheless, we found the whole tour very organized and pleasurable. Although we did end up seeing quite a few temples, palaces, shrines, etc., they did not seem boring at all. In fact, we wished we had more time at several locations.

Honestly speaking, we went to so many places in such a short time that I was confused as to what was what; luckily, I took some pamphlets with me to review, so I'm now able to label my pictures for you! The very first photo is Nijo Castle, where their first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu lived. It was built in 1603. The castle consisted of very clever paintings depicting power and authority as well as witty architecture whereby as soon as someone walks on their tatami hallway floor, bird chirping-like sounds are created to warn of assassinators.

The gold building of the second photo is The Golden Pavilion at the Rokuon-Ji Temple area. It is well-known for its real gold and clear reflection in the pond water. The bottom photo is of Kyoto's Imperial Palace. Security was very strict at the palace; there were many places we couldn't visit. What was most funny here was the fact that they made us (30 something people) line up in 4 straight rows before they would let us enter but as soon as we passed the gate, our rows disintegrated and they didn't even care! So what was the initial purpose?!?

Before I move on to discuss the afternoon sightseeing locations, I must mention that our tour guide in the morning and afternoon were different women. Perhaps they were all part time and couldn't wait as we parted for lunch at a designated souvenir building place. The reason I speak of the tour guide is because the morning one was such a funny little old lady. She had a very strong Japanese accent, so many of the people in our tour did not understand any of her explanations; yet, she kept talking. And if you thought the rotting JTB flag was funny, this tour guide made her own version of a flag by sticking a bright pink bath scrub onto a metal stick. Can you see her in the picture?

In the afternoon, we visited some well-known shrines and temples in the area and actually learned quite a few neat things. This was partially due to the fact that the afternoon tour guide's English was excellent and no accent at all! I think her English was better than mine; it turns out that she had studied in England. Anyway, she explained to us that some fake lightning and wheat-like rope decorations are always hung at the entrance to hope for sufficient rain through lightning so the crops can be plentiful. Also, the many empty wine barrels we often find at the entrance of temples and shrines are actually for advertising purposes! Because many alcohon breweries sponsor the building of temples and shrines, so they get to place their brands outside the place to serve as advertisements.

I must also mention that it is almost sakura season, so the cherry blossoms were just beginning to bloom in many places around Kyoto as we travelled. This one was captured at Sanjusangen-do, where there were a lot of well hand-crafted wooden statues but we couldn't take pictures there. Nonetheless, the flowers were very pretty.

I would say the most interesting place we visited all day was also the last place: Kiyomizu-dera Temple. There were a lot of visitors at this attraction. We also saw a lot of other tours, including from Hong Kong. I'm guessing this is a popular place due to the great view once you're up the temple as well as the abundance of shopping once you come down. Needless to say, we did not get enough time to shop for souvenirs here!

This temple was also known for its 3 lucky water fountains. The belief is that each fountain provides one luck in love, career, and education/health (sorry, can't remember) if you drink its water. So of course, I had to line up to drink some! I don't even know which fountain I ended up drinking but I should've been greedy and just drink from all 3.

The cherry blossoms at Kiyomizu-dera temple were also very pretty. And that brought us to the end of the Kyoto tour, where we got dropped off at Kyoto station and were escorted back to our original Osaka meeting place by another old part time escort. I find it a good trend that such old people are still fortunate to be employed as long as they're healthy and do their job well. For approximately 14400 yen for today's tour, P and I thought it was a pretty fair deal with all the places we went to, the transportations costs, the various escorts and guides, and the free lunch.

We decided to return to Shinsaibashi for dinner, since it has got never ending choices for shopping and eating. We really didn't find it necessary to visit Umeda (also Osaka station where we were actually dropped off) although it is known to be a good area to shop too. Originally, we had plan to try fugu (the famous poisonous fish that can be eaten if treated carefully by specifically licensed Japanese chef), but in the end, we were too chicken because we had heard way too many stories about others eating it and then having to stay at the hospital for 3 days...not worth the risk. Not to mention it's not cheap at all to eat it.

We first had ramen at a recommended place by the magic guide book. We also went because we had saw many people there the previous night. Unfortunately, we would eat to learn that it was the 1 bad food choice we made on the trip. It was the most typical ramen I had ever tasted. The noodles weren't even that good and the soup base reminded me of our instant noodles at home. Not even worth posting a photo here.

In order to compensate for the poor noodles, we decided to try the extremely good smelling crab legs at a food stand. Although we thought it was a bit expensive to pay 500 yen for 4 tiny legs, they were really fresh and juicy. And they should thank us, because so many Chinese people saw us buy it and then bought too.

To finish off our dinner, we ran into an okonomiyaki street vendor. They were selling equally yummy okonomiyaki (compared to the ones we had the previous night) for half the price we paid for at the other place. Moreover, there was no line up so we didn't have to wait. In conclusion, P and I agreed that people should just eat this cheaper version and safe the additional yen for more eating or shopping. We can't solely depend on the magic guide book.

To be continued...