(8.30a) Take a train to Kyoto. It’s only 30mins from Osaka to Kyoto. Everyone told me and also the travel books say Kyoto is a city full of traditional buildings and old temples. The first impression for me is, the architecture of the station is so contemporary, pretty cool~ :D
(10.00a) Changed to subway for 3 stops and I was arriving the guest house.
(11.00a) Settled down everything and had a little rest, I started my bicycle trip lo :) It was quite exciting to ride around the little streets between those little old houses… The first temple I went to which is quite close to the guesthouse was closed though. -_- and then I head to one of quite famous temples in Kyoto called Kiyomizu-dera Temple (清水寺).
(12.00a) On the way I passed through the most famous Nishiki Food Market. It was extremely crowded! It’s like the flower market during Chinese New Year in HK. So so so many people tried to stuff into the market from outside. The sell fish, fresh meat, a lot of traditional Japanese foods and New Year food too! It was one shop specialize on selling eggs and the Japanese egg cake. You know the one they use for sushi but of course not the very yellowie one you see in cheap cheap Japanese restaurants. Everything are very expensive there though. I’ve seen a extremely ridiculous one which is a pack of red beans. I think it’s about 500g, they sell it 1500Yen!!! I was like… huh?! A pack of red bean should be 50 Yen, no? I’ve bought a piece of Tofu sushi, they stuffed octopus inside :D very tasty and it cost 130 Yen. And then I’ve bought a piece of fish cake for 250 Yen. To be honest, I prefer those from HK lo… they made it a little too sweet lerh. Ah, it remind me now, the best fish cake I’ve had in Japan is one they stuffed bbq eel with a bit of sauce inside. It was very delicious. Will try to find it next time when I have enough cash :D. Btw, even it was so crowded and they almost sell everything wet and dry in the market, I can still find my shoes very clean after going there. Very impressive ^_^…
(1.30p) Arrived the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. It’s built by the mountain with a lot of trees. The environment was super nice. It cost 600Yen or something, so I didn’t get into it :P. haha very budget Kyoto tour I m having. I just keep on riding around the area and found a lot of girls wearing Kimono and walk around. It’s quite interesting that there are quite a lot of Kimono rental shops around that area.
(3.00p) I keep riding and riding around and passed a few more temples. A funny thing is, on this street, there are like hundreds of people, but the next one you can almost find no one and super quiet too. I tried to ride into all those streets without people. Haha made a turn when I see people ahead… It’s just too many temples and old buildings in the city. I guess it would be much nicer to have a company to walk around to be honest. It’s actually a lot of nice ceramics around too, but they are all quite expensive. The cheapest one I like was a little cup cost 2800Yen . Those a little bit nicer and irregular shape ones are at least 5000-6000 Yen, which I can’t really afford ~~… maybe someday… I mean, will be someday. I wanted to learn ceramics too… ya… will be someday.
(3.30p) Found a bakery in a street called 古川町商店街and bought a piece of amazingly delicious bread! Crispy outside and soft inside, Black sugar taste with red beans and some black beans:P:P.
(4.00p) Went to Jusco! And they accept credit cards!!! Went back to my room quite early today and took a nap. My body was pretty tired after the skiing day :D
(8.00p) I went out and buy some more food for dinner… 2 pieces of dai gun and and 1 piece of something I don’t even know its name. Did some works and finished the cover for Little Diggtak ^_^
31/12
(9.00a) had a nice breakfast in the guesthouse and it was quite nice. Interesting that Japanese use to put crème in coffee. It seems that they never thought of putting milk. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad coffee.
(9.30a) Saw some emails and worked a bit for POP/Pixi
(11.00a) Why are those works taking so long to finish?!?!?!!? Ahhhhh… anyway… went to Arashiyama for one little temple. It’s 7 stops by JR from Kyoto. Btw, I called Aya finally this morning. :) We gonna meet up on 3rd Jan just knew that her family is actually not in Tokyo but she will make a trip to Tokyo as a tourist with YJ :D… Haven’t seen them for sooooooo long!!!! Miss them very much.. and she told me, YJ is arriving JP today ^__^ yeahey~
(11.30a) Arrived the main temple in that area and didn’t go in again :D budget trip ma… haha… It’s a nice area to walk around even not getting into any temple, Somehow, although there are quite a lot of people around, it’s still quite a silent place, and very beautiful. It’s quite cold and windy today, even that’s sunshine. I finished walking around the main area, and heading to the little temple called Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple (愛宕念仏寺). It’s pretty small and doesn’t even shows in my Kyoto map. On the way I passed through a path full of bamboo on the side. A big big bamboo area, it’s just bamboo and more bamboo after 5 mins walks. The sky start getting dark and raining ~_~ and it becomes even colder.
(1.30p) Passed by a leather shop, I pop in and have a look. The designer told me he designed everything in that little workshop. The wallet I quite like was hand made too… and of course the nice stuff cost money which I can’t afford :) I gave him a smile and shouting to him in my heart, “good job! You are talented, work hard, mate! You are getting there.” Yea, I would buy something from him next time when I have money and if he’s still there.
(2.00p) It’s raining and start a bit snowing too… I still haven’t got there… It takes longer than I thought. It’s a bus to go there indeed, but budget travelers walk :D
(2.30p) I found it super worthy after that long walk in snowy rain and a 300Yen entrance fee. Don’t know how to explain. See photos :D They are just so cool! Yea… cool to me :D I love this temple sooo much! It’s small, quiet and very few tourists going but super interesting. :D At least to me, I’ve been in so many big temples since I was young. Japanese ones smell better but other than that, they are the same as the ones in China, even in HK. But this little one is just unique… :D
(3.30p) Tried not to spend anything for lunch today but still spent 110Yen for a bun from convenience store. I got back to the guesthouse and had my yogurt as lunch. it’s quite a good yogurt. Somehow, I don’t know how they do it, but Japanese foods, even yogurt, are much fine and mild taste.
(4.00p) I was quite stuffed but I remember the bakery yesterday and couldn’t stop myself to go there again :D
(4.30p) The bread was a bit cold but still tasty :) and then I was in a rush to go that very famous Fushimi-inari-taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社). Why I go there because I remember I’ve seen a programme about this Shrine when I was really young, probably 6-7 years old. And I still remember it!! :D See, this kinda promotions really work ga and last for over 20 years ga! But I didn’t spend any money there bor :P dead poor ghost. It’s the most people visiting shrine in western Japan during the New Year. I’ve seen a lot of counters are preparing food and stuff for the even tonight already. Very exciting!! If it’s a bit closer, I would go there for New Year. I thought it’s quite close but it took me 45 mins by bike to get there! I couldn’t ride too fast in the city, but it’s still quite far.
(6.00p) Getting really cold and I went back to the guesthouse to sort out some stuff… gonna go to a closer one at night.:)
(11.00p) Went out to a Shrine nearby called 八板神社 for New Year. I ride a bike from the guesthouse and it’s super cold even I wore 5 layers clothes! It’s so so so many people when I reach about 500 meter from the Shrine. The police just block people in different sections and let people go into it section by section. I was waiting in front of the Shrine for 45 mins and didn’t know what’s going on and what’s gonna happen. I didn’t even know why people are queuing there. I was expecting something to happen like count down to stuff… so, keep waiting and waiting…. And New Year had passed, and no one even do a count down. Only a few foreigners were shouting happy New Year~ and that’s it. -_- Super disappointing and boring! Since I was expecting to buy something eat from the Shrine, I didn’t have my dinner. Super cold and hungry ~_~ But I was trapped in the block of people, couldn’t go anywhere T__T. About 15mins later, the police let us passing through the road and we walked up the Shrine. It’s actually not much happening there still… some counters sell food and stuff. The queue was still going. In not too far away, and we arrive the temple. And then I knew that what I was queuing for finally. Well, I made a wish and went to buy something eat… walked a little bit around. It’s actually quite boring to go to this kinda thing by myself. Had some food and start having stomachache >_<… And the first biggest decision I’ve made in 2009 was I decided to eat something from McDonald’s! Yea, it helps a bit to fill myself up… around 1.20a, I head back to my guesthouse.
1/1
(11.00a) A homemade Japanese New Year breakfast this morning :D how exciting!!! I do love everything she made ^__^. Another great thing is I met some new friends in the house!! The girl (oops, what’s her name?), the landlady’s nephew, she speak perfect English and Mandarin with me. Again, she found my European ascent cool :p. I never expected to speak Mandarin with someone here in Japan. She’s studied 1 year in China, 1 year in US and she is working in Japanese embassy in Canada! She looks like she’s just graduated and quite a bit younger than me. Another 2 guys from America, Nathan from Boston and Andrew from Washington, they both came to Japan to study Japanese for 1 year. It’s quite fun to talk to them while having the nice Japanese breakfast :D.
(12.40p) Left the house and decided to walk to the JR station to save the 210Yen! It’s such a nice day, sunny and not as cold as yesterday. Spent about 15mins to walk to the station thinking of the good time in the morning :).
(1.56p) Got on the train, heading back to Tokyo :). Gonna be a doing nothing day, and I decided to take no photo today! And to set 1st Jan as a “No Photos Day”. These years, people are spending too much time to take pictures that they might not even have time to look at again. We spent too much time to look at the screen of the cameras instead of looking around the world and probably missed a lot of good moment around us and also forget to enjoy ourselves. Haha, lets take a break in the new year day! :)
(4.30p) it’s quite a nice journey. The train passed through a lot of places that’s raining, snowing, very sunny, a bit cloudy and finally very nice and cloudless sunset when we almost arrived Tokyo. :) Such a good doing-nothing day!
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