Kyoto and Osaka

View Kyoto and Osaka in a larger map

After 4 years, I finally made it down to Kyoto and Osaka even if it was for just two days!! I made the decision the week before that I would go down right after the Christmas holidays.

So on December 27th a friend and I hopped on to a Willer Express overnight bus to go down to Kyoto. Now the ride wasn't as pleasant as it was full with people going back to their hometowns for the New Year holidays, but it was made bare able with the three rest stops we made. The total duration of the ride down came to roughly 7.5 hours.

After that 7.5 hours, we arrived at Kyoto Station at 6:30am! Since many places didn't open till 9am, we headed to the Fushimi Inari Taisha (Shrine) [Japanese / English] where they filmed "Memoriors Of A Geisha." and is known for all their 'torii' gates. We did a bit of a hike up the mountain before turning back and taking a different path through the cemetery section to get back to the station.

 

Next up was to take the bus to Kinkaku-ji The Golden Pavilion [Japanese / English]. Probably one of the more famous sights in Kyoto it didn't take us long to walk through it all! But thanks to the weather, got some amazing shots of the pavilion.

'Kizuna' = bonds, ties

From Kinkaku-ji we hopped back on the bus to go and check in early at our hotel - the Toyoko Inn. Once checked in we got back on another bus to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. I knew we would have to walk roughly 5-10 minutes to get to the temple, but I didn't realize it was such a hike! If you remember on my previous post, Kiyomizu-dera is where the high priest decides on the kanji representing the year that has just passed. This year it was 'kizuna'. On the way to the temple you pass by a lot of gift shops. Some of them even give you a cup of green tea and let you sample their products! The temple it self was very beautiful and you can get some great shots of Kyoto. It was probably the highlight of my day!

From here we took the bus back to Gion - the geisha district. Like all tourists, my goal was to get a picture with a geisha, however I didn't see any. But I did spot a maiko getting her photograph professionally taken. Couldn't get a picture with her, but I did get one of her!!

By now it was roughly 2pm and all we had to eat was a 'nikuman' or steamed meat bun. So we were pretty hungry. As I wanted to eat something different we had to walk around for a while before we found 'Kandon' a Korean styled Matsuya/Yoshinoya restaurant. Prices were decent and the food was delicious! So delicious in fact that we ended going back there for dinner at 8pm!

To work off all that we ate at Kandon, and we ate a lot, we walked up and down the covered shopping streets and market. We basically slowly made it back to our hotel for their 4pm check-in time!



The next day I had planned on visiting Nijo Castle [Japanese / English]. When we got to the front gate we were greeted with a "closed" sign. The thoughts going through my head were, "nooo.." and "you've got to be kidding." Let's just say I wasn't too happy! So instead we just walked along one side of the outer wall before deciding that we'd just go to Osaka earlier than I had anticipated. We were thinking of going to Himeiji Castle, but that was closed too!!

So Osaka Aquarium, here we come! (I love aquariums by the way!!) The ¥2,000 you have to pay to get into the aquarium was worth the price. I knew the aquarium was going to be big, but I was not prepared to see it in person! You start off on the second floor - first floor is the gift shop - and you literally take an escalator up to the 8th and slowly make your way down. It took us a total of 2 hours to make it through and it would have taken longer if we stopped at each tank. The highlight of the aquarium is of course the whale shark but the sea lions, sea otters, dolphins and carybera were a close second for me.

If it weren't that it was such a windy day and the waters were very choppy, I would have taken the boat ride to the other side of the river to Universal Studio's Japan to walk around Universal City!



 After much deliberation as to what we were going to do next, we decided to make our way to the Namba Station area a little earlier than expected! I did not know what to expect when going to Namba, only that it was one of the areas I needed to visit. Good thing we went early because there was so much to see! From the station we walked along the Ebisubashi-suji Street - a covered shopping street - towards the famous Dotombori Street filled with restaurants. It was here along Dotombori that we saw the famous shop with the giant crab in the front, a handful of takoyaki and okonomiyaki restaurants and stalls and a whole lot of interesting store fronts and signs.

One of the takoyaki stalls with a long line of people waiting

Since it was still a little early to sit down for lunch, we made our way to Kuromon Ichiba Market by the Nipponbashi Station. Now this is the food market to go to in the winter in Osaka! I didn't count how many stalls, but there was over a dozen stores selling fresh fugu* - blow-fish - still swimming or just killed. Upon entering the market there was a giant fugu out on display that you are able to touch. The reason for this is because the fugu was too large and too dangerous to be eaten. At this market, you can purchase fugu already fillet or one that was still alive or whole. If you do not have a special license to fillet your own fugu, the store you are purchasing from will do it for you and you can watch. We were luckily enough to have been able to witness a fugu being fillet, which didn't take too long to get the most poisonous organs out. Very exciting!

*Note: Fugu (blow-fish) is a highly poisonous fish and should only be eaten during the winter months when its poisons are at the lowest levels. Only a special trained chef who holds a special license specifically for fugu should be filleting it.

I have always wanted to try fugu, but the risks always prevented me from following though. But this was the day for me to give it a try! Why not right, it was all around me. So I did! The fugu it self was good, however if the slice was too thick it became a little chewy. The ponzu sauce you dip it in made the taste even better. I'm actually very happy I was given this opportunity to give it a try and will try again if I had the chance...maybe.

As it was getting close towards dinner time, we headed back to Dotombori Street to find a restaurant to fill our stomachs. If you go to Osaka you have to eat the three foods they are most famous for. Okonomiyaki, takoyaki and kushiage. We were lucky to have found a restaurant that served all three. Let me say, it was delicious!! 

To walk off all that we ate - which was a lot - we made our way back to Ebisubashi-suji Street to continue walking north. Once we got past Shinsaibashi Station, we went to the main street Mido-suji Avenue to walk back to Namba Station. From here we took the subway up to Umeda Station and walked to the Umeda Sky Building where the Willer Express is located to check in and wait for our 24:30 bus back to Tokyo.

Kuromon Ichiba Market

Mido-suji Avenue

I was happy to have finally made this trip and experienced all that I did. Now I am able to cross off Kyoto, Osaka and eating fugu off my list of things to do before I leave Japan. My next trip in the works is to make my way down to Hiroshima for the day. This probably won't be until spring but it is all planned out!!!


If you wish to see more of my photos from my trip to Kyoto and Osaka, you can view them here.

Also, here are some video's of things I saw.

This is the whale shark at Osaka Aquarium circling around its tank.

At the Kuromon Ichiba Market, I was able to see a live fugu (blowfish) being fillet.

You can check out more video's I uploaded HERE.