Japan Trip
Day #7 29/05/14 Thursday
One of Kyoto's must visit place is Bamboo Grove Arashiyama. It's one of the most photogenic object, along with red torii at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. But for me -like every place on earth- no picture can describe the astonishing feeling standing in the middle of bamboo grove. The greenest green in harmony with the brown soil and the whisper sounds of the leaves. I felt divine. Definitely one of must visits in Kyoto!
After visiting the bamboo grove (Arashiyama is a huge area), I went on separate direction with my friends ( new friends from JAM hostel). Carol and Phoebe went to the kimono rental, while Manuel and Dominic went to the Iwatayama monkey park. Actually I wanted to join them too, but I was interested more for the bathing monkeys in Nagano :D. It's strange, but seeing the bathing monkey on natural spring in Nagano is one of my dream! (until now :p)
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| Picturesque Forest. |
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| O Happy school girls! |
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| Kinkakuji / The Golden Pavillion. |
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| Noryo yuka / dining terrace as outdoor riverside dining experience. |
At dinner time, I met Michael, Phil & Bo (friends I met in Tokyo) again! Yayy! I was so glad, because suddenly I felt like meeting some old friends.
I met them at the main bridge in Gion, and then went to Pontocho, the old district that is known as home of geisha and traditional tea houses.
We were looking for an authentic cuisine from Kyoto. We had no idea about Kyoto authentic cuisine, until Phil recommended the so called 'Obanzai ryori'. Obanzai ryori refers to daily side dishes with home style cooking. We found a hidden small home style restaurant in the middle of our desperately hungry search. It was a gem! All with reasonable price and mouthwatering foods . I'm sorry, I can't tell you the name, because it was in Japanese kanji, and I couldn't read that :( .
The foods looked very simple in small portions. We ordered quite a lot, then eat them together, so we could taste a lot of menus. The lady (chef) had successfully brought out the natural flavors of the ingredients. Superb! Made me missing home a bit :,)
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| We are the happy bellies! |
Everyday, the nights felt so long. Maybe because I live in tropical country with proportional 12 hours sunless and 12 hours sun. During my time in Japan, I had to adapt more because the sky was still bright at 7-8PM :-O.
We still had about 2 hrs left before Michael, Phil & Bo's last train to Osaka. So, we decided to go to Gion district, the most famous district to see Geiko or Maiko (Geisha and Maiko in Kyoto called Geiko and Maiko). We found about 4 geikos and maikos that time. They all were in a rush going somewhere, so it was really hard to take a photo with them.
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| Gion. |
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| Typical traditional building in Gion. |
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