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So of course we took full advantage and spread all our stuff around. It was SO nice to have the opportunity to stretch our legs while sleeping! (Spoiler: we didn’t have the same luck on the way home).<\/p>\n
Our flight was early in the morning and after 12+ hours in the air, we landed at Kansai Airport at about 4:30pm… the following day. We weren’t done traveling yet, though. We still had to take a train to Kyoto — and to do that we needed to redeem our JR Rail Pass<\/a> exchange orders for the actual passes. The JR rail pass was SO great and easy to use — it’s meant for overseas tourists to travel on major forms of transportation provided by the JR Group, including most of the bullet trains. Thankfully the person helping us understood enough English to get us our passes AND make us reservations for the next train to Kyoto. PHEW!<\/p>\n As a quick aside, I have to admit that for the first few days, the language barrier really got to us. Major signage (like at tourist attractions or at the train\/subway stations) is usually posted in English so we were always able to figure out directions and where to go. What was difficult for me, and frankly overwhelming, was the feeling of not being able to communicate verbally with anyone else (we only knew a handful of basic words and phrases thanks to the 3 Pimsleur Japanese lessons we managed to listen to). I realized I had to let it go and see the cobbled communication using minimal words and lots of gesturing as part of the “fun” of traveling.<\/p>\n Here’s Rob at the Kansai Airport train station waiting for the Haruka express train that would take us to Kyoto, our destination for the next 5 nights.<\/p>\n Now me. Boy do we look tired.<\/p>\n And here’s our first train of the trip! I was so impressed by the long distance train system in Japan. The trains are fast, convenient, CLEAN, comfortable, user-friendly and ON TIME. This is what Amtrak wishes it could be.<\/p>\n Funny story. When we arrived at Kyoto station, I was hauling our luggage off the train and onto the platform when my right shoe (I was wearing ballet flats) FELL INTO THE GAP and onto the tracks. OMG!!!!! Hey, it was a BIG GAP OK. Now this is a perfect example of how accommodating the Japanese are to others. My first reaction was to just leave it since I had another pair of shoes in my backpack. But a janitor saw what happened and he notified a station manager who went down to the tracks after the train left WITH A FLASHLIGHT and retrieved my shoe for me. I was hanging my head the entire time in embarrassment.<\/p>\n We took a taxi to our hotel, the Westin Miyako<\/a>, where we had a quick dinner and fought to stay awake until an appropriate bed time in order to avoid jet lag. It worked!<\/p>\n Friday, 11\/9<\/b><\/p>\n Our first full day in Kyoto!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For breakfast we went over to the Kyoto station (LOVE how the train stations have EVERYTHING you need — food, department stores, etc) where we discovered a Cafe Du Monde<\/a>. I was so excited! I’ve never been to New Orleans. Sadly they do NOT sell beignets. What a tease. We ended up just getting coffee and picking up donuts at Mister Donut next door.<\/p>\n We took the Kyoto city bus north to Kinkakuji<\/a>, which is a temple also known as the Golden Pavilion.<\/p>\n The view from across the pond is gorgeous (the pavilion itself isn’t accessible to the public).<\/p>\n The surrounding gardens were full of colorful autumn leaves. LOVE!<\/p>\n Our next stop was Nishiki Market<\/a>. It took us forever to find it — the streets and addresses were SO confusing to us.<\/p>\n This shopping alley is known as “Kyoto’s Kitchen” where many restaurants purchase fresh produce, seafood and a variety of food-related items. We had just eaten lunch (fried chicken and grilled steak “sets” with the yummiest soft tofu side dish at a random basement of an office building) so we didn’t buy anything but all the food was definitely a treat for our eyes.<\/p>\n We hopped on the bus again (the one-day pass is a great deal at only 500 yen per person) and headed to the Kiyomizudera Temple<\/a>. From the bus stop, it’s about a 500 meter walk to the temple (I think?). What the sign doesn’t tell you is that it’s steep! At least there are shops and restaurants lining the walkway so we could catch our breath while shopping at the same time. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n At the entrance to the temple we snuck a pic of these girls dressed in yukatas (or are these kimonos?). Whatever they are, they’re so beautiful.<\/p>\n The main hall had a great view of the sunset.<\/p>\n Looking down towards the Otowa Waterfall where the water is separated into three separate streams. It’s said that the water has the power to grant wishes.<\/p>\n Visitors can “catch” and drink the water using the cups provided. We even saw one lady fill up her own water bottle! I guess she really wanted her wish granted, LOL.<\/p>\n That’s us. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n We walked about 15 minutes to the geisha district of Gion<\/a> and happily stumbled into a side alley where we spotted geishas and maikos! They walk really fast so I didn’t get any pics. Plus, I didn’t want to follow them around like the other tourists were doing. They were like paparazzi!<\/p>\n For dinner, we went back to the Kyoto station and randomly picked a ramen restaurant on the floor known as “ramen alley.” You order from a vending machine outside, which you’d think would be easy peasy. Not for us. We stared cluelessly at it until the greeter rescued us. OMG, we were so helpless for the first few days! We both had YUMMY bowls of tsukemen (dipping noodles) — the only bad thing is that it requires so much effort just to eat! We ended the night back at the hotel by trying out the Japanese robes and taking silly pics. So happy to be in Japan!<\/p>\n For more pics, check our Flickr — Arrival Day<\/a> and Kyoto Day 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KONNICHIWA! \ud83d\ude42 Rob & I have been back home since the day before Thanksgiving but it’s been a whirlwind of get-togethers with family and friends, getting sick, and going back to work (UGH). So much anticipation and now Japan seems … Continue reading
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