Kyoto, Japan
The second morning started, we woke up and gathered down in the lobby at about 5:30am. There was a little rain which made the already rather cold weather, even colder. So like any tourist coming to Japan, we got breakfast from the 7-11 across the hotel. I got 2 onigiris and a warm bottle of milk tea, when usually I only find coolers in convenience stores, here there are heated drinks. After getting the foods, I ate in the hotel dining area while waiting for the others to ready up and the rain to subside.
6:30am came around and we were already on our way to the mrt station, lucky for us it wasn’t far, just about a 7minute walk. The first train we took was towards the Shin-Osaka railway station, where most of the lines pass through, where we can also access the bullet train.
From the Shin-Osaka Station we directly went to the Kyoto station which was about an hour away and then take platform number 33 to take the line to the Saga Arashiyama Station. As we took the escalator out the platforms on arrival, we were greeted with a very tranquil view. Just right in-front of the escalator was a big glass window showing the landscape across us.
Comparing this to the rural and modern scene back in Osaka or just the normalities in Jakarta was really different a different sight.
The weather was really cool, at about 15-18°C. We directly rushed out the station to start our day due to the packed itinerary we had. Upon exiting the station there was a museum right by the station, so we stopped to take a group photo before going to the first spot, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.
The distance from the station to the Bamboo Forest is supposed to be about 10minutes (1.3km) on foot, yet the roads had a certain feel to them, as if we were in a fantasy. Which then made the walk feel longer than 10minutes. The air, how to plants are so tidy, the signs, made it feel as we were in an anime series, short stops here and there to admire how the Japanese did their art in building the neighborhood.
Finally we arrived at the entrance to the Bamboo Forest, yet as we saw upon approaching the area, it was filled with snack and food stalls. I tried one of the most appealing one to me, which was the beef rib skewer. This singular stick cost about $6 /100k IDR. A bit pricey for the price yet once I dug my teeth in them, it was pretty understandable. The left and right side of the main roads were filled with gift shops, restaurants and other shops. I mean, it was a tourist area after all.
Ok? everyone done eating? Let’s go in we still have to go to other places later!
So once eating up the skewers and gathering with everyone up again, we entered the Bamboo Forest. The first few meters when entering were meh, just ok but then once we entered the main section, that’s where the beauty started to show.
To say that I like the greens and color reproduction from Fujifilm’s film simulations + light editing in Lightroom would be an understatement.
The deep greens in the forest and how sky high the bamboos get were truly astonishing. The earthy tones and the cool air really made it a relaxing feel as we strolled around the area. After about two hours, our stomachs started to rumble, so we gathered everyone and looked for a restaurant that was recommended by the tour in our itinerary.
This was the meal we had, I think it was A5 Wagyu if I’m not mistaken. This set cost about $20-25 / 330-400k IDR but the meat was super tender I think it was a new experience for me.
After stuffing us with quality meat and refilling our energy, we went for a stroll around the streets. We saw vintage cars still in good, shiny and pristine condition. First time seeing a crow, and it shocked me with its massive size. After that we also tried sakura and matcha flavour ice creams, because everything is cheap when you are on travels. Tell me I’m wrong.
Once we were satisfied we went to the mrt station to catch a ride to get to the famous, Fushimi Inari Shrines, or the orange gates.
The middle photo is a map of the whole Fushimi Inari Shrine, the area was very crowded when we visited, packed. But I managed to get shots where there was no one in frame. Honestly we didn’t spend much time there, we just went up and then looked around for a while. Yet my dad and I took the trail around down, even though some more time was taken to get down, I got some nice scenes.
I think it’s best to visit this place in low seasons, to enjoy the serene feeling that it was meant to offer, we were travelling in the high seasons, around the Lebaran Holiday(Lebaran is the Indonesian name for the Islamic holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha). Before you knew it, the clock showed 3pm, so we went back to the station to head back to Osaka.
So after an hour, we got back to Osaka and got off at the Shinsaibashi station, where we continued to look for food. We planned on trying the famous Ichiran ramen but the queues were about an hour, with a stomach that hungry we didn’t bare to wait inline. So we settled for Yoshinoya.
We sat on the second floor which gave us a view to the direct hustle and bustling streets of Dotonburi, Shinsaibasahi. For me who enjoyed the scene, I just brought up my camera to my eye and shot several shots. This was at about 6pm, yet it looked as if it was already really late.
We made our way back to the hotel at about 7:30pm, as our bodies were tired from the early day and continuous walking around. We ensured to get a good nights rest as the next day we were going to Universal Studios Japan (USJ).