Kyoto 2D1N - Day 1

[Sep 5, 09]

It will be a long journey from Tokyo to Kyoto. By bus, it takes around 7 hours but cheaper. By Shinkansen, it takes only 2 hours but expensive. Therefore we decided to take night bus from Machida, Tokyo to Kyoto station on Sep 4 and come back by Shinkansen.

More information about the bus booking and Shinkansen timetable in Japan:

Bus123 - bus booking

Shinkasen - shinkansen booking / timetable

We reached Kyoto station around 6am in the morning. We felt extremely tired by taking this long-journey bus, but still we have to find our booking hostel - K's House Kyoto. It is not that easy to get to this hostel, but one thing i liked the most is their cleanliness and cozy environment.

After breakfast at hostel and bought the city bus all day pass (500 Yen) at Kyoto station, we headed to Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion). It is well-known for its gold-coloured architecture which situated at the center of the lake.

And then we took the bus to Nijo-castle. It is quite easy to travel in Kyoto, normally people take bus. Therefore you can see many people squeeze inside the bus during the peak hour. So as us. -_-''' Nijo castle is one of Kyoto's UNESCO world heritage site. We even stepped in the castle and try to imagine how people live inside. Hmmm... must be very boring then.. :P

There are many of temples and shrines in Kyoto. We cannot really visit all of them, so we choose in particular. We passed by Yasaka Shrine before we had our lunch.

After lunch, we headed to Sanjusangendo temple. It is famous for its 33 halls and 1001 statues of Kannon, the godness of mercy. We decided to give ourselves a rest in hostel after this temple visit because we are extremely tired due to long journey traveling. Luckily this temple is near to our hostel.

At first we planned to rest for 1 hour and then headed to Gion to see geisha, but can't believe that it was already 6pm when we woke up. Erm, no doubt we are extremely tired. hehehe... :P Well, we still headed to Gion. Pontocho is Kyoto's nightlife district where might be able to spot geisha. And very lucky we saw 1 passed by us and rushed for her performance. Erm, we only can spot her back. -_-''' That night we had our dinner and green tea dessert in Pontocho.