14.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 6)

This was our first actual day in Kyoto, because the last we just slept there. Our hostel was....kind of special. Just the kind of place you will never choose if you have another option, do you get what I mean, right?

Our first destination was the Bamboo park. The name explain itselft what it is, doesn't it? But this place was a bit far, so we were seeing another places along the way. For instance, the big river that divides Kyoto.

I am quite proud of the following picture, but I actually just had a stroke of luck. I was trying to take the picture, and then gust of wind made the cherry blossoms to blow on the wind. My new cover picture on facebook hehehe.

Finally we reached the Bamboo park. It was a nice place to take some good pictures.

The bamboo route finished in a train station, but not in a normal one. There is a train without ceiling in which you can enjoy all the landscape of its path. It wasn't that expensive and I think it really worth.

Then finished seeing that part of Kyoto, our next stop was the famous golden temple.

Afterwards, we went to the temple of Kiyomizu Dera. This temple is located in the summit of a hill, so better prepared to walk a bit harder. Some parts of this temple were under construction (restoration I mean hehe). But anyway it worth to be visited.

Finally, the last stop of the day was the temple of Fushimi Inari Taisha, very famous because of the movie Memories of a Geisha. Actually, this is the only place of Japan that appears in the movie. The rest are just movie sets.

Unfortunately we arrived at night, so we couldn't see the shrine very well. We decided to come back the next day, and then we went to take the dinner. Be careful where you go for dinner in Kyoto. You can died starving if you choose th wrong restaurant hehe.

The restaurant was very cool, but that dish is the only thing I ate for dinner (800 yen). Yeah, Kyoto could be very expensive...

Finally, we went to the hostel. It was a long long day, we needed a break.

13.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 5)

We arrived to kyoto in the early morning. The bus spent around 6 hours to reach Kyoto and it cost around 5000 yen. We could sleep in the bus, because it was more comfortable than a standard one, but anyway we were quite tired when we arrived.

Our first and only stop that day was the city of Nara, around 30 min far from Kyoto by train. Nara was the capital city of Japan during the Sengoku period, and it is a city full of ancient temples.

Our itinerary covered the whole day, and it was a route seeing all the temples and cherry blossoms. That's how we spent hour fifth day in Japan.

Before leaving, I made a new friend along the way back to the train station:

And that was all. We said goodbye to Nara and we headed back to Kyoto.

12.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 4)

This was our last day in Tokyo, so we basically went to the last places we couldn't go before.

First of all we went to Ueno park. This place was really crowdy, I suppose because it was saturday. Ueno park is a big park which also owns a zoo. We didn't want to visit the zoo but the park was really nice.

There were also some kind of events there, because we could see things like this:

In the park, you can also see a golden temple.

And that was all in Ueno park. Our next destination was Yanaka. This place is well-known as the cat street, because it is supposed you can see cats everywhere....probably there was a new chinese restaurant in the district because we saw just one cat, and it was really fat hehe. Anyway, in Yanaka you can see a lot of temples and the big cemetery.

Our last visit of the day, was to a very tourist place: Tokyo Skytree. This is the highest building of Japan (I think) with 634 meters of height. We arrived very late and it was super crowdy, so we didn't have time to get the top of the tower. What a pitty! but the entrance fee is 2500 yen, so at least we save some money hehe.

Afterwards, we went to Ikebukuro to take the bus. We said goodbye to Tokyo, Kyoto was our next stop.

11.04.2014 - Japan trip (part3)

Our third day in Tokyo. This time we changed our hostel, from Otemachi to Asakusa. In Asakusa we were in Sakura Hostel. A good hostel because it included a buffet breakfast, yummy!

But before going to the hostel we visited the famous Glass House, a building of the architect Sou Fujimoto.

Yeah basically it is a house made of glass walls instead of brick or wood walls....and.....that's all.

We also visited a temple nearby, more interesting I think.

Afterwards, we went to Asakusa. This is a very tourist place, full of people. It is not a quite place, so run away if you are looking for something peaceful.

After visiting Asakusa we went to take the lunch to the docks. We intended to have some sushi, because it supposed we can eat there for a reasonable price. And actually we ate the best sushi I have ever tried, and it wasn't very expensive.

After the lunch, we visited the Meiji Jingu gardens. I haven't got many things to say about it.

To finish our day, we visited Shinjuku, another place with a vibrant night life.

To finish our day, the return to Asakusa. It is worth to visit at night I have to say.

And that was all for our friday in Tokyo.