Day 58: Kyoto Day 3

Today's itinerary:

- Kinkaku-ji Temple

- Tenryu-ji Temple & Nonomiya Shrine?

- Bamboo Grove

This morning I realized that I only have about $4 left. I have been trying to take money out at ATMs near the place that I am staying, but none of them work with my visa. I had oranges at home and resigned myself to eating convenience store food to try and make my $4 last. I also had some extra money left on my transportation card (which can be used like a credit or debit card at some stores) and only two days left in Japan so I figured I could survive.

Fortunately, I found a 7 eleven ATM when I got to Kyoto that would take my card. No more crazy budgeting! I celebrated by getting water and some yummy snacks at the same store before I walked over to the temple.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji temple is one of the must-see places in Kyoto according to many of the websites I looked at before coming to Japan. I decided to pay the admission fee so I could go beyond the gates and see the temple and gardens.

The temple is painted gold and sits on the edge of a big pond. People can't access the temple, but they can walk all around the water to see it and get fairly close to it on land. There are some other temples around it but the golden one is clearly the main attraction. So many people were lined up around the water to take pictures!

I walked along the side of the water closest to the entrance and then past the temple. There were even more gardens behind the temple and a path that went up a little hill. I walked along the path for a few minutes until it came out to some gift shops and stalls.

Kinkakuji temple was so beautiful and it's definitely at the top of my list of the places I have seen in Japan. If anyone ever goes to Kyoto I highly recommend going here, especially when the weather is nice. You can walk around the garden and see the temple from almost everywhere plus the atmosphere is very nice.

Tenryu-ji Temple

Tenryu-ji temple is the main attraction in Arashiyama. It has one of the most beautiful zen gardens in Kyoto and it is right beside a mountain. It was over an hour walk to get to the temple from Kinkakuji so I walked a little and then took two very small shuttle trains the rest of the way. Each train had only one car and they seemed a little rickety and old, but they got me where I needed to go!

The station that I arrived at is the main station for that area and it was filled with food stalls. I bought some red bean soup from one of the vendors and walked out to the main street. The main street is filled with even more shops and restaurants! There were so many cool looking market places and shops so I took my time to look around a bit while walking to the temple.

When I got to the temple I was originally just going to pass by and go straight to the bamboo grove but I decided I should go see the garden while I was here. I had to pay an admission fee for the garden, but it wasn't too expensive. I walked through this huge gateway and along a little path before I came out to a pond. There were temples along the walkway as well as a sand zen garden. Beyond the pond was a huge garden full of different pathways and levels. Unfortunately, a lot of the plants were dead/dying so the colours weren't that great. It was still nice to walk through though and it made finding the bamboo grove much easier.

Bamboo Grove

The bamboo grove is a long pathway up a small part of the mountain by Tenryu-ji. It is surrounded by huge bamboo trees and has become a popular spot for photos. I came in the middle of the day so it was very busy, but it still felt magical. There were so many bamboo trees and they were ridiculously tall.

The main trail was fairly short. When I got to the end there were three different paths I could take. One led to a garden and house that was on my list of potential places to visit. The admission fee was over $15 though and I didn't think it was worth it to go see another garden that was probably half dead (because of the time of year). I was also super hungry so I walked down the path on the right that seemed to lead out of the forest. I got to the bottom quickly and found several food stalls. I bought a cooked sweet potato (a popular winter snack in Korea and Japan) as well as a rice cake.

There were other places I wanted to see but it had started raining and I was really tired. I decided to walk back to the main train station I had arrived at (near Tenryu-ji), see what I could find along the way, and then head home. I passed by more bamboo forests and a pretty shrine before I arrived back out at the main street. I bought a few dumplings from one of the street carts and then wandered along the street.

I had come out a little further up the street than where the entrance to Tenryu-ji was so I was able to see lots of shops I hadn't seen before.

I couldn't take the same train back home so I walked down the main street and over a huge bridge to get to a different station. The bridge was really long and it had amazing view of the mountains that surround this area. The weather was a little foggy because of the rain and it was so pretty to look out at the mountain from the bridge.

At the other side of the bridge I found a dessert place that was selling green tea creme brulee. Creme brulee is one of my favourite desserts and I love green tea flavoured foods so I just had to buy it. I didn't realize that it came frozen though. I peeled off the lid and tried to eat it with the spoon they had given me, but it was rock hard. I closed it back up and put it in my bag hoping it would thaw by the time I got home.

This side of the bridge had more restaurants on it but the street was much shorter. Behind the restaurants was the train station I needed. I arrived just in time to catch my train and I was even fortunate enough to get a seat so I settled down to play my BTS game.

When I got back to Osaka I went to my room to rest and eat my creme brulee. It was super small, but really yummy!

This was my last night in Japan before returning to Korea. I continued my nightly ritual of walking to Dotonbori for dinner and even went back to the ramen place I have eaten at way too many times.

After dinner I went looking for an arcade called Round One. There are so many arcades and games here and I hadn't tried any of them yet. Steven had recommended Round One and I decided to try it out since it was my last night.

The place was huge! There were so many floors in the building, they even had a bowling alley on one of them! The first floor was covered in machines where people put money in and then move a claw around to try and grab prizes (no idea what they're called, but we have them in Canada too).

The second floor was all casino games. They had the coin game that my brother and I love to play so I tried to play that, but the instructions were completely in Japanese and nothing happened when I put a coin in. There was also an entire area dedicated to horse race gambling.

There were so many people sitting at machines with buckets full of 100 yen coins ($1). I feel like it would be super dangerous to have fun arcades like this so close to where you live, I would spend way too much money here.

I went back downstairs and tried one of the grab games. I didn't have room for the toy in my luggage but I figured it would be fun to try. I spent 400 yen attempting to pick up the toy and then finally gave up. On the way out I passed a crowd of people and moved closer to see what they were looking at. From the spot where they were standing they could see a guy who was using one of the dance machines by the window. He was absolutely crushing the dances and going all out. What made it even better was the fact that he was dressed up in a fancy suit and looked like he had just come from work. Every time he finished, the crowd around him would clap and cheer. He had clearly come here before because he knew every single dance and he was really good at them. I watched for a bit because it was so much fun and then I left to go back home.

I didn't have much stuff to pack up because I only brought a carry on. My room had gotten fairly messy over the week though and I needed to clean it and shower before tomorrow. I bought a fair amount of souvenirs while I was here and I realized that I didn't plan too with regards to my purchases when I started trying to pack everything up. My carry on was pretty full on the way to Japan so I had no room for the souvenirs in there. I ended up stuffing them into the bottom of a plastic bag and then piling my purse on top to make it look like it was one item. I accidentally squashed a few things, but at least I could take it all back with me.

My flight back to Korea is at 4:30 tomorrow but I need to check out of the hostel by noon. I am so excited to go back to Korea! Japan was beautiful and fun to explore briefly, but I am definitely much more comfortable and happy in Korea. I really dislike not being able to read or speak the language here. Although my Korean isn't great I can still read the language well and speak enough to get by. Plus I miss hearing K-pop music at all the stores and restaurants and seeing subway and store ads for artists everywhere. And if that isn't enough reason already, transportation in Korea is much less expensive and far easier to understand since I can read Korean. Plus, being in Korea just seems to make me happy no matter where I am.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

P.S Here's a vending machine for ice cream:

(November 22, 2018)

Distance walked: 17.4 km