Archive for October 2014

Day 8/11 - Kyoto, Japan

By | Published Tuesday, 21 October 2014

'Time to be an actual tourist' day.


I'll be using the city buses for the first time today. Yesterday, I bought a one day bus pass from the hotel for 500 yen, with a complimentary bus guide. The pass is activated with a date stamp at the back when you first use a bus, I.e. when you use the card for the first time when disembarking a bus. No need to do anything when boarding.

Anyway, I Google mapped my route to the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺) and boarded the bus, which was going away instead of towards my destination...it took me 20 minutes to realise this and change buses.

An hour later than expected, I reached my destination.

Admission fee for an adult is 400 yen.

Since I cannot enter the pavilion, here are pictures hung up nearby of its interior.


These koi fish were huge.


Next destination was Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, which is dedicated to a person who was both a scholar and a politician. School kids would visit the shrine to pray for good examination results.

There are cows like these all over the place.

It's said that if you are to rub the cow's head, you'll become smarter. So, I found as many cows as possible and rubbed all their heads. I bought a good luck charm for studies (勧学御守) here too. May I survive next semester. I've been procrastinating in taking a particular difficult subject called Project Management and the Professional.

I visited the Udon Museum again for dinner, but with Dale and Vivian this time.

I didn't get to take a photo of my udon before I consumed it but here's a pond at the place full of koi fish. Not as big as the ones at the Golden Pavilion, but they were still bigger than the size of my hand.

Posted in | Leave a comment

Day 7/8 - Kyoto, Japan

By | Published Monday, 20 October 2014

Today was lazy day. To feel better and justified about my (lack of activities), I went to a cat cafe and watched my fellow animals indulge in laziness.


"I'm so elegant."



Then for dinner, it was at the sushi train place (から寿司) again. This time, I took more photos.

As you can see, my favourite is the salmon and mayonnaise.


108 yen (1.24AUD), including tax, for each plate. Oh yeah.


Excuse my fingers photo bombing this. Wanted to show the capsule machines above the sushi train. If you eat enough plates, you may get a capsule. Current theme was miniature train front carriages...which I didn't take a photo of. We got a few capsules.

Posted in | Leave a comment

Day 5/11 and Day 6/11 - Osaka, Japan

By | Published Sunday, 19 October 2014

Day 5/11
Saturday, and also Universal Studios day! Harry Potter world!

I met with friends (inc. Vivian and Dale) at Saiin station in Kyoto at 8:30am, and took a few trains to get to Universal City station in Osaka. The trip was just below 2 hours.

We went through the gates at 10:50am, and aimed to get a nice time-slot ticket for Harry Potter world. Earliest time-slot turned out to be at 7pm though, so we wandered everywhere else. 

I was lucky to get Hermione on my Universal Studios ticket. Everyone else either got Harry (on or off a broomstick) or Ron.

Dale and I got to go on a 4D Back to the Future ride; I waited 100 mins in line for that. Luckily we got in before 5:30pm (at 4:30, actually) because they would change the ride to fit more with the Halloween theme that the rest of the park was having.

To kill some time, we lined up for the Jurassic Park ride that had an expected wait time of 180 mins. The line seemed to go along finely at first; we shuffled forward every few minutes or so until 5:30pm. The line stopped for 20-30 minutes. Then artificial thunder and lightening happened nearby, most of the lights blacked out and school girls screamed. Japan.

At 6:50, we gave up waiting and went on our way to enter Harry Potter world.



What a wonderful world. 

Dale had already gone on the ride so he accompanied a friend who only wanted to see the interior of the castle, whilst Vivian and I lined up for the 4D ride that's also in the castle.

The ride was awesome. The wait was 100 mins or so here too. We didn't need to pay extra for the lockers as they provided us those. Also, there were huge spiders on this ride. The smallest spider was the size of your face, and some of them move up and down on its web. Luckily, Dale had prepped me about them so I didn't wet my pants. I think my fear of spiders has lowered actually, due to this ride and the preparation. Yay.

Anyway, before we got on the actual ride, we climbed up static stairs (thank goodness, I would trip if they moved) AND THE PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS MOVED AND TALKED AND IT WAS DONE VERY CONVINCINGLY. Oh, and they were understandably dubbed over in Japanese. Japanese Ron sounded funny at first hear. My British voices...where art thou?

After the ride, we went to get our robes. Luckily the ones we wanted (Gryffindor and Slytherin) were still in stock. When I got there, there were 2 Gryffindor robes left. After I got my robe, there were 3 left... A few people were taking the robes off the hook, putting them on, and taking selfies before putting the robes back on the hook.

I also got a wand that's a replica of Hermione's. It's so elegant~




Left Universal Studios at 9ish. Because I wanted to visit the Pokemon Centre that's also in Osaka the next day, stayed at a hotel in Osaka instead of returning to Kyoto.

I had late dinner of okonomiyaki and takoyaki! The two foods Osaka is well known for.


Day 6/11
Pokemon! Gotta catch 'em all!


There were also capsule machines, my latest addiction.


Got these pins from them. These pins are apparently exclusive to Pokemon centres.


Then I returned to Kyoto and got this lovely custard pancake at Hoshino Coffee. There's usually a wait list to get in. It was only a 5 minute wait though, for 3 people at around 2:30pm on a Sunday. 


Posted in | Leave a comment

Day 4/11 - Kyoto, Japan

By | Published Friday, 17 October 2014

Karaoke night. I forgot to take pictures.


Went to Nishiki Markets earlier in the day. Also forgot to take pictures then. Maybe will go back to Nishiki Markets later, eat more and take more snaps.

Posted in | Leave a comment

Day 3/11 - Kyoto, Japan

By

I kept forgetting to take pics of food.


There's this store called 'Book Off' that sells second-hand items such as consoles, console games, manga, books, CDs, and movies.


So I bought a few CDs haha.

I'll be going to karaoke on the fourth day, where I'll hopefully remember to snap more pics.

Posted in | Leave a comment

Day 2/11 - Kyoto, Japan

By | Published Wednesday, 15 October 2014

I went to the Udon Museum for lunch. They make various udon dishes that originate from all over Japan.



Got myself Shino Udon, where the noodles are flat and wide, topped with seaweed and negi. What you see below is two noodles that are roughly 50cm in length.

Later, went to a sushi train place. Managed to eat 7 plates.
Here's one: prawns with mayonnaise.

I'll be going there again before I return. And take more pics.

Posted in | 1 Comment

To Japan!

By

First time I flew via Jetstar for more than 2 hours. It's pretty nice so far. Got free entertainment because most flights that were scheduled a few days ago got pushed to today or later in the week, because of the typhoon in Japan.


I was on the flight from Cairns to Osaka where a Japanese passenger next to me was sleeping, and slowly leaning to the left or to the right. Was it a reminder to me that the concept of personal space does not exist on public transport in Japan?

Food came and cheered me.

And I got given a beef pie (yes, it's a pie in the shape of a sausage roll) and a tim tam 2 hours before landing.

Oh, and the customs area at Cairn's International terminal is the prettiest I've seen. Should've taken a pic when I had the chance.

I took a picture of a toilet cubicle at Kansai Airport. The sink on the left was so deep, I think it could be used as a toilet too.
 
I then took a JR train to Kyoto. Takes an hour and 20 minutes. And there are toilets on board.
One toilet image (per post) is enough. Chairs here are comfy.

Met up with my friend Vivian and went to have ramen. It has ruined me. I'm never gonna eat ramen again in Sydney, ever.


It tastes better than how I made it look.

My room has a yukata on my bed. And there's a New Testament AND Teaching of Buddha book on my desk.

There is also a heater, empty mini refridgerator and kettle.

I shall explore Kyoto and spam this blog with pictures. For now, it's sleep time.

Posted in | 1 Comment

Search

2007 - 2014 Secret Address