Japan - Day 6

Bang bang! "Ohayooooo Gozaimasu!". This is what woke me from my deep sleep. It was 8:15 and breakfast was being served in our room. I jumped out of bed, threw on my yukatta and answered our door. Breakfast was brought into our dining room and each dish was again explained to us. Another epic meal beautifully presented to us of varying shapes, colours and textures. We ate tofu, miso soup, salmon salad, pickled vegetables and some other stuff we really were not sure what it was. We had to eat quickly as we planned to leave early for Kyoto to get the most sightseeing in. We packed our stuff, thanked the staff for a great stay and jumped aboard a local bus for the station. One thing that amazed me was that although it was raining, one of the hotel staff stood outside in his Kimono for at least 10 minutes, waiting for the bus so he could hail it down for us. It really emphasised the amazing hospitality and dedication the Japanese people have when it comes to their work and culture.

We traveled down the mountain back to the Shinkansen to board the train for Kyoto. Things were going so smoothly something had to go wrong soon... We got to our platform and were to board the 10:08 to Kyoto station. The Japanese train system being so efficient meant the train pulled in 4 minutes before departure time so we got on and walked up to our reserved seats. Strangely, a Japanese couple were already sat in them. Being true english gents we thought not to bother them and sit in other seats available. 2 minutes later at 10:06 we pulled out of the station... 2 minutes before the scheduled departure time...efficiency? Nope. We were on the wrong train and realised we had boarded the Nozomi super express to Kyoto.. This would normally be ok but our JR rail pass was not valid on Nozomi trains. Also, despite its name, the Nozomi super express turned out to be anything but express. The announcements told us it would pull into every possible stop adding an hour to our journey time. The guard took one look at us and simply said "mistake mistake" and ushered us to some unreserved seats. Luckily we weren't charged after many apologies and bowing of heads.

Eventually, Kyoto arrived and we navigated to the Piece Hostel, our home for Kyoto. First impressions were good! The hostel lobby was wicked, complete with Apple Macs, a bar, TV and comfy chairs...Nice! The same could not be said for our rooms. I kid you not my wardrobe back home was bigger. Two bunk beds were crammed inside with a small sink at the end of the room. We weren't bothered though as we only needed somewhere to sleep. We made plans for the afternoon and head out to explore the city.

Kyoto was very different to Tokyo. Less high rise skyscrapers and more wooden traditional style buildings. It felt like Kyoto had preserved a more ancient Japan in this respect.

Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for it's many Tori gates, many being an understatement. There were literally thousands. All of these lined multiple pathways up a mountain to the top of the shrine. Along the way were various shrine stop offs, statues of foxes, views of Kyoto beneath us and lanterns containing candles. Having not done my research properly, we had no idea of the epic ascent that awaited us here. We had planned to stay maybe 30 minutes, not realising it's a 2 hour climb to the top. Signs were posted along the way of mini maps informing us of our location and distance from the top. We'd climb solidly up stairs for 20 minutes only to discover our distance covered on the map had barely moved! Hot, sweaty and out of breath we questioned whether to turn back.. but we were convinced the views from the top would be immense!!! Also by this point it was dark so we wanted to see Kyoto lit up beneath us. One hour later, our tired legs made it to the top where the final shrine was located. The shrine was yet more Torii gates, gongs, statues and candles. We turned around, cameras poised for our view of Kyoto.. to discover there was no view as the shrine and trees blocked out everything! Unbelievable. Still the shrine was amazing and the sheer number of gates was incredibly impressive. We head back down toward the Gion District in hopes of seeing a real Geisha and getting some well deserved dinner.

The Gion district was really impressive and had a lot of character. It’s main street was lined with various shops selling perfumes, clothes and ornaments. Off of this street were man narrow alleyways lit by Japanese lanterns and were lined with small restaurants and bars. Dan fancied some steak and I had been dying to try a dish called Okonomiyaki since we arrived in Japan. This is a savory pancake made from flour, egg and cabbage which is then filled with basically anything you want (pork, shrimp, octopus etc). Finally it is topped with a spicy sweet and salty sauce called okonomiyaki sauce along with lines of mayonnaise and these fish shaving things. Somehow we managed to find a basement restaurant that satisfied both our desires! A small underground place off the main street. We were greeted and seated at the bar where we had a view of the chefs at work. We ordered and kicked back with a pint of Sapporo beer. My okonomiyaki was delicious! I actually enjoyed it so much that I ended up eating this dish on three other occasions on this holiday. Bish ordered fillet steak in a Japanese style sauce. At 4000 yen for a minuscule 150g we knew (hoped) it was going to be good. This steak literally melted in your mouth. Good times. We got a picture with our server here as she was so nice to us (and rather cute too!)

We spent the remainder of the night taking in the sights around the Gion district and walked along a river that ran through the city before heading back to our wardrobe room at our hostel for bed. All in all an awesome start to Kyoto.