Japan part 2 - Kyoto

After a less than comfortable night in Tokyo bus station, we finally got to start our eight hour journey to Kyoto at 11.30am the following day. Having not got a great deal of sleep, I was hoping for a nice and comfortable bus so I could spend most of the journey napping. Sadly, my height let me down. 5ft8 is apparently quite tall in Japan which meant limited leg room on the bus and a slightly uncomfortable trip for me. After a longer journey than planned, we eventually reached Kyoto at around 8pm and were totally worn out.

The following day we started exploring the city. After Tokyo, Kyoto turned out to be a lot less busy and was much easier to explore on foot. We also made a few friends at the hostel we stayed at who told us about the better places to visit and where to get good food from.

Within walking distance of the hostel we were staying in was one of the larger shrines in Kyoto. There were lots of Japanese lanterns and areas for praying as well as some nice park areas to wander around.

 

 

We also visited Nijo Castle.  I think it was built for the imperial family at some point in the 17th or 18th century. The floorboards were designed to creak so that you could hear any potential assassins waiting to pounce on you. Nowadays, there are no potential assassins (forunately) so we explored the castle in peace. Japanese castles are not the same as those found in the UK. There is a moat of sorts but no battlements or turrets. Here is a picture to illustrate my point...

 

There were also extensive grounds around the castle, my favourite part was here...

 

 

Probably my favourite part of Kyoto was the Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji. I'm not sure when it was built but I think there is actual gold used on the Pavilion. It probably looks good even on really bad days. The day we went was fairly dull but even then, the pavilion was impressive.

 



I felt with both Tokyo and Kyoto there was a lot more to explore than what we managed to see in our time there. I really enjoyed Japan and am now quite keen to go back to revisit Tokyo and Kyoto as well as new places like Osaka.

Sorry it's taken a while for me to post this. Turned out that I wasn't too good at handling the jet lag after I got back to the UK. On the first day I got back, I woke up at 2am. This wasn't too much of a problem as I'd booked the day off. Unfortunately, each day afterwards I woke up at stupid times and had to drag myself to work despite how tired I felt. I drank more coffee on my first day back in the office than I normally would in a week.