We were so looking forward to returning home after long away for so long …., did not expect to have a great meal at the airport but we did…. 3 decades ago I remembered having a wonderful pasta in Kyoto so we decided to try the pasta restaurant at the airport and we did not disappoint…. It’s so good that we each had two plates of pasta…. One of my dish even had tofu skin on it together with shrimp and scallops, how amazing is that!!
Well its time to say goodbye to Japan….from Hokkaido to Kyoto to Tokyo, we cherished and love almost every moment of it…. It’s for sure a cultural spa 🤗
Last full day in Japan we just about ran out of steam… So instead of scheduling full day of touring or hop on and hop off buses
First we had breakfast at a beautiful Starbucks overlooking the imperial garden, and then walk to the Tokyo train station to get tomorrow’s train ticket to the airport
We decided to only visit one of two unesco sites in Tokyo : national museum of western art design by the great Le Corbusier
The museum is another gem of brutalist design
The museum is amongst a cluster of other museums and the zoo right on Ueno Park and the whole park is buzzling with tourists and food fairs all in anticipation of the cherry blossom bloom
So for dinner, since it’s the last meal, we went all out and went to two yakitori place… Heavenly 🙌🙌
Last full day in Kyoto…. We decided to take it easy with unesco sites today and only check out one of them… Ginkakuji…（銀閣寺,already checked out Kinkakuji 金閣寺 last October)
We decided to do museums today and the museum of crafts and design is right next to Kyoto city museum of arts… Both wonder place that showcase Kyoto’s artistic background
Saw a giraffe on the 2nd floor deck of museum of art…. Turns out the zoo is right next door The cafeteria’s food is an art by itself So wonderful to run into the Sunday flea market right by the museums inside the Okazaki park
After a brief rest, we went out again with intention to have dinner and check out Gion at night…we were very lucky to pick a restaurant right by the famous Kamo River with Gion as backdrop and no lines….. Ordered Shabu Shabu and stone grilled meat and it’s super yummy with 100% vibe
Gion at night is charming and looks totally different from day time….. Glad we came out The Kyoto strawberries are in season, so we eat a plate of them every day
What a great finale to our Kyoto stay…. We will surely come back 🙌🙌🙌
I guess today is unesco site tour, all three temples were listed as unesco sites … We visited ryoan ji temple first… It has a famous zen rock garden
Ninna-ji temple is within walking distance, and it’s a very quiet neighborhood to walk..
For 1000 yen, they let us write words on one of the clay tiles that will be used on the renovation of their shinden
The way back to the city is a little tricky… We wanted to look for To-ji Temple but Google navigation some how failed us multiple times…. We ended up near the imperial palace park and have a simple ramen lunch at 2pm
Ramen lunch and the street scene near the imperial palace
The final stop of the unesco site tour is To-ji Temple, it has great bloom of sakuras and plum blossoms.
To celebrate the end of the day, we have HH with sashimi and wine at our little Japanese house
Took a short JR train ride to Arashiyama, the famous bamboo Forest, great refreshing way to start the day.
The beautiful UNESCO site Tenryu-ji is right beside it and it’s another gorgeous building with amazing garden
We then took a scenic train ride that took us from Arashiyama to Kameoka. This railway runs old fashioned trains on a 19th century narrow gauge railway through picturesque countryside between Saga-Arashiyama and Kameoka. On the way, the train runs along the Hozugawa River gorge, offering fantastic views of the forests and mountains.
While we were on the train, we saw people riding on boats weaving through the gorge and that looks like a lot of fun…. Will definitely try it next time
Lunch is at the busy street right outside the temple…. We were lucky to grab a window sit on the 2nd floor and watched all the tourist on Rick Shaws, on foot and in kimonos walk by
Waygyu beef Don in bamboo bowl
After lunch we dashed diagonally across Kyoto via JR train/subway to get to Fushimi Inari, the famous mountain side shinto shrine with hundreds of Tori gates
Back to Kyoto station, it’s a huge station with modern architecture, there’s a huge stairway called Daikaidan that were illuminated at night and form patterns…. Kyoto train station is definitely a must see spot itself
Kyoto train station with its grand stair case and nabe dinner
By the end of the day we were exhausted and I think it was another 20000+ step day and I’m not complaining… We scheduled to stay here for 5 days… With 18 unesco site in Kyoto alone… . its unlikely we can finish, not even half… Kyoto is uniquely special
Our airbnb is within walking distance from Nijo Castle, so we figured we start there….. When we were here in October our excursion canceled the Nijo Castle stop so we were kind of disappointed since it’s an UNESCO site… So we are happy we were able to capture it this time and we were glad we did as it’s amazing
Nijo Castle’s plum and sakura garden Nijo Castle’s Cafe where we can enjoy tea, coffee and snack and beautiful garden Nijo Castle’s sake promotion event where they only charge 1000 yen for a flight of sake tastings inside a beautiful Japanese house and also gave us gift bags with sake and wooden drinking cup in it
After the amazing Nijo Castle, we went to Nijiki market for lunch…. We were so happy with it in October but this time, after actually experienced the local scenery, we found it very touristy and pricey…. Glad we were able to come back and get that perspective
We were still on foot at this point so the next must check out place is the Gion district… The way to Gion suddenly brought us to a super busy hyper street where we see the local youths and tourist from all over all heading towards Gion and Gion did not disappoint….
The oldest zen temple in Kyoto Kennin-ji Gion street scene
For dinner, we dart into a small alley and found a yakitori plus hot pot place and love it….Great way to end a day full of wonders and we are truly in awe…. We realize when you are in a tour group there’s very little you can actually see and experience, but when you really give it time, especially a city like Kyoto, you saw it’s truly beauty and feel it’s rhythm and spirits.
Early morning start, catching 5:58 am train from otaruchikko to Sapporo… Beautiful morning to start the trip
Changing to another train that goes from Sapporo to Shin hakodate to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo… This link from Sapporo to hakodate lasts for 3.5 hours
And then it’s the Shinkansen from hakodate to Tokyo which is 4 hours long..we tried the famous ekiben of course 😋
Another transfer at the Tokyo station…. We barely made it to our transfer to Kyoto shinkansen with only a minute left 😅…. The weather down south is so much warmer and better that we were able to take a good glimpse of Mount Fuji
More sceneries on the way to Kyoto
We finally arrived at our airbnb in Kyoto at 7 pm… 13 hours of traveling in total… The airb&b place I pick is a traditional Japanese house which I always want to try…
Simple Udon noodles nearby Celebrating the end of a long day with strawberries and wine
We decided to spend this last full day in Hokkaido by combing the streets of Otaru again just browsing and eating and wandering aimlessly while the following magical things happened
The famous steam clock of Otaru, unexpectedly starts huffing and puffing in front of us telling the time of 10 am…. There are only a few working steam clocks in the world left
While we were stopping at a local Cafe for tea and cake a nice Japanese couple proactively starts chatting with us and that just warms our heart… We connect even though we barely speak each other’s language…. the coffee shop also let us have the cups… What a deal!!
Couple on the top left makes our day
Next stop is a gorgeous coffee shop at one of the crystal museum…. It has an incredible speak easy vibe, dark and moody with decors from the yesteryear… We were magically transformed to another reality and the soft ice cream and coffee float were icings on the cake
The next magical thing to do is to try the local red king crab at a very good price
We did a lot of research and found the most unassuming store with the best price
After all these magical moments, the only place that we can think of to end this is Otaru brewery.. We really love it’s vibe and food
The snow just won’t quit…. We find the snow of Otaru very smooth, gentle and lyrical…. Beauty at every corner every where…
P took a local bus and went snowboarding… He said the condition at the slopes was the best he had even seen… No wonder many people we know flock to Hokkaido to ski/snow boarding
I took a day off and just went shopping at the mall next door… Bought some hoodie at a ridiculously low price…. Bought some oden ingredients so that we can have hot soup after ski…. Should have took pictures of the big shrimp I bought at the super market, 8 fresh and tasty ones at only $4
