I don't know a word of Japanese! - A COMPLETED TR!

[BecBennett]

After we’d had our perverse fill, and gotten ourselves lost a couple of times, we headed back to the road, and on to the Ryjoan Temple.

Ryjoan Temple is set amongst a big park, I think it was 500Y entry. It’s a really lush park, with a lake and many small gardens and little shrines amongst it.

Downpipe

I was delighted to see two cranes in the one pic!

We then continued up the road to get to the Ninnin-Ji Temple, we had a walking tour book of Kyoto, so it was really easy to work out where to go, but we really should have hired push bikes, because it would have gotten us everywhere so much faster, and we saw a lot of people with them.

Unfortunately when we got to the Ninnin-Ji Temple it was closed…

So we waited on the side of the road for a little while and caught bus 26 back to Hotel Granvia.

When we arrived we ducked underground and walked through Porta, which is a little underground shopping centre, which is sort of alongside the train station.

 

[battymum]

Beautiful! I hope my photos come out as well as yours, I am really looking forward to kyoto, it looks so pretty!

We plan on hiring bikes!

Must do more research!

 

[BecBennett]

As far as Kyoto goes, just remember early mornings and early nights, most attractions shut around 5pm

 

[BecBennett]

Oooh my God, you know what I hate? I've been trying to load pics onto photo bucket so I've been selecting them holding down control so I can select all the pics I want to load, I get to around pic no. 70 and I forget to hold control... so now I've got to start again!!!
Poo face bum fart head...

 

[BecBennett]

We decided that we wanted a bit of a break, as we’d been touring all morning, and we were hot and sweaty. So first we checked out a few of the restaurants in Hotel Granvia to see if we could decide what we wanted for dinner. They were all extremely expensive, and only maybe one or two appealed to us, so we decided we’d probably go somewhere else for dinner.

We then went back to our hotel room and changed into swimwear so we could check out the hotel pool. The pool is an extra charge at 1000Y for over 21’s.

We’re not sure whether that meant kids were free, or perhaps not even allowed . We didn’t see any kids while we were there, but it was really a lap pool, not your traditional hotel pool.

There were so many rules, starting with the fact you had to wear a swim cap – which straight away made us feel weird and self-conscious. Then of course you had to shower before getting in the pool, remove all jewellery, and lots of other weird rules.

We sort of just bobbed around in the pool for a little bit. It was a heated pool, so it wasn’t as refreshing as DH was hoping it would be, but I thought it was lovely, and just what I needed to bounce back. If DH had known what the pool was going to be like he wouldn’t have spent 1000Y getting in, I’m not sure if I would have or not, it was lovely, but it wasn’t as relaxing as holiday pool time should be.

Afterwards we freshened up in our hotel room, and then headed back out into the heat to check out the Yodebashi supermarket. I thought I took photos of this supermarket, but obviously not… Anyhow, there was lots of fresh food, as well as plenty of preservative filled stuff that I usually buy at home. I bought some chocolate, and some ritz crackers with cheese – it was nice to have a couple of things in my bag for easy snacking, without struggling with the language barrier.

We then walked around the floor of restaurants to decide what we wanted for dinner, I think we did two laps before deciding on a dumpling/noodle place, but there was heaps of variety.

I had a beef noodle soup, and DH had some form of spicy Chicken (I think) on rice, with a short soup. We also got a serving of meat buns and some steamed wontons. I usually love meat buns, but DH decided that pork belly would be nicer then the usual pork mince we have in them. I think he was wrong, but I don’t like animal fat.

Other then that, our meals were really good, and very filling.

After dinner we wandered up a street so I could get some dessert, there was a Baskin and Robins up the road, and I needed another hit!

We then strolled back to our hotel to plan the following day, and call it a night.

 

[BecBennett]

I woke up earlier then DH this morning, and got myself ready. While DH was still struggling to get out of bed I thought I’d be a loving wife, so I ducked out and bought him a coffee, and got our bus passes for the day. He was very appreciative, because the heat was like a smack in the face today.

We headed back towards Baskin and Robins, as we’d spotted a really nice looking sandwich shop the night before that DH wanted to try. After perusing the shelves for a little while I stumbled on exactly what I wanted for breakfast – A Churro!!!

I can’t remember exactly what DH got, but it was a very healthy looking salad sandwich. I remember he really enjoyed it.

We then lined up for our bus, which turned up quite quickly and we boarded. Unfortunately we realised that we’d gotten on 206a, instead of just 206… Not sure what the difference was, but it was heading in the wrong direction… So we hopped off at the next stop, and walked back. Luckily the bus hadn’t gone too far.

We found the right bus stop, and waited for the correct bus. It took a fair while to turn up, but we worked out we were in the right spot this time, as we were surrounded by tourists all talking about our destination.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine!

I’m sure you’ve seen pics of this place before, it’s amazing!

Anyhoo, it was a slightly longer than normal bus ride, and we drove along the side of a canal for ages, and there were heaps of kids playing along the side, but I was amazed at the fact that no one was in the water. It was bloody hot out there, and I would have loved to have paddled about in this clear running water, but no one was in it. After we went a bit further you could see that it was actually really fast flowing water, so I’m guessing it’s not possible just to float about in there, but the thought was nice…

We were dropped off on the road, with a pile of other tourists, and conveniently right next to a convenience store. We stopped there first and loaded up on supplies – water. Did I mention it was hot?

The night before we had been watching one of the Discovery Channels, as it was one of the only English channels, and we were tired. An episode of Man Vs. Wild came on, and while I don’t like Bear Grylls, we watched it none the less. One of his lessons from the show was that the temperature drops over 6 degrees with every KM of altitude, or 10 degrees with every mile.

So as we eyed off this long walk, up a very tall hill, we reminded each other that it was ok. It was going to be colder up there…

 

[BecBennett]

We made our way up the road towards the foot of the mountain. Passing lots of little restaurants (selling hot food) and lots of little souvenir shops (selling everything).

Holy Cow! This was hard. We had discussed climbing part of Mount Fuji before we came over, but ended up scratching that idea due to time constraints. We laughed at our stupidity while climbing the Fushimi Inari. We were having so much trouble with these steps, how could we have possibly come close to climbing Fuji?!?

We would climb up and up and up, and then it was thankfully followed by a down. However quickly after that it was back up and up and up again!

We got to where we thought was the top, there was a large cluster of shrines surrounding a lake. It was very pretty, and lovely and shaded. However it wasn’t the top… It wasn’t even close to half way.

So off we toddled again. Up and up and up. A quick down. Up and up and up.

Luckily there were vending machines the whole way along the climb, almost at every machine we’d stop for a bottle of water and down it in no time – they barely had time to get warm.

 

[BecBennett]

Again we thought we had found the summit – there were some shops, some seats and an amazing view. We were pretty chuffed with ourselves!

Before realising that this was half way…

Seriously?!?!

I was happy to call it quits there, I was dead tired, it was still scalding hot (but yes it was cooler up here compared to down there!), and the trek through the Torii gates hadn’t changed much since we started. However DH was determined, we’d come this far, he wanted to see what was at the top!

So we grabbed another bottle of water and kept going. I tell you what, I wasn’t filled with confidence when DH asked someone coming the other direction how much further it was and he replied “As far as you want it to be!”

Turns out the top part is a big long loop that brings you back to the middle section where we’d just set out from. I figured that this was ok, because surely it meant that half of the trip would technically be back down hill…

So we headed off up and up and up.

And up and up and up.

And up and up and up.

Finally a bit of down.

And then up again?

I am happy to report we made it the whole way. However there is nothing to see at the top, except more shrines and Torii gates.

I decided I wanted to leave my mark

(Very sweaty... )

 

[BecBennett]

Luckily it was more or less completely downhill from the middle section.

We met some Swiss tourists on our way down, who asked us what was at the top – “More gates” we replied – “and a nice view” DH added. However being from Switzerland, they have seen enough nice views, so they decided to start trekking down as well.

The trip down took us a lot less time, and we even went a slightly different way.

Sure enough it was bloody hot down the bottom again, so when we made it all the way to the bottom of the hill we stopped in at the 7 eleven again for drinks and icy poles.

See those poles up there? That was half way

We sat in the shade of a building while eating our treats and waited for a bus to come. After looking at the map for a little bit we realised that if we just walked a bit further along we’d only have to catch one bus to our next destination and not two. So once our icy poles were finished we headed off.

Turns out what looked to be just a little way on the map was a really long walk! It wasn’t too bad, but like I said it was bloody hot, so we started thinking we’d made a mistake. We kept slogging away though, and eventually we made it to the bus stop we were looking for.

It was probably less then 10 minutes later that our bus turned up, and we were thankful to be seated and in air conditioning. We were on our way to the Toji Pagoda – the tallest wooden building in Japan.

From memory it was 500Y entry. There’s not a lot to do here, but there are a few large buildings here which house a heap of carved deities. You’re not allowed to take photos of the statues – or even draw likings of them. They were pretty impressive though.

The Pagoda is set amongst nice gardens, but they’re not as extensive as Ryjoan Temple, but still nice enough.

The lake in the middle of this park is filled with turtles! Oh, and a few koi carp.

After resting our feet for a bit longer and enjoying the park we decided to try and make it to one more location before everything decided to shut.
We hopped on the bus towards the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately (and I’ve done this in other areas of the World) when I tried to work out which bus stop would be closest to the palace I didn’t take into account that there would only be one entrance. So I got us off around the back…

So on extremely tired feet DH and I walked around to the front.

Unfortunately when we got there at 4:30pm we found that it had shut at 4:00pm… We weren’t the only ones hoping to find it open either. Several tourists also walked up to the closed gates before turning away.
We then headed to an extremely close bus stop, which was literally right across the road and waited for a bus back to Hotel Granvia.

Tourists are so rude! I hope I’m not as rude as a lot of tourists are. We were waiting for the next bus to come along, with about half a dozen other people. After waiting about 5 minutes another family turned up, and as the bus was pulling in they pushed in front of everyone to make sure they could get on the bus. I was astounded at how rude they were – they knew we all wanted the same bus, and they knew everyone else had been waiting longer then they were, but the father of the group literally pushed his way to the front, and all but held people back to ensure that his family would get on the bus. So rude!

The bus was actually completely packed, so we didn’t try and get on. I can’t remember if the other family got on or not, but I hope they did and they spent an uncomfortable ride squished up against smelly people!

We managed to get on the second bus, which was almost as full. The people on our bus weren’t smelly, but we were squished against them.

The ride wasn’t too bad though.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

fushimi inari looks super cool. but i don't know if i'll be able to handle the hike ROFL. i am heading back to kyoto tomorrow and may check it out.

 

[BecBennett]

We freshened up quickly in our room – after all the walking we’d done we were probably the smelly people from the bus. Then headed back out to have another look through the Yodebashi shopping centre. The shopping centres here are so nice! They remind me of top of the line brand name places back home. They’re also just as expensive as the top of the range brand name places back home.

We came across this one shop where I had to buy something! I can’t remember what it was called, but all it sold was accessories for your dog! They had everything you could want, including a wardrobe to store everything in.

I bought my little dog a matching Mickey jumper – so now when it’s cold we’re matching!

We decided on Hamburg and Steak Hiro for dinner. I was after something fatty and comforting after all the walking we’d been doing.

I had a really yummy hamburger for dinner. It really hit the spot! It was so nice to eat with my fingers and not worry about getting funny looks from the other patrons!

DH had an onion soup with bread and cheese on top (I don’t like soggy bread, but DH does) he really liked it, as well as some pork and vegetables with some sort of spicy sauce. DH likes spice, so he also added some Tabasco sauce to the top.

We were very full, so happily waddled off back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep.

 

[BecBennett]

fushimi inari looks super cool. but i don't know if i'll be able to handle the hike ROFL. i am heading back to kyoto tomorrow and may check it out.

It's definitely worth a look. It was over 40 degrees celcius, and I do suffer from asthma and anaemia which would have made it a lot harder for me, so if you don't have to worry about either of those things then you'd probably find it a lot easier

 

[PrincessInOz]

Lovely pictures of fushimi inari. Thanks for climbing up and down so that I can live vicariously.

Poo face bum fart head...

Is this Japanese that you've learnt?

 

[BecBennett]

Lovely pictures of fushimi inari. Thanks for climbing up and down so that I can live vicariously.

lol, you're welcome! To get the full experience you should use a tread mill in a sauna while reading along

Is this Japanese that you've learnt?

Yes... Yes it is

 

[PrincessInOz]

lol, you're welcome! To get the full experience you should use a tread mill in a sauna while reading along

Why?


It was much more fun from the couch looking at you do it.

 

[battymum]

Thanks again for another update, you have me second guessing whether or not to attempt fushimi Innari, maybe it will be easier in milder April weather...maybe I should start training now.....

The photos are spectacular!

 

[battymum]

Oh and I didn't know that the photo I voted for was of someone quite possibly having a heart attack!

 

[BecBennett]

Oh and I didn't know that the photo I voted for was of someone quite possibly having a heart attack!

lol - no he was doing it the right way! Lots of resting and a wet headscarf. There were actually a lot of "older" people doing it. Made me feel really unfit to watch them!

 

[BecBennett]

Why?

It was much more fun from the couch looking at you do it.

No, I insist! Everyone needs to "experience" it at least once. So get some tracky dacks on and start doing some star jumps!!!

 

[battymum]

lol - no he was doing it the right way! Lots of resting and a wet headscarf. There were actually a lot of "older" people doing it. Made me feel really unfit to watch them!

I did the city to surf with my mother a couple of years ago, I could barely walk by the end, but she was ready to walk back! Shame on me.......