Hello readers! For our 2nd day itinerary in Japan, I have make the reservation to rent the yukata from Yumeyakata store so we can experience a day wearing the yukata and exploring the city!
Visit Yumeyakata website to find out more of their charges and available packages.
Reason for choosing Yumeyakata was because they have staff that speak english or even chinese and other foreign languages so i guess no communication breakdown when we make our way to rent the yukata. Secondly, it is near from the train station. It takes about a 3minute walk when you exit 1 from Gojo Station taking the subway karasuma line to reach the store. From the store, it's easier to get to the several tourist attraction that we was planning to visit.
Their business was good when we reached and i like that they have a systematic process when we was at the store. When we first step in the store, they ask if we have a reservation, follow by handing us a big recycle bag and a plastic bag to store our shoes first.
To provide a brief idea based on my experience and if i don't remember wrongly.
For ladies,
1st level - Verify your reservation and the kind of package we have indicate.
2nd level - Direct you to choose the design of yukata that you want, ask them for suggestions if you have no idea.
3rd level - Get dressed by their staff (guys will be directed to change at another building nearby)
4th level - Choose the carry bag design that you want, deposit your bulky items at their counter
5th level - Hairdo/Makeup (if you had opt for it)
Back to level 1 to choose your geta sandals, ready to go!
For us , i have opt for the rental of yukata for couple package which is 6500 yen, with additional add on of hairdo so it was additional 1500 yen on top of the package.
Jeremy makeover! Hahaha
We are heading to Fushimi Inari, initially i thought it was kind of awkward because no one in the train is wearing yukata except us. Hahahaha. But that awkward feeling was gone when it was really common to see many wearing yukata at Fushimi Inari and other attractions that we was visiting.
I remember there were other tourists approaching me trying to ask for the directions but i had to tell them we are not Japanese. Hahahaha. The weather was good and i love the sun here, somehow it makes me look fairer when i take photo in Japan compared to SG.
As we was coming from Yumeyakata store, so we walked back to Goju station, take the train back to Kyoto station before changing to the Nara line and alight at Inari station. Once you exit from Inari station, this torii gate is too hard to miss! There will be many tourists walking towards this direction.
Anyway, a brief history of Fushimi Inari Shrine,
Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the thousands several shrine dedicate to Inari. the shinto god of rice. They believe that foxes are the inari messengers so you get to see many fox statues around the shrine grounds as well. This shrine is famous because of the thousands of orange torii gates.
Torii refer to the entrance of the shrine, made of wood and they are either in orange or black.
We had a quick bite before we explore further in Fushimi Inari, some friends who has visited before told me that you need to get here very early to avoid crowds if you want to take photos without other tourists photo bombing you, which i guess its true because it was so hard for us to take a photo with no one behind us as we walked through the fushimi inari shrine.
See what i mean, hahaha there are humans everywhere. It's quite impossible to wait for everyone to walk ahead of you because there are humans coming in all the time.
There were some food stalls nearby the shrine, so we was ordering this honestly just average taste noodles from one of the stall and we saw how one of the tourists was trying to argue with the stall owner that she give them a 5000 yen but she only get back like 400 yen or something, The owner kept insisting that they give her the right change while she explain that she only have 2 5000 yen in her wallet and she use one of it to pay them and they have shortchange her. It was on-going from the time we just placed our order to us paying and leaving the stall. They was still arguing.
Moral of the story : try to change into smaller notes when you pay at the food stalls to avoid such misunderstanding. In this case, we won't know whether it's true the stall owner might have short change her or she trying to to cheat the stall owner.
Before entering the main hall, its common to see a purification area for visitors to rinse their hands, mouth before entering.
Somehow, we managed to walk to one of the section that has lesser people and we quickly snap a photo!
If i am not wrong, this should be the Ema corner. visitors can write their wishes on these wooden plates and leave them at the shrine in the hope that their wishes can come true.
Behind the back of the shrine main ground, there are two parallel rows of gate called the Senbon Torri, the torri pillar will lead you to the trails as you walk in, and each of these pillar are names of individual or companies that has make a donation and their names were inscribed on it.
If you want to beat the crowds, there is another way to do so beside getting to the place early morning. That is, to find the miniatures! kuakuakua. Confirm no one photobomb you, only issue is your face will look bigger. Haha
The miniatures are donated by visitors who has smaller budgets as the big one cost around 400,000 yen to over one million for one large pillar. I called it pillar even though some call it as gates.
It was cooling to walk in the good weather which we rarely get the chance to do so in Singapore.
Hai! Hahahaha. not even doing a proper bow. He took this while i was preparing to pose for a photo.
There are different exit from the Fushimi inari shrine, so somehow we was walking around to one extent there were another street with foods etc and many shops offering rental of yukata.
Somehow we was walking to another side of the road that leads us to some shops, restaurants and i saw matcha ice-cream again! So here one more photo of matcha ice-cream!
We was crossing the road as we saw there was a subway station after walking around.
That's when we saw a stretch of beautiful cherry blossom by the river!
Did some boomerang shots too! Haha
After our stroll, we went to take the subway before alighting at gion shijo station. From that station, we took a bus and alight after 3 stops before we follow based on the GPS to direct us to Higashiyama.
A brief history of Higashiyama,
The Higashiyama district is located along the Kyoto eastern mountain and it has been one of the most preserved historic district to experience old traditional Kyoto. If you are planning to visit the famous Kiyomizudera temple and Yasaka Shrine, it would be good to add this inside your itinerary.
For us we didn't visit the Kiyomizudera as my colleague who went one week before me told me that it was under renovation so we skipped that part and choose to visit Higashiyama and Yasaka shrine.
The streets in Higashiyama has many shops,cafe and restaurants, but it was quite crowded when we was there and thus i didn't take any photo of it.
A brief history of Higashiyama,
The Higashiyama district is located along the Kyoto eastern mountain and it has been one of the most preserved historic district to experience old traditional Kyoto. If you are planning to visit the famous Kiyomizudera temple and Yasaka Shrine, it would be good to add this inside your itinerary.
For us we didn't visit the Kiyomizudera as my colleague who went one week before me told me that it was under renovation so we skipped that part and choose to visit Higashiyama and Yasaka shrine.
The streets in Higashiyama has many shops,cafe and restaurants, but it was quite crowded when we was there and thus i didn't take any photo of it.
It's not that difficult if you have the wifi router as their GPS is quite accurate. Which is also why i strongly recommend you to rent the changi wifi router!
After we alight, we was walking around and there were pretty cherry blossom around~
Many ladies wearing the yukata~
Once we was there, we didn't restrict ourselves to following our itinerary, we was exploring freely and somehow this particular house attract me. It looks so well maintained and look at the roads! It was a totally different experience compared to when i travelled to other country.
Jeremy walking ahead of me while i was busy admiring the unique design of the houses as we walked down.
We was walking around and we found Yasaka Shrine! Also another one of their famous shrine in Kyoto, it was founded over 1350years ago! It get pretty crowded as this shrine is nearby the Maruyama park that we was planning to visit.
Maruyama park is one of the popular and public park for cherry blossom viewing parties. The iconic landmark will be their weeping cherry tree and this cherry tree will lit up light at night but unfortunately we didn't stayed that long.
The weeping cherry tree get its name because of their drooping structure of the branches and it has been there for 88 years! Way before i was even born. Haha
I had to take in such angle because there were too many people using camera,mobile phone taking photos and i was so lazy to photoshop them away after that. Haha
Did a collage of our day trip in Kyoto!
There were many shops around and after that we decided to take a bus from the Maruyama park that will bring us back to Yumeyakata store to return our yukata before we get our luggage to check into our air bnb! By the time we went back and get our stuff, it was already close to 7pm. We went back to Kyoto station, pick up our luggage and figure out how to get to our air bnb.
So usually before i choose the air bnb, beside looking at the photos of the air bnb, i use google map to help me estimate how long it take for me to get to the place that i want to visit from my air bnb.
So from Kyoto station, we had to walk to the JR Kyoto line so that we can take their train to Hanazono which is the station to alight to walk to our air bnb.
The link is below if you would like to find out more on the Kyoto Airbnb that i choose
So we pulled our luggage and manage to board this train, they have the timing that will depart from this station and we was so suaku because we didn't know you can flip the chair the other way according to the direction of the train flow. So we only realised after we saw many flipping the direction of the chair. Haha
Initially we couldn't find the place, even though the airbnb owner has given me the guide with photos and i had looked at it a few times beforehand however it was very dark by the time we reached, and it was rather quiet. This increase the challenge of us finding the place especially when we seem to walk further and further only to realised we walked the wrong way. So Jeremy was using the GPS to redirect us back while i try to use photo identification to match with the correct unit.
Eventually we managed to find the correct unit after i tally it with the photos and the bicycle parked outside the unit. The owner gave us the password when i finally found the unit and lo and behold we finally found our air bnb!
It was very very cold at night, so there was some warmth when we first step in the house.
Tadah! This was our airbnb for the next few days!
I am very proud of myself when i trust the photos in air bnb. Another satisfied accommodation!
The whole apartment was very clean and cosy.
This was the living room, but i think it can accommodate another 2 pax in this space,
I know the bed facing is abit weird. But i don't see fengshui, i judge based on the overall design of the unit, whether it look well maintained etc.
Fridge and microwave and induction cooker at the entrance of the unit. Parquet flooring. hehe, they had the wiper and vaccum cleaner at the side for you to tidy up yourself, but i think we are nice guests because i tried not to mess up the whole apartment too.
They provide towels etc
When we opened the window, there is this mini balcony, hahaha we use it to hang our laundry but we didnt sit outside because its too cold!
After a long day, we rested awhile before we went out to had our late dinner. There were some shops nearby so we had our quick dinner since it was pretty late, but i love that this air bnb provide dvds such as Harry Potter, night at the musuem that we can watch in the comfort of the air bnb.
With that, this pretty sum up our 2nd day in Japan.
Shall end for now.
Till then!
