{"id":3948,"date":"2016-01-30T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2023-08-08T15:34:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T19:34:48","slug":"japan-kyoto-osaka-fukuoka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/japan-kyoto-osaka-fukuoka\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan | Pt. 3 | Kyoto Days, Osaka Nights, Fukuoka Stopover"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Fushimi\n

Over the past few months we have been detail\u00ading our trav\u00adels across Japan that took place just over a year ago. In Part 1<\/a>, we arrived in Tokyo, and in Part 2<\/a> we made our way to Fujisan and Yudanaka\u2019s hot springs. This, is Part 3.<\/em><\/p>\n

It had been six hours worth of train rides from Yudana\u00adka to Kyoto and we arrived just as the sun was start\u00ading to set. We hopped off of our train and walked under and through Kyoto Station\u2019s mar\u00advel\u00adlous archi\u00adtec\u00adture, rush\u00ading over to the taxi stands so we could acquaint our\u00adselves with the city in the lit\u00adtle bit of day\u00adlight that was left.<\/p>\n

In our time there, we came to real\u00adize that Kyoto is a city don\u00adning many dif\u00adfer\u00adent hats, and at its core, is the melt\u00ading pot of Japan\u2019s past and present.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kyoto is prob\u00ada\u00adbly most famous for its over 1600 tem\u00adples \u2014 the very rea\u00adson we found our\u00adselves in Japan\u2019s for\u00admer cap\u00adi\u00adtal. But in our time there, we came to real\u00adize that Kyoto is a city don\u00adning many dif\u00adfer\u00adent hats, and at its core, is the melt\u00ading pot of Japan\u2019s past and present. The result is his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal land\u00admarks sur\u00adround\u00aded by mod\u00adern archi\u00adtec\u00adture and sophis\u00adti\u00adcat\u00aded shop\u00adping dis\u00adtricts, a dual\u00adi\u00adty that makes for some always inter\u00adest\u00ading, occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly jaw-dropping walks. For us how\u00adev\u00ader, it was the city\u2019s intri\u00adcate net\u00adwork of alley\u00adways that real\u00adly stuck out and where we spent most of our time explor\u00ading. The truth is, if you\u2019re not on a main street in Kyoto, you\u2019re prob\u00ada\u00adbly in an alley\u00adway, lit\u00adtered with hun\u00addred of bicy\u00adcles, res\u00adi\u00addents, shop-owners, and the occa\u00adsion\u00adal mini-truck try\u00ading to make its way through.<\/p>\n\"Kyoto\n\"Kyoto\n\"Kyoto\n

We checked into the Mit\u00adsui Gar\u00adden<\/a>, a sleek lit\u00adtle bou\u00adtique hotel off of one of these very alley\u00adways. Like Kyoto, it blends mod\u00adern design with Japan\u00adese cul\u00adtur\u00adal ele\u00adments to cre\u00adate a real\u00adly unique aes\u00adthet\u00adic. Small warn\u00ading: if you con\u00adstant\u00adly flip your pil\u00adlow to the cool side through\u00adout the night, you won\u2019t be doing that here because they fill the under\u00adside of their pil\u00adlows with a thin lay\u00ader of rocks. It\u2019s an inter\u00adest\u00ading concept.<\/p>\n\"Mitsui\n\"Mitsui\n

The fol\u00adlow\u00ading day, we went on a tem\u00adple run. We took a bus up Gojo-Dori to south\u00adern Higashiya\u00adma, a bustling tem\u00adple dis\u00adtrict with\u00adin the city that\u2019s also home to Gion, Kyoto\u2019s tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal enter\u00adtain\u00adment dis\u00adtrict (com\u00admon\u00adly referred to as the Geisha Dis\u00adtrict). The first thing we did was vis\u00adit the Kiyomizu-dera Temple.<\/p>\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kiyomizu-dera\n\"Kyoto\n\"Kyoto\n

\"Kyoto

The point in the day where too many pho\u00adtos have been taken.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, full dis\u00adclo\u00adsure: despite of how amaz\u00ading the sights and struc\u00adtures in Higashiya\u00adma were, we\u2019d be lying if we didn\u2019t men\u00adtion that there was a pret\u00adty dras\u00adtic dis\u00adcon\u00adnect between our expec\u00adta\u00adtions and the real\u00adi\u00adty that await\u00aded us. The tem\u00adples them\u00adselves were over\u00adly com\u00admer\u00adcial\u00adized to the point of feel\u00ading like a major attrac\u00adtion (there\u2019s some\u00adthing very wrong about vend\u00ading machines in ancient Bud\u00addhist tem\u00adples) and it gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly felt like a giant tourist trap. You pay a fee to get into dif\u00adfer\u00adent parts of each tem\u00adple and are usu\u00adal\u00adly walk\u00ading amidst swarms of tourists and natives com\u00ading out to admire the foliage. Per\u00adhaps the fall tran\u00adsi\u00adtion may have been too busy of a time to vis\u00adit, or maybe the area is sim\u00adply too close to the heart of Kyoto to ever be peace\u00adful, but we\u2019ve vowed to head straight to the more remote tem\u00adples just out\u00adside the city the next time we\u2019re in the area.<\/p>\n

Nonethe\u00adless, we explored every\u00adthing the area had to offer and, with\u00adout real\u00adly mean\u00ading to, stum\u00adbled into Gion, where we spot\u00adted a geisha-in-training.<\/p>\n\"Gion\n\"Geisha\n\"Geisha\n\"Geisha\n\"gojo-dori\n\"gojo-dori\n

The next day was one of our favourite from the entire trip. We made our way to the Arashiya\u00adma dis\u00adtrict in the out\u00adskirts of Kyoto, rent\u00aded bikes, and rode around the small town the whole after\u00adnoon, even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly reach\u00ading the infa\u00admous bam\u00adboo groves.<\/p>\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n\"Arashiyama\n

It wouldn\u2019t be a suc\u00adcess\u00adful day if we didn\u2019t man\u00adage to cram as many activ\u00adi\u00adties as pos\u00adsi\u00adble, so as we returned our bikes, we decid\u00aded (last-minute) that we couldn\u2019t leave Kyoto the next day with\u00adout see\u00ading the Fushi\u00admi Inari Shrine. It was already late in the after\u00adnoon and being 40 min\u00adutes away, we were risk\u00ading hav\u00ading the sun set on us while on the train. Regard\u00adless, we took a chance and arrived with just 15 min\u00adutes of sun\u00adset left to take some pho\u00adtos inside the tun\u00adnels com\u00adprised of hun\u00addreds of torii gates.<\/p>\n\"Fushimi\n\"Fushimi\n\"Fushimi\n

We reward\u00aded our\u00adselves with green tea ice cream and amaz\u00ading coffee.<\/p>\n\"green\n

The fol\u00adlow\u00ading day we left for Osa\u00adka. Being just an hour away from Kyoto, we should have had time to make the most of our one and only day there, but we may have par\u00adtied a lit\u00adtle too hard the night before and instead found our\u00adselves zombie-ing our way through the trains, just mak\u00ading it to our hotel before sleep\u00ading the after\u00adnoon away. It\u2019s a sad tale of cau\u00adtion: when your friend\u00adly wait\u00ader at Sum\u00adibi Tori\u00adto keeps bring\u00ading you drinks, you should stop while you can still count them.<\/p>\n

Either way, we rose just as the sun was set\u00adting and went on to have an amaz\u00ading night in Osaka.<\/p>\n\"Osaka\n

Our first stop was a much-needed cof\u00adfee at graf<\/a>. Beyond being a per\u00adfect lit\u00adtle cof\u00adfee shop, graf is main\u00adly a design stu\u00addio spe\u00adcial\u00adiz\u00ading in fur\u00adni\u00adture. Look to the oth\u00ader end of the space and you\u2019ll like\u00adly see the group sketch\u00ading away at new designs. The atmos\u00adphere here is unmatched.<\/p>\n\"graf\n\"graf\n

From there, we took a cab over to Nam\u00adba Parks \u2014 the most elab\u00ado\u00adrate mall we\u2019ve ever set foot in \u2014 for a quick din\u00adner before strolling through the packed streets of Osa\u00adka and end\u00ading the night at the Gli\u00adco Man sign. Well, tech\u00adni\u00adcal\u00adly it end\u00aded with some unex\u00adpect\u00aded yet very wel\u00adcome crepes on the walk back.<\/p>\n\"namba\n\"Namba\n\"osaka\n\"osaka\n\"osaka\"\n\"osaka\n\"glico\n\"glico\n

The fol\u00adlow\u00ading morn\u00ading we walked over to graf for more cof\u00adfee and yet anoth\u00ader round of crepes before our 3\u2011hour bul\u00adlet train to Fukuoka.<\/p>\n\"graf\n\"graf\n\"graf\n\"graf\n\"graf\n

Fukuo\u00adka would be our last and fur\u00adthest stop on the south\u00adern coast of Japan. It was anoth\u00ader night of walk\u00ading through crazy malls and wind\u00ading side streets, but we were exhaust\u00aded from all the trav\u00adel\u00ading and took a night off of pho\u00adtos to take it all in. BUT we did break out the cam\u00adera for one very wor\u00adthy cap\u00adture at an owl cafe we came upon.<\/p>\n\"japan\n

By this point in our trav\u00adels, we had tak\u00aden a total of 20 hours worth of trains since we had left Tokyo. We look back at all those hours fond\u00adly \u2014 each and every one of those rides yield\u00aded some of the most awe-inspiring sights that we had had the plea\u00adsure of jet\u00adting past. We can hon\u00adest\u00adly say that one of our favourite things to do in Japan is grab a few beers, load up on snacks, sit on a train (prefer\u00adably a Shinkansen) and stare out the spa\u00adcious windows.<\/p>\n\"japanese\n

As we rolled our lug\u00adgage over to Fukuo\u00adka sta\u00adtion and car\u00adried it up the long sets of stairs lead\u00ading to our ter\u00admi\u00adnal, we came face-to-face with the last bul\u00adlet train we\u2019d take for the remain\u00adder of our stay. It was with heavy hearts that we entered it and found our seats. It was a sad moment, but we took solace in the fact that our adven\u00adture was\u00adn\u2019t over yet- we had three more days left in Tokyo. As beau\u00adti\u00adful of an idea as that was, we could\u00adn\u2019t help but sim\u00adply stare out of our win\u00addow for the next 5 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few months we have been detail\u00ading our trav\u00adels across Japan that took place just over a year ago. In Part 1, we arrived in Tokyo, and in Part 2 we made our way to Fujisan and Yudanaka\u2019s hot springs. This, is Part 3. It had been six hours worth of train rides from [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3949,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions\/3949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsideinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}