HOUSE OF FUN: traveling japan: cherry blossom and temple journey in kyoto day 1

ARRIVED IN KYOTO

DAY 1 - RAINING

When we arrived at Kyoto station, we need to changed the train line from JR Line to Kintetsu Line to go to Shijo Station and headed to khaosan kyoto guest house.

It was raining and cold, even worst..we have to dragged our luggages in the rain, but positive side is, we didn't get lost when finding our way to the hostel, thank god to the portable WiFi we rented and google map.

And if you wandering who much the plastic umbrella is, its 100 yen each at the convenient store, but some local shops do sell them cheaper.

we arrived at the hostel around 12.00 o clock, so we couldn't check in first, but they did let us put our luggages there. after putting all the unwanted stuffs in, we headed straight to Kiyomizudera Temple, which is around 20~30 minutes walk.

it you think 30 minutes walk is a waste of time, you are wrong!!

because the view along the road is so beautiful (even though it was raining) , especially during spring because everywhere you look there's sakura to be seen

there's also a taiyaki shop along the way that worth to try. they have all kind of fillings inside the taiyaki and all of them is good!

for all of you that don't understand japanese words, don't worry all their menu have english written on them.

and if you tired, you could rest here, they have a sitting area inside the shop.

the one that i bought is red bean and green tea filling, i love it! one taiyaki is enough for me despite we haven't eat after arriving in kyoto. after enough snacking we continue our journey...

150 YEN/PCS

it was a good idea to stopped on the taiyaki shop because the road starting to go uphills. there's also lots of small shops that worth seeing, so you don't get bored along the way.

After going uphills for a while, we actually arrived at Higashiyama.

Higashiyama filled with souvenir shops, food vendors, and yukata rentals. there's lots of tourists wearing yukata/kimono along the Higashiyama Area (most of them is chinese), so don't get to excited thinking that they're maybe a local maidens or geisha's apprentices.

Higashiyama street really packed with lots of tourist so its really hard to get a clear shot on the surrounding.

its even harder to walk with umbrella, you have to be careful not to hit other person with it.

after survived walking through the packed Higashiyama street, we finally arrived at the front part of Kiyomizudera.

And again, there's so fulled with people that we can't get a clear shot on the gate.

there's a big sakura tree at the entrance of the temple with all the branches hanging really low. its a good spot to take a selfie picture XD.

after enough selfie-ing, we continue our path to the top of the temple. You need to pay to enter the wooden terrace, the view at the wooden terrace is at it most beautiful stage during spring season when all the sakura is blooming or at autumn season when all the momiji's leaf is turning red.

we didn't go to the wooden terrace because at the time we were there, all the sakura on the hills is fallen already.

we spend around an hour going around the temple, after that we head down and continue our path to next place, which is Yasaka Pagoda.

Yasaka Pagoda is actually really close to Higashiyama, just a walk of 15 minutes and you arrived there.

The Yasaka Pagoda best view from an alley heading towards the main road.

Kyoto has temples anywhere, there's even small temple at every corner of the road, and every temple always has plenty of sakura's trees

The weather is quite chilly with a hard blown wind, so be sure to keep warm.

when we heading back to the hostel from Yasaka Temple, we actually found a small shop selling Takoyaki. because we only eaten one taiyaki the whole day, we go ahead and bought 6 pieces of takoyaki to share.

The takoyaki is really good, the texture is quite firm and it doesn't fall apart, the sauce also good and fragrant. we actually want to order more, but some friend suggest we should leave some space to try other food.

after we checked in and showered, its already time for dinner.

we ask the hostel receptionist recommendation for an okonomiyaki restaurant, and they actually pointed out a restaurant just across the street on teramachi shopping arcade. I believe the restaurant's name is Mr. Young Men.

The price of the food here actually quite pricey (around 700~1000 yen), despite my friends budget for food is 1000 yen a day.

but then we found out (after all the food is ordered) that actually one serve of okonomiyaki is enough for two person to eat.

all the food is good, but because of the big portion, we didn't manage to finish it off. they also offer other food beside okonomiyaki, such as: ramen, yakisoba and hamburg set.

a good foods always a good way to concluded the day. after that we head back to hostel to sleep.