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February 4, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 3

If we thought yesterday was full on, Day 3 proved to be even more so. We had on our list to go: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Iwatayama Monkey Park, and Kinkakuji Castle. As we thought the time would permit, we even added Nijo Castle after Kinkakuji Castle. So yeah, Day 3 was absolutely packed!

Day 3

Arashiyama

Arashiyama is famously known for its bamboo groove, was in my must-visit list. So even though, it is located in a fair distance from where we stayed in Kyoto, we just had to make time for it. Then add Iwatayama Monkey Parkin it, we are sold! The journey took about 30 minutes and two trains to reach Saga Arashiyama station. From there, it took probably 15 good minutes walk across the bridge to get to the bamboo grove side. Just before we got to the bamboo grove, I broke our selfie stick and all the selfie photos we took that day were too close and just couldn’t capture much of the view behind us. What a bummer! Anyway, let’s not let this incident cloud our holiday mood right?

Honestly, it was a little disappointing when we saw the bamboo grove was just that “short path”. I had imagined it to be much longer than that, plus there were so many people. Don’t get me wrong, despite of my expectation and crowds, the bamboo grove was still beautiful. Perhaps it would be really pretty during winter and snowing season.

We also made a stop to Tenryu-ji Temple. This Zen temple was apparently crowned as one of the finest gardens in Kyoto. It’s not difficult to see why when you walk inside, the well-maintained garden, the mountain view. For me, the most memorable point here was that clear lake, which reflects on the mountain and autumn trees behind it. All the pictures we took certainly did not do justice to this beauty.

Iwatayama Monkey Park

With an entry fee ¥550 per person, we finally made our way to the monkey park. The hike to the top was tough, even tougher than Fushimi Inari! They will also close early if the monkeys have returned the mountain or forest earlier. So, perhaps schedule your visit here in the morning or early afternoon.

Kinkakuji Castle

The famous Golden Pavilion of Kyoto, this is a must visit for us as well. I don’t think there is any train or subways that comes to this area from Kyoto. We took two buses to reach this place from Arashiyama and a one day bus pass had come handy. The Golden Pavilion is grand and seeing it in picture really doesn’t feel the same as seeing it in person. The ground of Kinkakuji Castle is not that huge that requires long time to explore it all, from memory it took us only about one hour until we made the exit.

Nijo Castle

Once we finished enjoying Kinkakuji Castle, we decided to squeeze in one more place before called it a day. We went to the bus stop and looked for buses to Kyoto Station and saw one of them also pass by Nijo Castle, so that’s it. However when we got to Nijo Castle, the ticket lady reminded us that the main castle area will be closed in 20 minutes 🙁

Oh well, we just had to make use of that little time. Obviously the first stop would be main castle area, then we could take our time exploring the gardens. Oh my, the grounds of this castle was massive with many gardens and pavilions. It’s best to allocate a longer time to visit Nijo Castle and explore it slowly rather than rushed.

What we ate on Day 3

These are what we had for the day:

arashiyama food — All bought in Arashiyama: Octopus skewer ¥600; Beef croquette and Takoyaki ¥500; Matcha Candy Floss ¥600 (gigantic size of candy floss!)

Then more croquettes and fried fish cake in a canteen across the street from Kinkakuji entrance; which sadly we forgot to take pictures of. They also sell hot soy milk for ¥280 each and this tasted wonderful – so creamy and rich. During colder season they have the soy milk hot, whilst during summer days they have ice in the soy milk. This is a must try if you visit Kinkakuji!

nijo castle matcha ice cream — Matcha ice cream in the cafe within Nijo Castle ¥740. Very interesting condiments on the ice cream – another must try!

depachika bento boxes — Bought these from the department store next to Kyoto Station. Both bento boxes cost ¥2,073. The pork cutlet by itself costs ¥388. Happy tummy and happy wallet as well! 🙂

January 30, 2018

Sakae Yakiniku House, Eastwood

We had heard about Sakae Yakiniku House a while ago but never had the chance to try it out ourselves. And finally the chance came up a few weeks ago during the holidays. I think it is more known for its buffet package; but since we came without a reservation ahead, we could only get the a la carte dining and were only limited to 90 minutes. By the way, we went to one in Eastwood and they apparently have another outlet in Marrickville as well.

Sakae is Japanese style restaurant which I thought similar to Suminoya in the city. Their buffet menu is also somewhat similar to Suminoya’s. But since we didn’t do the buffet package, I wouldn’t know how the meat quality here in comparison to the others.

The Food

Without further ado, here are what we ordered for dinner. Mind you, these were all for 6 people hence a lot more food than usual 🙂

They provided four types of side dishes. From top left pictures: kimchi, edamame ($5.80), spicy seaweed cucumber salad, tangy lettuce salad, and pickled tofu skin. They all tasted delicious and flavoursome.

These are what we ordered, pictures from top left: tuna almond salad ($8.80), vegetarian spring roll ($7.80), eel $16.80), and deep-fried soft shell crab ($15.80).

sakae3 — Karei Karaage – deep-fried flounder ($18.80)

sakae4 — Wagyu Beef Platter ($80 for 2 people)

We felt some of the dishes were hits while some were misses. The servings were generous, for example the eel were in thick slices and hubby said they were delicious. There are some cuts on the meat platter that were quite tough and chewy – but others were really tender and juicy. The deep fried flounder was nice and crispy yet succulent meat. Overall, the meal was ok for the price – probably not that good that made us look forward to go back to.

Sakae Yakiniku House

1/6 Hillview Road, Eastwood 2122

Phone: (02) 9874 2277

www.sakae.com.au

January 23, 2018April 18, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 2

As planned, we are waking up early this morning for our Day 2 activities to explore Kyoto. We had on our list to visit today: Fushimi Inari Taisha and Kiyomizu Dera. We did have a good night sleep last night, the futon was comfortable. The apartment was actually pretty cold in the morning even with windows all shut, but we enjoyed cold weather better anyway. Both places were high on our priority list, and arguably most famous tourist destination in Kyoto.

Day 2

Fushimi Inari Taisa

We took the train from Shichijo station to Fushimi Inari station which was just two stops away. Of course we didn’t know which way to talk to once we got off the train, but as rule of thumb: just follow the crowd 🙂 And that exactly what we did to lead us to this famously known for its thousands of vermilion torii gates shrine.

From what I read, Fushimi is one of many shrines that is dedicated to Inari (the Shinto God of Rice). And foxes are known as their messengers hence you’ll find many fox statues throughout the shrine, fox-themed souvenirs and snacks. There it is the big red torii gate in front of the shrine and there are already a small crowd gathering at the cleansing water station. And behind the main building of the shrine is the entrance to the torii gate-covered hiking trail, which starts with two parallel rows of gates.

Oh my, those were seriously a lot of stairs to climb, much more than we had expected! I am fit enough to walk and climb stairs, but not super fit to think this walk is nothing. Thankfully the weather was nice and the beautiful scenery helps to take my mind of giving up. I couldn’t imagine I would do this walk over hot summer days, though. We almost gave up and walked back down once we reached the Yotsutsuji intersection. This point is about half way up the mountain, where you can enjoy nice view over Kyoto then the trail splits into a circular route to the summit.

The view from here was breathtaking, I wouldn’t want to miss this! And that was the reason for us to keep going up the trail to the summit, hoping that there might be another point with incredible view up there. Sadly there was none! Nonetheless, the hike after that point was not as crowded and in the quietness I felt the hike was more enjoyable. It took us about 3 hours to complete the whole trail and back; and yes that was rewarding! Came back down and we saw the crowd has grown much more by this time.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

And from here, we went to Kiyomizu-gojo station. Turned out we need to walk around 25 minutes from this station to the beautiful Kiyomizu-dera temple. But there were many interesting shops along way so it didn’t feel that long of walk. Only later on, we found out there are buses that go here from nearby our AirBnb. There were many shops nearby Kiyomizu-dera that offered kimono rental. I was tempted to try out one, but heard that it took a while to get dressed, make-up, and styled properly so I didn’t end up doing it.

Kiyomizu-dera (or it’s literal translation: Pure Water Temple) itself is beautiful, the building, the structure, the garden – everything was mesmerizing. However, the most famous part of this temple is its wooden stage out of its main hall, 13 meters above the hillside below. And at the time of our visit, the view from there was just amazing – all that colorful maple tree leaves in fall! Unfortunately, there was a renovation going on until March 2020 – so the main hall was covered and so were some parts of the wooden structure underneath that famous stage.

Another famous feature of Kiyomizu-dera is the three-stream waterfall, which each stream is said to bring longevity, successful at school/work, and fortune in love. The Otowa Waterfall is located on the base of the main hall, very noticeable as people lined up to drink the water from a cup that is attached to a long pole. Please do remember to not drink directly from the cup, rather pour the water to your palm and drink from there.

From there, we walked to Gion area and along the shopping street of Shijo Dori, such an eye candy for window shopping 🙂

What we ate on day 2?

Tofu and soymilk cakes/bakery. Let’s start Day 2 with some mini soymilk donuts 6 for ¥300. Taste just like the normal donuts, but they are fluffy!

Along the street from the shrine towards Fushimi Inari station are packed with food vendors and local souvenir shops. We were so hungry at this point and we got to try many things – all delicious, except the chicken skin dumpling 🙁

Our lunches:
1. Meat wrapped rice with cheese @ ¥500
2. Steam dumplings ¥500
3. Yakisoba ¥500
4. Chicken skin dumpling (Small) ¥300
5. Sweet potato fries (Small) ¥400
6. Custard cream cake ¥150

Kogane Family

Kyoto Avanti B1 F

(It’s the dark gray coloured building behind Kyoto Station, in the same building is the Don Quixote)

January 16, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – AirBnb in Kyoto

Once we planned for the Japan trip, we knew we would be staying at AirBnb in at least 3 towns being Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo. And only after more research we decided to have the two night ryokan stay at Takayama, just because I wanted to see Shirakawago. Besides, old town Takayama looks beautiful anyway 🙂

As the title suggests, this post will be about our AirBnb in Kyoto. It was our first AirBnb experience ever and had been a pleasant one. Booking process was easy, communication with hosts (Tomoko and Chris) was prompt and they have been so helpful. One thing that I overlooked was that I did not realize when made the booking was that it didn’t come with pocket WiFi. Us being newbie to Japan and AirBnb experience, have forgotten to ask the host if there is a pocket WiFi. And only after booking, we became aware that there is only unlimited internet at the apartment and no pocket WiFi provided. But, no big deal, we just ordered one online and picked up at the airport on arrival.

First of all, we need to decide on which area of Kyoto where we wanted to stay at. And this proven to be difficult, we wanted somewhere fairly central, easy access to train/subway stations, and convenience stores nearby. The fact that Kyoto is a big town with widespread point of interests hasn’t been any helpful either. But at the end of the day, we decided to stay somewhere within walking distance to Kyoto station, thinking that it should be major hub to everywhere, right? And that’s how we ended up at Kamo Den Room No.1.

The Apartment

We reached the apartment after check in time, and there it was the key on top of the book shelf. The apartment was really clean and feel welcoming. Yes, it is tiny, but we kind of expected this to be the case with majority apartments in Japan anyway. And it is located on the third floor of the building with no elevator, but we already knew it at booking. It wasn’t a problem for us since we just arrived with mostly empty suitcases. I imagine it will cause a bit of trouble for people with heavy luggage to climb up and down the stairs.

The toilet is in a separate room to the bath room, and there is a bath tub as well. There is also a mini kitchen with a fridge, some basic utensils and crockery provided. Then into the room/living room, there are two tatami mats and futon. I was worried that this might give me back pain, but it didn’t – in fact, we had good sleeps here. There is also a washing machine with detergent provided, and a balcony to hang your clothes dry. A standing fan and low table are inside the wardrobe, and we took out the table during our stay here.

Overall, our AirBnb in Kyoto had been a great place to stay at based on the location and cleanliness and how helpful the hosts have been. I would not hesitate to recommend this place to my friends or families visiting Kyoto. Just be mindful about the stairs and no pocket WiFi provided.

And if you are also new to AirBnb experience, you can use this link to sign up to get AU$50 credit off your first booking 🙂

January 14, 2018January 21, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 1

Our 2017 Japan trip began with a dream to visit the cherry blossom country and with some guts to book ticket without getting annual leave approval beforehand 🙂 Thank God, it worked out well, no issues in getting annual leave approval from both offices. And so it went with the itinerary planning, accommodation booking, and researching. It had been an overwhelming process to plan for the itinerary, when at one hand we wanted to see as many places as possible. On the other hand, time and transportation from point A to B restrained us from going to too many places in a day.

I had been getting a lot help and advices from friends and fellow travellers to Japan. And that had been what made us end up with the final itinerary we did in our trip. We ended up took off handful of places from the original list and prioritized which we had to visit. And, whilst we were happy with how we did, there are still way many places more to visit. It just meant there will be another Japan trip(s) in the future (hopefully!).

Here goes Day 1

Our flight departed Sydney at 9.50 pm to Kansai Airport, stopped over at Hong Kong for about two hours. When we got to Kansai airport, it was already 12 pm the next day. Immigration was moving quickly and so was the luggage. And because we were heading straight to Kyoto, we bought the ICOCA + Haruka one way deal, it costs us ¥3,600. The ICOCA was already preloaded with ¥1,500 and that is definitely something you should get while in Japan. So convenient for not only paying transportation, also for lockers, vending machines, even purchase in convenience stores and other stores.

The Haruka train is an effective way, in regards to both time and money, to travel from Kansai Airport to Osaka or Kyoto. By the time we reached Kyoto station, it was almost 4 pm. Got into the Haruka before getting some lunch was a bad idea. By the time we finally reached Kyoto, we were both starving. And thankfully the first shop we saw when got off the train was this little ekiben shop. And that was where we got our late lunches.

Kyoto Ekiben – both tastes delicious albeit they were not even warm, but we got used to this few days into our trip. Total paid ¥1,950

Our Airbnb listing (more on that in the next post) said that it would take around 15 minutes walk from Kyoto station to the house. It took us a bit longer walking with suitcases, but it was easy walk and directions were clear. Exhausted after all that travelling, we also mind-blown with everything we see and experience. The city was so clean, everywhere we walked past, we didn’t see litters or cigarette’s butts on the street. The rivers are so clean that you could see the bottom clearly.

We actually took a short nap once settled in the apartment and only went out again in the evening to look for dinner and explore the surrounding. Agreed that we would have a busy day the next day, we settled on some boxed meal from nearby Family Mart. And let me tell you, for that price, the food were more than just OK. May not be really delicious but better than what you would get in any convenience stores in Sydney for that price. We got a box of ramen (with half an egg), yakisoba, one potato croquette, and a unagi roll – all for ¥1,558 only. And now doing this post, I realized we forgot to take pictures of those bento meals – what sleep deprived can do to you, right?