Day Six - Kyoto

Ohayou-gozaimasu from Kyoto! Thankfully, there's a cafe nearby that has a free wireless network, hence the blogging shall continue! :D This blog entry will be about yesterday's adventures.

We're in a hurry to meet our host, Juita, so I apologize for the lack of detail in the commentaries yea.



Well yesterday was the day we had to say goodbye to our hotel in Hiroshima, the Hiroshima 28.



We had to take a bullet train or the shinkansen from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka, then to Kyoto. The total trip duration was around 1 1/2 hours.



My mom, waiting patiently for the next shinkansen.



A little perspective of the train that people don't really take notice of.



This is the head of the shinkansen. We rode in a rocket on rails. Cool.



This guy keep taking pictures of the trains, then logs his travel on paper. Isn't this the life that eventually everyone wants to have? Becoming a travel writer is quite fun. Actually I'm part of that right now :D



And then, we arrived at Kyoto station. As you can see, Kyoto is not just full of traditional stuff.



The train station is also the entrance to The Cube, a shopping complex.



And right smack in front of it is the Kyoto Tower.



First thing first, we have to head to our hotel. Welcome to the main street in Kyoto town.



Life here is pretty slow-moving. I love this town. I wanna persuade (if ) to move here. :D



Our hotel is located deep in some backlane. From the picture alone, you can tell it's in Japan, coz the road is so narrow and there are electric cables flying everywhere.



When we walk, there is always someone cleaning up the neighbourhood. No wonder Japan is so clean.



And we have arrived at the hotel! Actually it's more of a guest house, called Costa Del Sol.



Like a typical Japanese house, shoes are to taken off if you wanna enter the guest house.



This is the guest house lobby. Small, but comfy enough to edit my pictures at night :)



This is Nagano-san, the host of this guest house. He speaks English quite well, thank god for that.



The room is quite small, but big enough for the both of us. We'll be sleeping on the futons rather than beds like in the previous hotel. Quite authentic.



It also comes with a heater. Hopefully my mom won't constantly complain about the room being too cold anymore.



And this is the entrance to our room. That sliding door is actually fake. The real normal door is hidden behind the sliding door, hea hea.



Jeng jeng! It comes with an attached bathroom! No more bathing naked among men, though I've already overcome the fear of that.



If the lobby's lights are out, I can edit photos in the room. There are ample power points here, although



Yes, the daily cool pic.



Looks like there are big plans for Kyoto still. They're building the base for the building.



We have to travel down this road to go to the train and bus stations. With a street like this, I don't mind traversing it a million times.



Here's a picture that represents the paradox of modernity and tradition. According to the Japan Travel Book, and even Uncle Omar mentioned it once, the renovation of the Kyoto station and the construction of the Kyoto tower raised many controversies in the past. In 1997 when the renovation was completed, preservationists, environmentalists and most of the city's population were opposed to this construction, since it was also obstructing the mountain skyline.

But then, I see it as a charm. The fusion of tradition and modernity in this city astounds me. Life is slow-moving, but modern technology is available everywhere still.

And that's why I wanna live and work here one day :D



We met our host, Juita, at the Kyoto station. Juita is my mom's friend's daughter. My mom's friend is Muhammad Haji Salleh, the sasterawan negara of Malaysia. She's a master graduate student in economics here in Kyoto.



First, we decided to pick up dinner. Check out the array of bentos available in the convenience store.

We then worked our way to Kiyomizu, said to have the one of the best hanami (sakura blossom viewing) location at night. Well, we'll see about that.



Too bad we had to purchase tickets before going in. But at least get to see a cute girl lah.



This is the Kiyomizu temple. I feel like a Samurai in old Japan, plotting an attack on the Feudal lord in the temple.

ok lah, since we don't have much time left, I will not comment on the hanami pictures below. As if they need any comments anyway. It was at night, so forgive me if the pictures are not clear enough.







That's Juita's umbrella, by the way. It looked like an old umbrella, so I thought the composition was interesting.







This is one of the most popular perspective used in any travel brochure. Can you see the Kyoto tower in the background?









Sakura blossoms over a lake. Simply beautiful.







Haha even Spiderman (albeit a short and fat one) came to Kyoto for hanami.



I stumbled upon a shop that sells foldable paper fans. Oooh, so pretty.



Pretty, but expensive. 5000 yen. Just look only lah.

And that was all for the Hanami. We went back to the hotel. I left my mom there and went to the hotel again to chat with some friends.

On the way back, I found a game arcade, which only closed at 12 midnight. I couldn't resist, so I entered the place immediately.



Whoa, the new Beatmania II DX 13! Very wide screen. Nice.



What the heck... I thought Guitar Freaks and Drummania V was new (saw it in Singapore), but now they have V2! This is too much!



And yes, the game I've been looking forward to playing. Pop'n Music 13! Now the game has a circus theme to it.



Yay, and it's so close to the hotel too! Can't wait to play it later tonight.



This is the new Beatmania II DX 13's poster. Who is this guy anyway?



Soul Caliber III arcade is out! Banzai!



This is for you both, Dzaid and Chung Kam. Metal Slug 6.

Alright that's all for Day one of Kyoto. I love this place already. Can't wait to visit all the old shrines and temples later.

See you tomorrow!