Hello everyone!
Before I go into the journey to Kyoto, great days begin with breakfast, so I enjoyed my last few hours at Hotel She, Osaka with making your original breakfast, such a cool and hip way to start the day
With that out of the way, I started to travel to Kyoto by first walking up the road to Bentencho station with my large suitcase, backpack & cabin case (yeah I wasn’t carrying much) to travel to Osaka station. I knew the station was going to be busy regardless of what I got there so I took my time to find the right platform for Kyoto.
I suppose now is a good time to talk about trains in Japan.
Trains in Japan compared to here in the UK, they are so much more quiet, it’s something that I never forgot from my last trip 5 years ago. During my two weeks in this country I experienced the bullet trains, JR trains, subway, Tsukuba express and the metro. I only saw a One Piece themed carriage carried by a steam train but more about that in a future post.
After a while standing up on a busy train, I arrived at Kyoto station & I can say out right, that Kyoto station is the more impressive station I have seen in terms of design & I love creative buildings. The reel above was recorded later but I have to show it here.
Stepping out of the station on a very nice Wednesday morning, reveals a bus station & Kyoto tower. Only a few minutes away from where I was standing was Kyoto Tower Hotel Annex, my temporary stay at Kyoto. I haven’t really got much to say about the hotel itself apart from it in an ideal spot in the capital as it was close to numerous bus stops, the tower, station & shops.
I dropped off my luggage and decided to check out the temples in the area. I came across a shop with an empty cafe with such a great view of the temple across the road. I had a nice dessert, but I have no idea what I had, I know it had sweet potato and it was upstairs at the Nishiri Kyoto main store but that’s it.
Anyway, after a nice break I checked out the 2 temples on the other side of the road to take some pictures, chill & think about what I’ve done on the journey so far. One of them, Honganji temple had a Chrysanthemum Exhibition planned for the end of the month so had some lovely plants on show in one part of the temple grounds which were so pretty to look at.
After some time I walked back to Kyoto Tower which took around 15/20 minutes to check out the shops and wonder what to have for lunch, then I remembered a sushi bar/izakaya restaurant behind the tower when dropping off my luggage hours earlier. Funny enough there was a English themed pub just up the road from it which shocked me, I knew there were a chain of them in Japan but it was fun to see them but I can assure you I wasn’t travelling thousands of miles to the other side of the world to have something I would have at home, I decided on the sushi!
Something I got when I dropped my luggage off at the hotel earlier in the day was a discount voucher for Kyoto Tower which meant it was half price and giving it was right next to where I had lunch & near my hotel, how couldn’t I resist?
The building that had the tower also consisted of some cafes like Starbucks which I got a Kyoto mug from, plenty of shops and an expensive hotel which I did look into but went for the one around the corner.
It was nice looking up high on a very nice day looking at places I’ve been already and planned destinations for the following day. I’ve still got the ticket from the tower among other items I kept from my trip.
I can say around this point, I was very lucky when it came to the weather, ok it was hot for the first few days but that was a shock for some locals too.
At this point in the day I got tired from all the travelling and walking around that I decided to have early night at the hotel. I did have a ticket booked for a light show at a castle nearby but I just wanted to rest as I wanted to go out early to experience Kyoto when it was quiet.
Like what I did with Osaka, I went out at 5am to take some nice pictures of Kyoto station and tower with really no one else around.
Where was I going at this time of the morning? Kiyomizu-dera aka a beautiful temple with a great view which was an hour walk from my hotel and I wanted to experience the nice sun rise again.
It was a very quiet walk experiencing a Kyoto that most won’t see if they were visiting like me.
Unlike Osaka, there were some people waiting for the temple to open but it was still quiet compared to how the area would turn out later in the day. I did take a lot of pictures in this area but the picture above is one of my favourites especially since it was taken shortly after the sun came out. It made the hour walk to the temple, worth it.
I spent a good while around the area taking in the views & the atmosphere. The temples were very colourful, it was great seeing them in person. My next destination was Ninezaka, some streets filled with historic Japanese buildings and temples. It was a shame the time I walked through there no shops were open but it was still an experience walking through the area.
I didn’t want to stay long as I wanted to get to my next destination when it opened, Kyoto’s International Manga Museum!
I decided to get the bus back to the centre of Kyoto but accidentally got on the wrong bus which headed out of the city instead of in and it ended at Daigo station but thankfully I got back via the trains without any issues.
After getting back to Kyoto station, it didn’t take long to get to the museum which I got to around 10/15 minutes before it opened and a lot of us waiting for it to open were fellow brits & other tourists so that was good.
Something that attracted me to the museum was the chance of getting yourself done as a manga character and this picture shown above has become one of this years highlight and I’m in the process of trying to find a frame for it because I love it so much!
Regarding the museum itself, there was so much manga everywhere after you went past the shop near the entrance, nearly the corridor had walls filled with them. If I was ever come to back to Kyoto, I will visit the museum again!
I showed a reel of Kyoto station earlier, this was taken after the visit to the museum as I have travelled back to the area to check out the train station as I was off to Fukuoka the day after.
I said earlier that it’s the most impressive station I have ever seen and I still stand by that!
I had a desire to check out the Kyoto’s Pokemon Centre as it wasn’t that long on the train from what I can remember as I wanted to tick it off my bucket list
I did travel back to Kyoto station one more time before heading back to my hotel, as there was something I had to sort out. I had a shinkensen (bullet train) ticket when I got to Osaka a few days before for my trip to Fukuoka but accidentally got it booked on the wrong day so had to get it changed at a ticket office without much issue, after that sorted I finally decided it was time to head back to the hotel but on the way back I saw a cute Chiikawa pop-up store. I confess I’m not really too much of a cute person but couldn’t resist having a look & buying a few things!
I would only travel out of Kyoto station one more time but that’s for the next post about Fukuoka, the next destination in my 2 weeks in Japan.
Overall Kyoto was just amazing, I wish I had more days to experience it. I plan on going back to Japan in the future and I think I might have to check out Kyoto & Osaka again as there was a lot I wasn’t able to check out with the time limit I set. I am happy that the hotel of my hotel & trains in the city weren’t a problem at all (just a small problem with the bus mentioned earlier but that would happen anywhere even if you lived there).
I will never forget the piece of art I got at the manga museum & seeing Kiyomizu-dera temple at sunrise, I owe my late grandparents so much for giving me what I needed to experience it.
With that, I end my post and see you in the next one!
Thanks for reading,
Megan
Megan Leyman 
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