Kyoto - 2011-09-26 (morning)
This is the post about "how much can you see in Kyoto within less than six hours".
Trust me, we saw A LOT ^___^
Our day started very early in Osaka. We left the hotel around 6 AM and took the Kyoto line to Kyoto.
Upon arriving we dropped our luggage in a coin locker and went to get money from the post office ATM next to the station.
Then we bought breakfast in the Lawson there and walked to our first goal for the day.
07:47 - Higashi Hongan-ji.
This is the entrance gate from within the temple grounds.
7:55 - To the very far left on this picture you can see a huge white building. Yes, they are reconstructing the temple itself atm...
As consolation price you'll get to see one of the side buildings.
08:08 - From Higashi Hongan-ji we walked to Nishi Hongan-ji. The walls surrounding the temple looked impressive.
08:15 - Building on the temple grounds, used as information ^^;
08:21 - Random lantern in a random hall.
Afterwards we walked back to the station. The tourist information was open by now and we got our 2-day-pass for the busses and subway in Kyoto.
09:26 - The next stop was Nijō-jō.
Kara-mon.
Please ignore the tourist with the strange expression running into the picture.
09:27 - Here you can see Ninomaru Palace.
09:31 - Lovely garden/park on the castle grounds.
09:40 - More of the palace.
09:42 - After climbing a few stairs you get a nice view over the whole area.
10:52 - Then we went to see Kinkaku-ji.
10:56 - We had a hard time taking a picture where the phoenix is visible too. But in this one, we almost succeeded ^_^
11:02 - Waterfall in the park surrounding the pavilion.
11:07 - In just a few weeks this scenery will look stunning. Already now you can get a taste of how pretty it will be in autumn.
12:11 - From Kinkaku-ji we took the bus to the other side of the city. Our goal was Heian jingū, but we could see the great torii too (from afar).
It IS big.
12:11 - Main gate.
12:14 - Heian jingū.
12:15 - The left and the right wing of the shrine look are mirrored and I think they look absolutely stunning.
As we didn't have that much time left before the guided tour around the Imperial Palace, we skipped the gardens of Heian jingū, though I think they must look very lovely too.
We went by bus to the Imperial Palace, had lunch at Mosburger and just when we walked to the meeting place for the tour, it started to drizzle -.-;;;
Very, very lightly though, but as you could see in the pictures, the whole day had been quite cloudy. We didn't want to get rained on during the tour, which is why we bought two umbrellas. About five minutes later the drizzle stopped and we even got a slightly blue sky _._
I kept calling the umbrellas our offer to the Gods of Rain ^^;;;
11 Kyoto (morning till noon)
10 Kyoto (Imperial Palace)
9 Kyoto (Kiyomizu-dera)
8 Fushimi Inari
7 Uji
6 Nara (5.5 Nara deer special?)
5 Osaka
4 Nikko
3 Hakone
2 Odaiba
1 London
Trust me, we saw A LOT ^___^
Our day started very early in Osaka. We left the hotel around 6 AM and took the Kyoto line to Kyoto.
Upon arriving we dropped our luggage in a coin locker and went to get money from the post office ATM next to the station.
Then we bought breakfast in the Lawson there and walked to our first goal for the day.
07:47 - Higashi Hongan-ji.
This is the entrance gate from within the temple grounds.
7:55 - To the very far left on this picture you can see a huge white building. Yes, they are reconstructing the temple itself atm...
As consolation price you'll get to see one of the side buildings.
08:08 - From Higashi Hongan-ji we walked to Nishi Hongan-ji. The walls surrounding the temple looked impressive.
08:15 - Building on the temple grounds, used as information ^^;
08:21 - Random lantern in a random hall.
Afterwards we walked back to the station. The tourist information was open by now and we got our 2-day-pass for the busses and subway in Kyoto.
09:26 - The next stop was Nijō-jō.
Kara-mon.
Please ignore the tourist with the strange expression running into the picture.
09:27 - Here you can see Ninomaru Palace.
09:31 - Lovely garden/park on the castle grounds.
09:40 - More of the palace.
09:42 - After climbing a few stairs you get a nice view over the whole area.
10:52 - Then we went to see Kinkaku-ji.
10:56 - We had a hard time taking a picture where the phoenix is visible too. But in this one, we almost succeeded ^_^
11:02 - Waterfall in the park surrounding the pavilion.
11:07 - In just a few weeks this scenery will look stunning. Already now you can get a taste of how pretty it will be in autumn.
12:11 - From Kinkaku-ji we took the bus to the other side of the city. Our goal was Heian jingū, but we could see the great torii too (from afar).
It IS big.
12:11 - Main gate.
12:14 - Heian jingū.
12:15 - The left and the right wing of the shrine look are mirrored and I think they look absolutely stunning.
As we didn't have that much time left before the guided tour around the Imperial Palace, we skipped the gardens of Heian jingū, though I think they must look very lovely too.
We went by bus to the Imperial Palace, had lunch at Mosburger and just when we walked to the meeting place for the tour, it started to drizzle -.-;;;
Very, very lightly though, but as you could see in the pictures, the whole day had been quite cloudy. We didn't want to get rained on during the tour, which is why we bought two umbrellas. About five minutes later the drizzle stopped and we even got a slightly blue sky _._
I kept calling the umbrellas our offer to the Gods of Rain ^^;;;
11 Kyoto (morning till noon)
10 Kyoto (Imperial Palace)
9 Kyoto (Kiyomizu-dera)
8 Fushimi Inari
7 Uji
6 Nara (5.5 Nara deer special?)
5 Osaka
4 Nikko
3 Hakone
2 Odaiba
1 London