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| Sunday, April 16, 2006 |
| Kyoto - Starting out from the train station |
I'd though I'd start my Kyoto guide around Kyoto station since that's where most of you will be starting. Kyoto station is almost a tourist attraction itself with 15 levels of shops, restaurants and game centres; it is the largest train station I have ever seen. I suggest when you arrive to climb the escalators to the observation level to get a great view of Kyoto, especially those of you on a budget and can't afford the fee to go up Kyoto tower.
Below the main station in the subway station is a very useful information desk. Here you can get maps of the city and the Kyoto bus route. You can also purchase an all day bus pass for 500yen, which is great value especially if you plan to do a lot of temple hopping, you'll save a packet on bus fairs. The staff also speak English.
A pdf of the bus guide can be found here
As you exit the main entrance of the station you will see the bus depot. It's quite large with around 14 different stops. This is where your bus map comes in handy. Say for example you want to go to Nijo Castle. Look on the map at where the castle is. You will see but routes 9, 12, 50 and 101 got past there. They are also colour coded so it is easy to follow their routes. Now looking down at Kyoto Station we see that routes 9, 50 and 101 leave from the station. Route 9 seems to be the most direct route, so you simply hop on bus number 9. It is impossible to get lost with this system, it is just too hard to its brilliant (Sydney are you listening?), so make sure you get this map and ticket.
The front of Kyoto Station is also the meeting place for Johnnie Hillwalkers Kyoto walking tour. I went on this tour last September and found that a well travelled guy in Japan like me could still learn a thing or two about this country. His tours are conducted in English and filled with interesting facts and eccentric humour. He will take you around some of the lesser know parts of Kyoto where you can see arts and crafts being made, Geisha houses, the original office for Nintendo, a fantastically huge temple, a smaller temple where you can try on Kimono and for some nice traditional snacks towards the end of the tour. It would make a great start to your trip in Kyoto and good chance to get some local knowledge in English before setting out by yourself. The tour is a reasonable 2000yen and operates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only and not on public holidays.
A link to Johnnie's home page can be found here |
posted by ramen_lover @ 2:59 AM  |
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| Thursday, April 13, 2006 |
| Kyoto - An Introduction |
I was lucky enough in my 18 months in Japan to do quite a bit of travelling and Kyoto was one of my favourite places. I’ve been there 3 times and have seen most of the major tourist attractions there. If you had one day to spend in Japan I would recommend this place, it is the cultural heart of Japan and many areas have remained for hundreds of years. Rather than post a mile long rant I will post a series of short articles on the places I have been to and things I have done there in the hope to give you some useful information on this amazing place.
Before I wrap up I’ll give you some brief history and info about Kyoto. Kyoto was originally Japans capital city with the imperial family living there from 794. They later moved to Edo now known as Tokyo in 1868 during the Meiji restoration. It was spared the ravages of WWII and was thankfully never bombed. Rumour has it one high ranking American officer had lived there as child and requested it be spared because he felt too much culturally would be lost. I would hate to think of how much could have been lost if it had happened. Kyoto is famous for having over 2000 shrines and temples. I will cover a handful of the most famous ones I visited in future posts, some of them have been seen in the American movies The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha. Speaking of Geisha, if you are really, really luck you may catch a glimpse of a one in Gion on Pontocho. I was lucky enough to not only spot one but 5 together of various ranks, mama san down to maiko, photo’s and more information about that later.
The best times to travel in Kyoto are around spring or autumn; March – May and September – November respectively. Be warned this is also when it’s at its most crowded, especially in hanabi (cherry blossom) season in April. Late July through to August is best avoided as it is one of the hottest and most humid places in Japan around this time. Trust me I’ve learnt from experience. Unless you don’t mind the heat then you’ll find most attractions peacefully quiet. If you don’t mind the cold then the winter season is as equally quite, again from experience, it snows a little but the cold makes all the walking easier to endure. If you want to try an onsen (hot spring) then maybe winter is the best time to go. I tried an onsen early September when it was still quite hot and it is something I would not recommend unless heart palpitations, dizziness and high blood pressure are your kind of thing.
Stay tune for more about Kyoto. |
| posted by ramen_lover @ 6:33 PM |
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| Monday, April 03, 2006 |
| Sakura season in Japan. |
Right now in Japan is Sakura or Hanami season, some people also call it Cherry Blosom season. They all mean the same thing, people getting together, getting drunk, singing songs, having barbeques and most importantly admiring the fleeting beauty of the Sakura.
Sakura only bloom for around two weeks a year but the season actually lasts around two months. Because Japan is quite a long country spring makes its way slowly from southern to northern Japan from around the end of March to the beginning of May. As the country starts to warm up the sakura follow. Sometimes if you are lucky you can experience them more than once. One year I was lucky enough to experience sakura down south in Fukuoka and then a week later in Hiroshima.
People usually gather under the trees and have parties, some even set up barbeques and sing songs on portable karaoke machines. By the afternoon a lot of people are drunk but it’s all good fun and most foreigners will have a hard time trying turn down invitations to join in, if you can you should, it’s a great cultural exchange, we have nothing like it. It’s also a romantic time and lots of couples will be out an about getting photographed among the trees.
The Hanami season is so popular that the evening news programs will report on where the sakura will be on certain days, give live telecasts from famous spots and display an animated map of their progress towards the north of Japan. The music charts will be full of songs called…you guessed it Sakura and this year there are around 20 of them. I think if you were to take all the lyrics of every song written about Sakura you would find they would stretch to the moon and back (this has not been proven and may not be entirely accurate). Some songs are good and some are not so good.
Some famous viewing spots are Ueno Park in Tokyo (it features of 1000 trees), The Philosophers walk in Kyoto and Himeji Castle.
For more info click here. |
| posted by ramen_lover @ 6:05 AM |
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Name: Burado
About this site:Each week I'll will bring you the latest news, web sites, travel info,interesting links and entertainment about Japan and it's culture.
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