Nijo castle was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the tokugawa shoguns. Like the kiyomizu-dera temple that we visited the day before, this is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The castle consists of an outer moat, an inner moat, the ninomaru palace, the ruins of the honmaru palace, various support buildings and several gardens. The surface area of the castle is 275,000 square meters, of which 8000 square metres is occupied by buildings.

Large wooden gate.

The grounds of the castle area are covered in stones. As you walk, you would be making crunching sounds beneath your feet.

The entrance of the ninomaru palace, marked by exquisite designs.

Visitors are required to take off their shoes before they tour the insides of the 3300 square metre palace. Photography was strictly prohibited within the palace.

We got to see several different reception chambers, offices and the living quarters of the shogun, where only female attendants were allowed. The interior was supposed to be really grand and lavish in its heyday, but today it just seems dark and dank.

There are a total of 33 rooms and over 800 tatami mats (straw mats used in traditional Japanese rooms). The wall paintings in each room had been done by prominent artists and chosen according to the unique function of each room.

The uguisu-bari floors along the corridors, nicknamed the “nightingale floors”, were designed in such a way they would squeak whenever someone walks on them. It served to warn occupants against intruders. What a clever design!

Honmaru palace is a 1600 square metre inner palace that was added to the castle complex in 1626.

Today, only the ruins of the palace remain after being ravaged by lightning and fires in the 1700′s.

Gardens within the castle grounds.

One of the two moats around Nijo Castle.

Beautiful swans swimming around the moat. Notice that swans always swim in pairs? How sweet!

Next stop: kinkaku-ji, again a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had to take another bus to get there.

Our admission passes into the temple were rather unique and certainly didn’t look like typical tickets. They were printed with calligraphic writing. (Update: these are omamori or Japanese good-luck charms.)

The reason why most visitors come here is to see the golden pavilion that seems to float on water. It is literally covered in gold leaf! How strikingly beautiful!

View from another angle.

Me with the pavilion in the background.

The golden pavilion houses several Buddha relics. On its roof rests a golden phoenix.

Over here, people try to toss coins into the stone hole at the centre. This was where we got rid of all our 1-yen and 5-yen coins. I almost got one in!

From the temple, the hidari-daimonji hill in the distance can be seen. The Japanese (also Chinese) character “大”, one of the four different characters inscribed on the hills, is clearly visible. During the daimonji festival, the four characters are lit with giant bonfires.

At the souvenir shops, we found more colourful candy.

I couldn’t resist taking more pictures!

These cute snacks are called dango (japanese dumpling skewers)!

Satisfied, we were ready to move on to our next destination, Gion. Near the bus stop, a humourous signboard that was placed outside a hair salon caught my eye.

Ahhh! The Japanese just have to make everything look cute don’t they? It’s almost like a rule or something!

On the bus ride to Gion, we spotted some interesting architecture.

Then we arrived in Gion! One of the first things we saw was this:

A stall selling delicious takoyaki (octopus balls)!

We bought 10 of them for ¥600 (approx 7.5 Singapore dollars). It came with a dark green paste (in the top left corner) which the seller helpfully informed us was very spicy.

Patchwork bears like these were carried by several gift shops in Kyoto. I was looking high and low for a larger stuffed patchwork bear but there just wasn’t a decent-looking one!

Streets of Gion where machiya (traditional Japanese houses) can be seen.

Gion is known as a hanamachi (geisha district). It is also the setting of arthur golden’s novel, memoirs of a geisha.

Obviously, our sole purpose in Gion was to see geisha in the flesh! We had immense good luck; it wasn’t too long before a maiko (an apprentice geisha) came along!

Thanks to my lousy camera, I managed to get a blurry-motion shot of the maiko walking rapidly back to her okiya (geisha house).

At the sight of the maiko entering the house, all the tourists came swarming to the door! There was a cab waiting right outside the house so we knew it was picking up a geisha or maiko for her next engagement. Armed with cameras, everyone just stood there waiting for her to emerge!

Just then, there came the sounds of wooden clogs on the ground again. This time, it was a real geisha! She was taking the cab with a maiko who had now come out from the house.

The crowd went crazy! All of us tourists started acting like bloody paparazzi and kept snapping pictures of the two of them! The madness!

Look at the crowd with all those cameras! Thank goodness no one tried to stop the cab from moving off.

And then, it was all over. Xanthe and I lingered around a little longer for more sightings of a geisha or maiko. Our luck was incredibly good! Another maiko came along again!

I practically chased after her like a bloodhound to get a couple of shots!

Love the brightly coloured obi tied at the back of her kimono. Her okobo (wooden clogs) were so tall, they were at least five inches high. I wonder how she could walk in them!

It had been a very fruitful trip to Gion — we saw geishas! It was time to head back.

A couple more interesting buildings before we go. This is the Kyoto Gion post office. The red and white building exterior looks cute!

The minamiza theatre, also in Gion.

Our final destination for the night was the 131 metre tall Kyoto tower!

The traffic light at the crossing between Kyoto station and Kyoto tower plays a jingle each time the signal turns green. Check it out!

Youtube link

I’ve never seen a musical traffic light in my life!

Photo by cloudberry1224

Tawawa-chan, the mascot of Kyoto tower.

Photo by Kyoto Tower

Doesn’t she resemble the tower itself? Kawaii!

We chilled out at kuu, the sky lounge within Kyoto tower.

Kuu was a very chic bar. There was a table charge just for sitting at one!

Over here, we could enjoy a nice night view of the city! What a fitting way to end our last night in Kyoto!

Our pizza and drinks, and the coasters which we took with us.

The ladies’ washroom at the lounge was even cooler. It was so modern-looking!

Love the cute little metal chair. It was made out of a bottle cap.

That marks the end of our last day in Kyoto. It had been a wholesome and very fruitful trip! Early next morning, we would pack our bags and return to Tokyo by the Shinkansen bullet train.

Ahhh… I am missing Tokyo already!

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In general, I tend to dislike asking for directions. Instead I would prefer navigating around on my own. The only thing is that the Shinkansen line at Tokyo station has about a gazillion different platforms and I ended up on the wrong platform! In the end I had to seek help at the information counter. Lesson learned: always ask for directions when you have heavy luggage and a large Hello Kitty cushion in tow!

Three kinds of bullet train ply the tokaido Shinkansen line from Tokyo to shin-Osaka (kyoto lies along this route). My rail pass allowed me to take the hikari train, which I did at 11:06am.

Every hour, two hikari trains operate on this route. Each train travels as quickly as 300 kilometres per hour. At that speed, it would take me less than 3 hours to get to Kyoto!

They had stalls selling bento sets on the train platforms. I got myself an unajuu (eel and rice) set.

One for the road!

At that point I was pretty sad to be leaving Tokyo. The time I spent there had been so wonderful and memorable! With my ipod earphones plugged in, I felt doubly melancholic.

Youtube link (Soundtrack: John Mayer – Clarity)

The video above was taken just as the train was departing Tokyo station.

The train made a few stops along the way. I noticed this interesting building at one of the stops (nagoya, I think). It had many well-known brands of electronics and technology products arranged neatly on its facade.

My colourful Indian bangles!

Youtube link (Soundtrack: Alicia keys – Caged Bird)

The train ride was a good one. It allowed me to see the more rural side of Japan with all its small houses and vast fields of greenery. What a stark contrast this was from the metropolitan Tokyo that I had been seeing for the past 7 days!

I reached Kyoto after 2 hours and 40 minutes! This shiny building is Kyoto station. It is the most important transportation hub in Kyoto where people can take the railway, subway or bus.

At the station, I found interest in a couple of food stores while waiting for xanthe to arrive.

The bento sets were so detailed and elaborate!

Then it was time to head to our hotel. We had booked our accommodation a month prior to our arrival, and clean forgot that it was within walking distance to Kyoto station! Yay! What convenience!

The moment we opened the door to our hotel room, we were pleasantly surprised by how cosy it was! Our beds had beautiful comforters and bedding. My Hello Kitty cushion looked right at home!

We also found an interesting boiling device in the room; it was built right into the table!

By the time we settled down it was already late afternoon. We had just one and a half days in Kyoto — time to hit the streets!

On our way to the hotel earlier I had spotted some wooden houses from afar. Kyoto is formerly the capital of Japan and well-known for having such traditional wooden houses.

So on one side you get a bustling city scene with tall buildings and busy roads; on the other side you get a peaceful area rich in tradition that looks a completely different world!

We spent the next half hour walking through the lanes and alleys and admiring the houses!

Wooden nameplates outside a door. It seems there were a few people or households living beyond that door.

This house looked so quaint!

My favourite is this particularly sweet-looking house! It might have been an eatery or something.

A row of shops lining the streets of Kyoto. They share the same traditional look as well.

Big-ass bottles. What are they, sake? Shochu?

Japanese girls wearing colourful yukata, which is a more casual form of kimono worn during summer. This was a very common sight; people would wear these out on the streets, to the malls, etc.

Kyoto is home to 2000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines!

This was the first temple that we visited as it was within walking distance from our hotel.

Pretty flowers by the road!

Back in Tokyo, our main form of transport was the subway and the occasional indecently-priced cab rides; we never rode the bus once. But here in Kyoto, the bus system was so intuitive and uncomplicated that it became the only form of transport that we used! (this is the bus route map that we used over the two days, with illustrations and colour coded bus routes!)

Notice anything out of the norm in this photograph below?

All passengers board the bus at the back and alight at the front!

Regardless of the distance travelled, each bus ride costs ¥220 for adults (that’s about 3 bucks). Passengers would pay their fares at the front of the bus (where the driver can get a clear view) just before they alight. That explains the unusual arrangement of the bus!

We took the bus to an area called “higashiyama”. Our main purpose there was to visit the famous Buddhist temple, kiyomizu-dera, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple was located really far off from the main road. We had to take a long walk on kiyomizuzaka, an upward-sloping lane lined with souvenir shops and eateries on both sides.

A little shaved ice dessert to send us along our way. When you’re in Japan, you have to go for the green tea flavour! And the vanilla ice cream? That’s just good sense. (count the number of ice cream in this post! People with the correct answer get to treat me to real ice cream! Haha!)

Here we are! The renowned kiyomizu-dera!

Its intricate red and white main gate.

Before entering the main praying area, visitors are supposed to rinse their hands at the purification fountain.

Or here too.

Vast forest beyond the temple. Can you spot the pagoda?

An outdoor stage used for performances, like the one at the Shinto shrine I visited in Day 5. Temples and shrines, they all look the same after a while don’t they?

The veranda at the top of this staircase is supported by hundreds of pillars and juts out over the hillside. From here you can enjoy a sweeping view of the entire city of Kyoto!

Beautiful!

Following the temple visit, we took a stroll down the quaint kiyomizuzaka slope that we passed earlier.

This must be a hot-spot for tourists because there were numerous souvenir shops, each one selling the same stuff as the next.

Did I not tell ya? The Japanese are crazy about Hello Kitty!

More ice cream! We opted for black sesame and purple bubblegum flavours this time round.

Yummy! I never thought I would like black sesame ice cream (the colour alone has always turned me off)!

Cute figurines of geishas.

More cute figurines! These were handcrafted porcelain ones of animals!

Kawaii!

Remember the cute car we spotted in shibuya back in Tokyo? This is the one:

Well, as luck would have it, we spotted another one of it right there in Kyoto, parked next to a traditional wooden house!

Tee-hee!

Towards the end of the slope this white-coloured restaurant caught our eye. Many Japanese restaurants have plastic food replicas displayed on the outside that are really useful for people that don’t speak Japanese (remember my food ordering process in Day 1?).

These particular food replicas looked entirely different from the usual plastic ones we saw. They appeared to be hand-painted and made out of clay! For some reason that was enough to attract us to have our dinner there!

There was no other customer and it continued that way throughout the entire duration of our meal.

Dwarf figurines by the window.

Uniquely-designed menu with text that looked like they had all been painstakingly written.

Pork cutlet with a little mound of noodle.

Chicken steak in teriyaki sauce and breaded prawn.

Then it was time to head back.

But not before having a little coffee jelly (with ice cream) at caffe veloce, a café near our hotel. Yummy!

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