Ari & Nici in Japan: Kyoto - Kinkakuji in heavy rain

Hey guys (^.^)v

I'm happy to see you are back!

Today I want to show you our adventures in Kyoto ♥ 

To be honest, we went to Kyoto two times.. (but I will summerize both trips in this one post)
The first time, we wanted to go to Gion, the Philosopher's Path and, of course, the famous Kinkaku-Ji (Golden Temple). When we got out of the train station, we saw they way we wanted to go on a map and so headed for this direction. After we did not find any of the buildings and gardens shown on the map, we were searching for another and found out we were walking in the wrong direction o.o 
So, if you are yourself in Japan one day, 
be sure that on street maps north is not nessesarily at the top...

But, as we did not wanted the whole walk to be wasted time, we, nevertheless, did some sightseeing in this (to us) unknown part of Kyoto and visited some temples and shrines:

At one temple we had the chance to lit a small candle
that looked like a water lily ^-^

it was very windy, so Jessica and Nici had to hold there hands over it to protect it from the wind

When we came to the next street map, we realised how far we still had to walk to finally get to the places we wanted to.. it was so hot that day and our feet already hurt..
so we decided to take a bus x3

Riding buses in Japan is pretty much reverse from riding buses in Germany xD
In Germany, you enter through the front door, pay before the ride and leave the bus through the back door. In Japan, you enter the bus through the back door, exit through the front door and pay when you leave the bus x'D

 When we finally arrived in Gion, we did not see much of the traditional japanese houses because it was very very crowded. So we visited a nearby shrine and then wanted to go to the Philosopher's Path. And again we had to learn that Japanese street maps are not accurate in any way q.q This time, we walked to the right direction but this path was like 20-times as far away as the map had shown us >.<

We resigned after half of the way and tried to get back by bus to at least take a look at Kinkakuji. The bus rode took so long this time as the bus had to cross the whole town and there were lots of traffic jams. When we arrived, it was 5.10 pm and the parc with the temple closes its gates at 5 pm ........ 
So everything we saw was this sign:

That basically is why we went there a second time xD

But we still did not have a better time than before as it started to rain heavily as soon as we got off the train in Kyoto.. But we made all the way so we went to Kinkakuji nevertheless.
We went by bus again and when we got out, we bought umbrellas first. 

 
I tried to catch all this water in pictures but you can't see it well..

Every street we had to cross was flooded and my shoes and feet were completely wet after just 10 meters walking x'D But we didn't let that ruin our sightseeing trip x3
And also Kinkakuji is really really pretty in the rain ^.^

(The yellow tube you can see in our hands is called "Rei in der Tube". 
It's a washing detergent for travelling and you can use it to wash your laundry
by hand in a sink. At this moment, they had a competition where you could get
the money for your trip back when you sent them a photo of you and "Rei in der Tube"
at your travel destination. But in the end, we forgot to send the pictures in...)

And again, Nici was taking a photo of me trying to take a selfie x'D

 After buying some souvenirs and lucky charms at the temple,
we went back to the city centre by bus and went to Starbucks to get some hot drinks.
When we left for Kyoto in the morning, it was like 32°C and after the rain
not more than 20° and it was so so cold as we where all wet.
After having a hot cocoa, we felt hungry and made a stop at my favourite
fast-food store 'Mos Burger'

I ordered a Rice-Kinpira Burger, Chips and Melon Soda ♥

As the rain did not stop, we spent the rest of the day in an arcade centre xD
Again, I didn't win anything at the Ufo-Catchers but it still was fun ^.^
And they had a nice washroom decoration:

And these were our adventures in Kyoto xD
Despite the rain and all the other things that didn't work out as we wanted,
it is a beautiful city and I hope I can come back one day !

However, thank you for reading (^-^)v 

Ari & Nici in Japan: Osaka - Umeda: Pokémon Center & Sky Building

Hey guys (^.^)v

Welcome back to a new blog post about Osaka !

This time I want to show you what we did in Umeda.
We planed to visit Osaka's Pokémon Center and the Sky Building ♥

At first, it was quite difficult to find it because we got off at a really big train station.
But after walking around the whole building, we managed to find the department store
where the Pokémon Center was located ^.^
Already at the entrance we were greeted by Pokémon x3

The Pokémon Center is located at the 13th floor, so we took the elevator.
The Center itself doesn't really have a door. When you step out of the elevator,
you are already standing inside the store.
As I said before our trip was a little bit poorly planned because we were in Japan
during school holidays.. Please, never go into Pokémon Center during holidays!
It was so crowded T.T That's also why I couldn't take many photos.. just two x'D

so many plushes *o*

 But I bought a lot x3 I will show it to you in a seperate shopping haul post.

After Pokémon Center, we went to the basement of the department store and 
bought some food in a bakery. We sat down outside of the building  and relaxed a bit.

this is the building we wanted to visit later ^.^

a model of the area

my shopping goods x3

We were really fascinated by these steps x3

 

sorry for my giant dark circles q.q

When it got darker, we went over to the Sky Building.
It is really high when you are standing in front of it.
Of course, we had to take some photos from here, too:

Nici taking a photo

Nici taking a photo of me taking a photo..

If you want to go up there, you first have to take an elevator
to the like 50ths floor and the last five floors are to be overcome by escalators.
It is really high and I'm a bit afraid of heights but the elevator was so fast o.o
And you had a really good view from the escalators since they go up
between the two towers of the building. If you take a look at the third photo above,
you can see these two pipes going from one side of the building to the other
in a v-shape. That are the escalators. 
So since they are outside of the building, you have a good view over a huge part of Osaka!

At the top of the building is a lounge were you can buy drinks and some snacks.
I chose ice cream and Nici had some cocktail like drink.
So we waited for it getting dark to take really amazing photos ♥

still with Pokémon Center shopping bag x3

 When it finally was really dark, get went outside.
On top of the building there is a circular walk 
from where you can see every part of Osaka *-*

The view was so so beautiful ♥ I miss it so much these days T_T
But the coolest thing definetely was the black lights over our heads
and the floor sparkled with colourful spots that glow in black light *-*

some of my bracelets were also glowing ^-^

Nicis shirt was glowing in the lack light x3

Unfortunately the photos of us is blurry q.q
 

Everything glows *-* even my hair xD
 

Looking down between the two towers of the building.
The pipes you can see are the escalators to the top floor.
And on the very bottom: Osaka's other buildings x3
 

I love this pic so much *-*

With beautiful Osaka at night in the background ♥
 

Lots of Japanese people with lots of white glowing shirts xD
 

a sparkly little star ♥

After spending some hours enjoying this amazing view,
we had to say good bye to Osaka Sky Building q.q
Maybe, we can see each other once again ♥
 

This really was one of the most impressive places we visited during our journey.
It is an amazing feeling you have while looking over the whole town.
It even felt kind of unreal to be this far away from home, in another country,
with another language and see this beautiful view *-*

If you are in Japan, please go there (or on top of some other high
building in the night) and enjoy the view and just being in Japan !

That's it for today.
My next post will be about Kyoto I think.
So stay tuned and see you next time (^-^)v