Sonntag, 3. Mai 2015

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