Japan [Day 5 - Kyoto & Nara]

The famous landmark in Kyoto, Fushimi Inari

KYOTO

Fushimi Inari 

In the morning, we took a train to Inari to visit the famous landmark in Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's a shrine located at the bottom of a hill and has a lot for red pillars. It was a beautiful experience. The red wooden pillars were all written with Japanese letters at one side. We hiked up only halfway and then walked back down to buy some souvenirs. There are a few souvenir shops outside the temple. I bought some postcards, magnets and keychains. Some shops sell Pokemon stuffs as well such as keychains and phone straps.

As Salam Hall, Mosque

Since it's Friday and we arrived here at noon, therefore we took the chance to perform Friday prayer (Jumuah prayer) here. The hall was comfortable although it was small. The khutbah was delivered in English. Many students prayed here since it is located near Kyoto  Prefectural University of Medicine. There is also a halal restaurant nearby, Rose Cafe Restaurant.

Kinkakuji

A golden temple. Actually there a lot of temples/shrines here in Kyoto but we only chose Kinkakuji. It is one of the must-visit attractions here in Kyoto. Other shrines which is located around here are Ryoan-ji and Ninna-ji. To reach Kinkakuji, we took a bus (no. 204/205) which took almost one hour from the university. We met a couple from on the bus, who were also heading to Kinkakuji. To our surprise, the wife is a pharmacist. They were unsure when to get down from the bus, so they followed us to the entrance. The entrance fee is 400 yen.

It was raining today. I had my umbrella, but I didn't bring my cardigan. Bad move. It was very cold! Inside the compound, many tourists were already busy taking photos with the golden temple. The Kinkakuji is sure gold in colour, the whole structures were painted in gold. I guessed that's what make the temple special.

We finished our Kyoto tour here, then we're off to the station. 

NARA

Nara wasn't included in our itinerary. However, because we still had time here, why not we board the train to Nara instead of going back to the hostel? We boarded the train and the journey to Nara only consumed one hour. 

What's so special about Nara? It has a lot of wild deer roaming around the town and parks. However the wild deer weren't so wild, they were actually quite tame. You could feed them and take selfies but they wouldn't stay still so easily.

Todai-ji

Near the parks, there is a big shrine, Todai-ji. We arrived here quite late, already near dusk so the shrine was already closed. It's okay since our plan to Nara itself was impromptu. We're quite happy after seeing the deer walking freely around this area. We visited the souvenir shop as well but nothing attracted our eyes. So we had mochi instead. Lol. It was sweet and delicious. 300 yen each.

 

Ml

Before taking our train back to Kyoto, we dropped by Aeon supermarket at Nara station. We bought some food for dinner where I grabbed sushi set, drink and a few sandwiches for tomorrow's breakfast. Sushi here was way much cheaper than in Tsukiji market.