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Firstly, let me apologise for the lateness of this blog entry. I'm writing this at 6:30am on Monday because we were all exhaused last night after a huge day, and with a really substantial headache a blog was the last thing on my mind. We were all in bed by 6:30pm last night (which doesn't seem so weird when it is completely dark at 5:30pm).
Was a little bit hesitant about going down for breakfast this morning. Breakfast at today's Toyoko Inn was listed as "miso soup, rice balls and coffee". I'm glad I took the risk, because while the advertisement was true, there was also sausages, eggs and onion, salad, potato salad and toast. Excellent breakfasts for the price (i.e. $0 with the already very cheap room).
After breakfast we returned to the room to pack. It is disappointing that not all Toyoko Inns have these "deluxe twin" rooms. They are fantastic.
With the bags backed and checkout done we headed back for Shin-Osaka station. Our first ride on the Shinkansen for the trip (albeit a very short 15 minute trip to Kyoto). The rail passes are initially expensive, but I wouldn't visit Japan without them. Walked in, showed the passes, said the name of the station I wanted and was in-and-out of the ticketing office in under 5 minutes. Which was lucky because we had a 10 minute walk to catch the train that was leaving in 11 minutes. We made it though. Just.
The walk to the train platform was longer than the train ride itself, and pretty soon we disembarked into the absolute stupidity of Kyoto station. I remember it being crowded last time we visited Japan, but today's little venture was insanity. Our usual tactic of walking a straight line and picking paths confidently works again. Mostly. If you show weakness or uncertainty in a crowd like this, you will be trampled. If you stop, you will regret it.
What absolutely fascinates me, is that there is never any collisions. And I mean NEVER. We stood back and people-watched from an elevated position for a little while, and the crowd reminded me of a large group of ants. Have you ever watched ants scurry around in a large group? They never bump into each other, even when collisions are imminent. The train station crowd is exactly the same. Even when collisions are seemingly a certainty, the two parties stop, with their noses almost touching, change direction slightly and keep moving, as if magnetically polar opposed. Well, I found this interesting anyway, but that is just me.
We fought our way through the crowds, and out into daylight, and tried to get our barings. While wondering which way to head, Veronica noticed the stark absence of Kyoto tower, which is on the North side of the station (i.e. the side we wanted). Dammit. We were on the south side of this death trap. Back inside, and fought our way through the station to emerge on the North. That was a lot harder than it should have been.
The difficulty didn't end there. We also realised that while we knew roughly where our hotel was, we didn't have a map, and weren't sure of the address. What else could we do but wander in the general direction of the hotel and hope for a miracle? Sadly, a miracle never came, and after a frustrating 20 minute walk North West, we were assisted by a very nice pair of ladies from Singapore, who obviously could recognise a lost foreign family when they saw one. While they didn't know where the hotel was, they directed us to their accommodation, who had fluent English speaking staff, and they were able to direct us to our hotel (on the same street, but 10 minutes walk South).
So without any further hassle we headed to the hotel, checked in and wash shown to the room. We're staying in the Budget Inn at Kyoto. First impressions are that it is a small, but clean tatami mat hotel with basic conveniences. It has 4 beds and is quiet, which is enough for us.
After a short rest, we planned what to do today. Veronica suggested the Fushimi Inari shrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_I nari-taisha) which I didn't complain about, because it was something I wanted to see last time, but didn't get the time to do. I never bothered suggesting it because it is a huge walk, which I didn't think Veronica or Angela would be keen for. I was surprised Veronica suggested it.
After a short train ride to the station, which stops directly at the base of the shrine, we started the climb. The shrine mainly consists of a massive series of Tori gates extending up pathways built on Mount Inari.
The shrine wasn't as crowded as I was expecting, so we began the climb through the torii gates. As the climb, went on, and on, and on, we eventually reached a map which said we were about a 3rd of he way up the hill. Veronica reluctantly decided that it wasn't interesting enough for her to continue to the top, and When we explained to Angela that we'd have at least another hour of climbing ahead of her, she turned back too, unsurprisingly.
So Charlotte and I picked up the pace, and went very quickly in a half-walk half-jog to the top, stopping at each scenic/interesting point to grab photographs. Arriving at the top we were greeted by an excellent view back over Kyoto, as well as ice-cream, drink and souvenir vendors unsurprisingly. After some photos, and exploration of the headstones and mini shrines at the top of the hill, we decided to head back down.
We grabbed a soft serve ice cream for Charlotte. There was vanilla, soy bean and soy bean/vanilla mix. She unsurprisingly chose vanilla. Other cool things were present to explore such as the drinks being cooled in an icy flowing pool of mountain water instead of in the refrigerator. So with ice-cream in hand, we began our descent. She described it as the "best ice cream she's ever tasted", which makes what came next doubly sad.
About 5 minutes into the trip down the mountain, we were walking in single file to pass the people coming up the hill. That's when I heard a loud slap from behind me. Charlotte had fallen. Her hands hit the ground, and she twisted her ankle, but in tears all she could do was to repeatedly apologise for dropping what was left of her ice cream. A nice lady who knew some broken english turned around to help us. She took the shattered remains of Charlotte's poor ice cream in a bag, and very kindly offered band aids and ointments, which we didn't really need, but it was very kind of her to offer nonetheless.
As Charlotte was able to walk, we declined my offer to piggy-back her down the mountain, and walking on her ankle, slowly at first, seemed to improve it. But the time we'd reached the bottom she was walking normally, and still annoyed at herself for dropping the ice cream.
We met up with Veronica and Angela again, and headed back to Kyoto station. If I thought it was crowded before, I hadn't seen anything yet. On the way back we experienced our first bout of train stuffing. That is where the train is so full that the conductors have to push the last of the people through the train doors to enable them to shut. Most people were groaning and complaining (including Veronica) but I was actually having a great time. To me it was fascinating. I formed a cocoon around the girls to protect them from tramping (and also to prevent my wife from punching someone), then I broke out the camera and started snapping off photos. Many weird looks from the train passengers, but in contrast to my last trip to Japan, I simply don't care.
Another thing on my bucket list for this trip was Katsukura, a tonkatsu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu) store of international fame, started in Kyoto. So remembering that there was a restaurant on the 11th floor of Kyoto station, we headed up in a stupidly crowded lift. The Japanese are a very polite and gracious race, with the exception of MeFirstism. They will gladly push you out of the way to be first into a lift, or shop, or whatever. Or at least they are in Kyoto. In this particular lift we decided to wait at the front of the line for the next lift, because the pushing that ensued for the last lift. When it arrived, a pushy Japanese man and woman pushed past Veronica, myself and the girls to be first into the lift. They backed themselves into a corner, and considering both only came to approximately my shoulder, I decided to face them, and press them both into the back corner of the lift with my body while the rest of the crowd pushed in behind me. This would have been doubly painful for them because I was a foreigner. They looked satisfyingly uncomfortable, and the more upset and angry they looked, the harder I leaned against them. Good. I sincerely hope it was the most uncomfortable 11 floors of their life, and perhaps they will consider their actions next time, but I doubt it.
Katsukura, all in all, was nothing special. It certainly didn't match the hype, nor did it match the tonkatsu meal I had a few nights ago at Namba Parks. After a frustrating and undeserved line-up, the thoroughly overworked young guy working the restaurant floor came and took our order (while we were still standing in the line up in the hall outside of the restaurant). I had the "large fillet katsu" which consisted of a beef fillet, a large pile of cabbage, toasted sesame seeds to grind and make a dipping sauce, some pretty ordinary miso, and some rice. Veronica had the fillet and prawn combo, and the same deal applied, meat was nice, pile of cabbage was...well...a big pile of cabbage, and the rice and miso were forgettable. The 2 girls chose the chicken cutlet over the kids meal, and they said they were tasty, but even they were hungry afterwards. With the wallet ~ $70 lighter we left. Good, but not great. Forgettable, but I can at least say I've tried it.
We emerged out onto the top floor of the outdoor section of Kyoto station, and looked down onto the Christmas tree setup, and then onto the black sea of heads of the people in the main concourse of Kyoto station. The same station that we had to pass through to get out of here.
We started down the massive 5 story escalator with the other hundreds of people, and following the guidance of the people-traffic police (seriously) we got to the bottom, and damn was it crowded. We eventually made our way through it all, and out into the open.
As it was not yet dark, we decided to head up to Kyoto tower to cross another item off the to-do list. All in all it was very pretty, but exactly as you'd expect. Nothing too exciting to report. Sunset over Kyoto was nice, and crowds were acceptable, but we decided to head down before dark so we could just get home.
We decided to go into the massive Porta underground arcade outside of Kyoto station, and find ice-cream and coffees for desert. Geez were we kidding ourselves. A 50 person long line for just a starbucks coffee suggested that we were pretty much out of luck. Cutting out losses, we made for the surface, stopped in at a Lawsons for massive parfait sundaes, and headed back to the hotel for sleeps (at 6:30).
Was a little bit hesitant about going down for breakfast this morning. Breakfast at today's Toyoko Inn was listed as "miso soup, rice balls and coffee". I'm glad I took the risk, because while the advertisement was true, there was also sausages, eggs and onion, salad, potato salad and toast. Excellent breakfasts for the price (i.e. $0 with the already very cheap room).
After breakfast we returned to the room to pack. It is disappointing that not all Toyoko Inns have these "deluxe twin" rooms. They are fantastic.
With the bags backed and checkout done we headed back for Shin-Osaka station. Our first ride on the Shinkansen for the trip (albeit a very short 15 minute trip to Kyoto). The rail passes are initially expensive, but I wouldn't visit Japan without them. Walked in, showed the passes, said the name of the station I wanted and was in-and-out of the ticketing office in under 5 minutes. Which was lucky because we had a 10 minute walk to catch the train that was leaving in 11 minutes. We made it though. Just.
The walk to the train platform was longer than the train ride itself, and pretty soon we disembarked into the absolute stupidity of Kyoto station. I remember it being crowded last time we visited Japan, but today's little venture was insanity. Our usual tactic of walking a straight line and picking paths confidently works again. Mostly. If you show weakness or uncertainty in a crowd like this, you will be trampled. If you stop, you will regret it.
What absolutely fascinates me, is that there is never any collisions. And I mean NEVER. We stood back and people-watched from an elevated position for a little while, and the crowd reminded me of a large group of ants. Have you ever watched ants scurry around in a large group? They never bump into each other, even when collisions are imminent. The train station crowd is exactly the same. Even when collisions are seemingly a certainty, the two parties stop, with their noses almost touching, change direction slightly and keep moving, as if magnetically polar opposed. Well, I found this interesting anyway, but that is just me.
We fought our way through the crowds, and out into daylight, and tried to get our barings. While wondering which way to head, Veronica noticed the stark absence of Kyoto tower, which is on the North side of the station (i.e. the side we wanted). Dammit. We were on the south side of this death trap. Back inside, and fought our way through the station to emerge on the North. That was a lot harder than it should have been.
The difficulty didn't end there. We also realised that while we knew roughly where our hotel was, we didn't have a map, and weren't sure of the address. What else could we do but wander in the general direction of the hotel and hope for a miracle? Sadly, a miracle never came, and after a frustrating 20 minute walk North West, we were assisted by a very nice pair of ladies from Singapore, who obviously could recognise a lost foreign family when they saw one. While they didn't know where the hotel was, they directed us to their accommodation, who had fluent English speaking staff, and they were able to direct us to our hotel (on the same street, but 10 minutes walk South).
So without any further hassle we headed to the hotel, checked in and wash shown to the room. We're staying in the Budget Inn at Kyoto. First impressions are that it is a small, but clean tatami mat hotel with basic conveniences. It has 4 beds and is quiet, which is enough for us.
After a short rest, we planned what to do today. Veronica suggested the Fushimi Inari shrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_I nari-taisha) which I didn't complain about, because it was something I wanted to see last time, but didn't get the time to do. I never bothered suggesting it because it is a huge walk, which I didn't think Veronica or Angela would be keen for. I was surprised Veronica suggested it.
After a short train ride to the station, which stops directly at the base of the shrine, we started the climb. The shrine mainly consists of a massive series of Tori gates extending up pathways built on Mount Inari.
The shrine wasn't as crowded as I was expecting, so we began the climb through the torii gates. As the climb, went on, and on, and on, we eventually reached a map which said we were about a 3rd of he way up the hill. Veronica reluctantly decided that it wasn't interesting enough for her to continue to the top, and When we explained to Angela that we'd have at least another hour of climbing ahead of her, she turned back too, unsurprisingly.
So Charlotte and I picked up the pace, and went very quickly in a half-walk half-jog to the top, stopping at each scenic/interesting point to grab photographs. Arriving at the top we were greeted by an excellent view back over Kyoto, as well as ice-cream, drink and souvenir vendors unsurprisingly. After some photos, and exploration of the headstones and mini shrines at the top of the hill, we decided to head back down.
We grabbed a soft serve ice cream for Charlotte. There was vanilla, soy bean and soy bean/vanilla mix. She unsurprisingly chose vanilla. Other cool things were present to explore such as the drinks being cooled in an icy flowing pool of mountain water instead of in the refrigerator. So with ice-cream in hand, we began our descent. She described it as the "best ice cream she's ever tasted", which makes what came next doubly sad.
About 5 minutes into the trip down the mountain, we were walking in single file to pass the people coming up the hill. That's when I heard a loud slap from behind me. Charlotte had fallen. Her hands hit the ground, and she twisted her ankle, but in tears all she could do was to repeatedly apologise for dropping what was left of her ice cream. A nice lady who knew some broken english turned around to help us. She took the shattered remains of Charlotte's poor ice cream in a bag, and very kindly offered band aids and ointments, which we didn't really need, but it was very kind of her to offer nonetheless.
As Charlotte was able to walk, we declined my offer to piggy-back her down the mountain, and walking on her ankle, slowly at first, seemed to improve it. But the time we'd reached the bottom she was walking normally, and still annoyed at herself for dropping the ice cream.
We met up with Veronica and Angela again, and headed back to Kyoto station. If I thought it was crowded before, I hadn't seen anything yet. On the way back we experienced our first bout of train stuffing. That is where the train is so full that the conductors have to push the last of the people through the train doors to enable them to shut. Most people were groaning and complaining (including Veronica) but I was actually having a great time. To me it was fascinating. I formed a cocoon around the girls to protect them from tramping (and also to prevent my wife from punching someone), then I broke out the camera and started snapping off photos. Many weird looks from the train passengers, but in contrast to my last trip to Japan, I simply don't care.
Another thing on my bucket list for this trip was Katsukura, a tonkatsu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu) store of international fame, started in Kyoto. So remembering that there was a restaurant on the 11th floor of Kyoto station, we headed up in a stupidly crowded lift. The Japanese are a very polite and gracious race, with the exception of MeFirstism. They will gladly push you out of the way to be first into a lift, or shop, or whatever. Or at least they are in Kyoto. In this particular lift we decided to wait at the front of the line for the next lift, because the pushing that ensued for the last lift. When it arrived, a pushy Japanese man and woman pushed past Veronica, myself and the girls to be first into the lift. They backed themselves into a corner, and considering both only came to approximately my shoulder, I decided to face them, and press them both into the back corner of the lift with my body while the rest of the crowd pushed in behind me. This would have been doubly painful for them because I was a foreigner. They looked satisfyingly uncomfortable, and the more upset and angry they looked, the harder I leaned against them. Good. I sincerely hope it was the most uncomfortable 11 floors of their life, and perhaps they will consider their actions next time, but I doubt it.
Katsukura, all in all, was nothing special. It certainly didn't match the hype, nor did it match the tonkatsu meal I had a few nights ago at Namba Parks. After a frustrating and undeserved line-up, the thoroughly overworked young guy working the restaurant floor came and took our order (while we were still standing in the line up in the hall outside of the restaurant). I had the "large fillet katsu" which consisted of a beef fillet, a large pile of cabbage, toasted sesame seeds to grind and make a dipping sauce, some pretty ordinary miso, and some rice. Veronica had the fillet and prawn combo, and the same deal applied, meat was nice, pile of cabbage was...well...a big pile of cabbage, and the rice and miso were forgettable. The 2 girls chose the chicken cutlet over the kids meal, and they said they were tasty, but even they were hungry afterwards. With the wallet ~ $70 lighter we left. Good, but not great. Forgettable, but I can at least say I've tried it.
We emerged out onto the top floor of the outdoor section of Kyoto station, and looked down onto the Christmas tree setup, and then onto the black sea of heads of the people in the main concourse of Kyoto station. The same station that we had to pass through to get out of here.
We started down the massive 5 story escalator with the other hundreds of people, and following the guidance of the people-traffic police (seriously) we got to the bottom, and damn was it crowded. We eventually made our way through it all, and out into the open.
As it was not yet dark, we decided to head up to Kyoto tower to cross another item off the to-do list. All in all it was very pretty, but exactly as you'd expect. Nothing too exciting to report. Sunset over Kyoto was nice, and crowds were acceptable, but we decided to head down before dark so we could just get home.
We decided to go into the massive Porta underground arcade outside of Kyoto station, and find ice-cream and coffees for desert. Geez were we kidding ourselves. A 50 person long line for just a starbucks coffee suggested that we were pretty much out of luck. Cutting out losses, we made for the surface, stopped in at a Lawsons for massive parfait sundaes, and headed back to the hotel for sleeps (at 6:30).
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