Japan Diaries-2

Japan Diaries-2

Overwhelming Kyoto-(Nara) Trip 26-27 Nov 2016

Minasan, Ohayo Gozaimasu (Good morning everybody :P) sukoshi Japanese!!

The trip started (hajimemashita) at around 5:25am on 26^th Nov.

Trip preparation started an evening before when started cooking food for the 3 days.. ya you heard it right 3 days.. I made chhole for 2 and poories for 3 days which generally does not get bad in mentioned number of days. Its in line with the fact that I am pure veg and don't even eat all vegitables too. And I didn't want to waste time in searching the veg food which is quite difficult to find in Japan. Hence I preferred like so.

We departed the hostel on our cycles. We were supposed to get the JR train of 6:01am from Hamamatsu. Pl note- here we means total 13 no. of people. We all gathered at eki (railway station) on time except Diksha san who made the plan to come by Shinkansen (expensive but fast train).

A fact dragged me in shocked state when I came to know that I forgot my mobile at room.. ya just forgot that... Shit shit shit was the actually feeling which I felt. Demo (but) it was not feasible to go back to room to get the mobile as Eki is around 3km from our Minami Iba Ryo (dormitory/hostel). I badly needed that just for the clicking the pictures. P.S. My mobile do clicks nice pictures with so much clarity.

For the 1^st two days there was not much problem as we all would be together and pics would not be the problem. But on the 3^rd day, yeah this trip was actually of 3 days for Gaurav and Me who planned to go to Osaka for Universal Studio.

But I got slightly (chotto) relaxed when I asked Arup for his mobile for 3^rd day and he affirmed.

So we 12 ppl boarded for our way to Kyoto... It was not so much cold so we were enjoying the weather.

We arrived Kyoto at around 10:00. People started taking some breakfast from combini (small convenient stores).

Combini- In Japan you can find these in every city like 7/11, lawson etc. These remains open for 24 hours and almost all much needed things can be purchased from here.

I already had milk and breakfast prior to leaving the hostel. So I dint find any need to eat any thing that time.

We opted for the bus pass to visit full day in Kyoto.

One day pass a kind of method by which we can take numerous rides in the bus in whole day. Its available almost everywhere in Japan. Costs around 600-1000 Yen..

Our trip planner was Pranjal. Doumo Arigato gozaimashita (thank you very much).

Plan- Day-1- Fushimi Inari, Kinkakuji temple followed by Kiyomizu dera.

So 1^st one was Fushimi Inari which is mainly famous for lots n lots of tori gate. Tori gate is the entrance gate at every temple in Japan and its shape more or less similar.

We had lots of expectation of autumn colors (koyo) in our mind. But this first location quite disappointed us all as very few tree leaves had turned into red. But Tori gate looked awesome so we clicked takusan takusan shashin (lots of pictures). We walked on Inari yama (mount Inari). We spent around 2-3 hours there. We started feeling hungry so stayed a little more there to have our lunch from own cooked lunch boxes.

Our next destination was Kinkakuji Temple. Its kind of Golden Temple. Weather was so good so we were enjoying along with it. (ii tenki deshita) It was nice place. Our earlier disappointment was disappeared when we saw autumn color everywhere at this location. We really felt it great to see such a beautiful scenery. So mochiron (obviously) took a lots of pictures there.

Note- This is best reason to visit the Kyoto due to Autumn season when every leaves turn into red, just like flower.

Our next destination was Kiyomizu dera. We got back to Kyoto eki to move to next one. We could see a small but good fountain there. That was good enough.

For kiyomizu dera, We heard that some light show would be there but frankly speaking it can be summarized like.. naam bada darshan chhota.

In the name of light show, just lighting was available on the tress to make those shine and radiant.

There rain also started (ame ga futte imashita). Many of us thought that is it artificial/ is it snow... But actually it was rain. Its already turned into so dark.. (mou kuraku narimashita).

After that we all gathered a restaurant Chakra where Indian food was available. Actually it was Bangladesh restro. So had dinner there. (I already had food with me so had that only :P).

Now we moved to nearby eki by bus to reach at our apartments which were booked online.

2 apartments was there so we divided into 2 grps.

So here comes the name of all 13 people who were there in our trip. 1^St grp- Arup, Gaurav, Ankur Garg, Me, Arpita, Mona and Diksha (Zembu, total-7ppl).

2^nd grp- Pranjal, Amit, Ankur Jha, Jagdeesh, Sameer, Rudra (6 ppl).

After arriving to eki we boarded to different trains to reach our staying place. Arup had internet so we with the help of GPS we could easily reach the site.

Now the real suspense begins... House was locked digitally. We didn't find any person there who can tell how to enter inside. Now call was made to the AnkurJha, who booked the apartment to ask what to do. We tried to call the owner of the apartment but it was not being picked up. It was 11:00PM and ame ga futte imashita (it was raining too). We just has one alphabetic code in mail but at lock only numeric keys were available.

We looked for ny person nearby but it was helpless. We met with a person in just nearby restaurant but I think he was frightened and just said wakaranai (Dont know) and closed the gate.

We tried calling again and again but it was all useless. I searched out other method of communication and mailed & msged too. 2^Nd grp was also continuously trying to be in touch with owner. After may be around half an hour, they could get in touch to get a pdf mentioning the code and method how to get into the apartment.

1^st code entered then small box opened whr we found a lock (with numeric lock) so after 2^nd code we opened lock to find the key inside the lock.. I know it wud be quite difficult to understand but ya it was this much complicated at least for the persons like us who were facing this for the first time..

So finally we could get into it. It was so much spacious with all facilities inside. Just after getting in we did nothing but sleep.

Plan- Day-2:  Togetsukyo bridge- Arashiyama Bamboo- Sightseeing boat. Then Nara- Nara park, deer park (todaiji Temple)

As per the plan we aimed for Arashiyama, which is famous for Bamboo tree, as

we planned to foregather at Arashiyama eki at around 8 but due to raining all day as predicted, we started little late. We (1^st grp) took the train from katsura to Arashiyama, just after boarding Diksha san noticed that she left her kasa (umbrella) at the bench of eki. As she liked her umbrella So we decided to go back by next train. We arrived there back and saw one person was carrying the umbrella so Diksha san talked with him and took umbrella from him, thank god we were just in time. Little late and she would have lost her umbrella forever.

We had clicked photos outside the arashoiyama eki. Lots n lots of koyo (autumn color) was available. Started taking pics below one tress whose leaves fell on the transparent umbrella which created such a stunning look of it. Everybody tempted to click pics with that naturally made designed umbrella.

Just walking for few time we arrived at Togetsukyo Bridge where we witnessed the so magnificent beauty of nature. It was too fascinating to express in the words. If this was so mesmerizing then obviously we spent quite a lot time to enjoy and clicking pics.

Later on we moved to Arashiyama-Bamboo groove. The place is famous for bamboo tress. It was raining continuously as per full day rain prediction. It was not so much heavy and we all had carrying the umbrella so daijoubu deshita (no problem). Still due to consistency of rain, it drenched us all along with our bags. Bambooo tree location was aesthetically so pleasing.

We already left the planning of getting the sightseeing boat due to continue rain. The crossing through Bamboos was around 2 km.

Just after this crossing we arrived to the location where we saw the boating location of Ōi River.

So thought twisted back and we decided to take the boat. Boat was covered from top and sides too just not to allow rain to come inside. It was such an awesome scenery over these. Hills looked so good with autumn colors.

Interesting thing happened when a other boat came near to ours for selling the goods !! Ya river shopping sounds omoshiroi ne (interesting). Some people took some specialized famous drink n enjoyed the boating. Overall totemo omoshirokatta desu.

After it we went to nearby eki to get the train to Nara- our next destination. We arrived there at around 5pm. There we could see lots of deer roaming freely. (just like dogs in our country). We quickly moved for Todaiji temple but hard luck it was already closed. So we could not witnessed a very large statue of Buddha.

But we clicked the pics with deer. And decided to go back to the Nara eki.

From there I and Gaurav got separated from group for our 3^rd day plan to Osaka- USJ (I expect to post the detail in my next post)

Overall it was an overwhelming trip (Title of the trip :P)