Back to Tokyo via Kyoto

Our holiday was creeping towards its end, sadly, I mused as I watched the landscaped fly by on the Kyoto-bound Shinkansen... Still a couple of days to enjoy Japan, though!

We arrived in Kyoto (needless to say, on time), and made our way to the hotel, conveniently located near the main train station. As we got to the hotel, we had this odd feeling in our guts, kind of like cultural shock. Tourists, plenty of them! After almost a week in peaceful Kyushu, it was very strange to turn up at this hotel, filled with foreign tourists. This may sound a bit hypocritical (since we, obviously, were also tourists), but we almost felt disappointed, brought back to reality... One shouldn't be surprised of course, Kyoto is much more touristy than Tokyo, everybody who visits Japan comes here (with good reason, of course). Anyway, after an easy check-in (the good thing with being in Kyoto is that people speak English!), and dropping off our luggage, we hit the road. We had a rendez-vous with our dear friends Aude and Magaye (who were visiting Japan at the same time as us - fancy that eh?) in Gion.

After a brief ride on the metro we arrived in Gion (the old geisha district - which today has mostly been transformed into a shopping district), and managed to hoock up with Aude and Magaye (who were biking around Kyoto). We celebrated the happy reunion by having a drink, naturally! They had just arrived in Japan, but seemed already to be rather enthralled by this fascinating country.

Anyways, our stomachs were grumbling by now, so we decided to set about looking for a restaurant. We crossed the river to the area around Ponto-cho (a traditional district of Kyoto, where one can still find geishas today, apparently). We tried to find a couple of restaurants in our guide books, but gave up after a while, and just picked a restaurant more or less by random (it has worked very well for us so far). An excellent choice - we were once again treated to an absolutely delishous meal for a mear 12 Euros each (the waiter described the meal as "Japanese appetizers" - it was more like a set menu).

After our meal, we walked around for a bit in the main street of Ponto-cho - a place where the "old Kyoto atmosphere" is still well present. This is the area of Kyoto where geishas and maikos (apprentice geishas) can still be found - in fact I think we saw a few, discretely leaving a house in the street with some clients. At least that's what I like to imagine (there are a quite a few fake ones about as well, apparently). Plenty of discrete establishments in this street, where I reckon tourists like us would have a hard time gaining entry... ;-) We finished off the evening with a drink in an English pub. Yes, a bit sad, I suppose...

The next day, we met up early-ish, to do a bit of visiting, before me and Mathilde had to catch our train to Tokyo. We started by visiting the twin temples Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongan-ji, located near the train station. The temples are the main temples of the main branches of Shin-Buddhism (there was originally just one temple - the "split" was done by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in order to reduce the influence of the sect). The temples are quite similar, with the second and older one we visited (Nishi Hongan-ji) being the more impressive one. It is actually a UNESCO world heritage site.

The mandatory temple-visiting out of the way (the thought of visiting Kyoto without going to at least one temple is simply inconceivable!), we headed down to Nishiki, which is the covered food market of Kyoto. My kind of place! What you can't buy here food-wise, just ain't worth buying, I reckon. And what's best, a lot of the merchants sell nice little tasters/munchies for quite reasonable prices. Lunch-time was approaching, so we indulged ourselves a little bit ;-)

There is a nice shrine just next to the market - Nishiki Temmangu Shrine. Apparently, a scholar and poet, Sugawara Michizane, is worshipped here as a god of wisdom, study, good business. Interesting indeed ? At any rate, I rather liked this little, intimate shrine. We finished our visit in Tokyo with lunch in a noodle bar in the covered market. It was nice, but a bit expensive, we thought. I suppose we were in a rather touristy place...

Time for me and Mathilde to head back to Tokyo then, after saying our emotional goodbyes to Aude and Magaye. After a train journey that included a sighting of Mount Fuji, we arrived in Tokyo main station in the evening. After a fair bit of hiking, we eventually arrived at the dubiously named "Smile Hotel" (the place was a bit dodgy as well, to be honest!), located in the Asakusa district. After checking in and dropping of our stuff in the our room, we hit the streets to hunt for some food. We put our trust in our guide book, and ate in a traditional local eatery, which apparently dates to the Edo-era. I got the impression we were the first tourists to ever show up at the place, but we had no complaints about the food (no we can also say we've been to a Japanese steak house!).

After dinner, we decided to explore Asakusa by night a bit. It's obviously not a party district, and wasn't very lively, but we quite liked the place, anyway. It's got a nice working-class feel to it. And then there is Senso-ji, of course. This Buddhist temple was the first one we visited on our first trip to Japan, and remains our famous temple in Tokyo. It's very nice and atmospheric by night as well, as we witnessed tonight. After a quick stroll along the riverside (checking out the Tokyo Sky Tree across the river - the highest structure in Tokyo), we headed back to our hotel.

After a good night's sleep, we got up, ready for our last day in Japan (snif). We quickly checked out of our hotel, and made our way to downtown Asakusa, where we eventually managed to locate our accomodation for the coming night - a Capsule Hotel. Another one of those Japanese experiences that just has to be tried - more about that later. Having "checked in" (which basically amounted to putting our bags in a locker - there are no rooms as such in capsule hotels), we jumped on the metro train down to Shibuya.

Shibuya is one of the main districts in Tokyo for shopping, night-life and other important modern-day activities (it's also a well-known fashion district, apparently). There is also the famous Shibuya crossing, made famous by the film Lost in Translation.

It's a"scramble crossing", which stops all vehicule traffic, allowing pedestrians to filter across the crossing from all directions. We figured that the Starbucks overlooking the crossing was a pretty good place to have breakfast. The crossing wasn't at its busiest, but, you know, it's one of those Tokyo things to do ;-).

After a bit of "depato shopping" in Shibuya, we made our way to Omotosando, that Tokyiote version of the Champs-Elysee. We found a nice place, Oriental Bazaar, for souvenir shopping there, where we purchased yukatans and some other nice stuff. Our shopping spree done, we made our way back to Asakusa, where we had a rather excellent lunch at a random place next to the metro station (again, we were amazed at the value for money...). We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in Asakusa - there was a department store next to the train station, with plenty of cool stuff to bring home to Europe...

For the evening, our dear friend Matsuoka had planned a Tokyo night cruise with dinner for us. We met up in a bar at Ginza for a couple of pre-cruise beers, after which we made our way down to the river, from where we were catching the boat. I am normally not a big fan of these types of cruises (to me, they tend to be overpriced, the food tends to be bad, and they cram loads of people onto the boat), but given that we haven't had a single bad meal in Japan so far, we weren't overly worried. And I can confirm that it was indeed a very nice experience. The food was excellent, and the unlimited alcohol service (sake, beer and other stronger stuff) was nothing to be frowned upon either! (me and Matsuoka in particular made good use of that service).

After the cruise, Matsuoka joined us in Asakusa for a couple of drinks more in a nice little Izakaya. (and naturally a couple of sashimi - drinks usually come with snacks in Japan). A very nice to end an unforgettable Japanese holiday. After emotional (well, quite stoic actually, Matsuoka is Japanese, after all) goodbyes, we made our way to our capsule hotel.

So, as I've already mentioned, we spent our last night in Japan in a capsule hotel, another of those Japan experiences we wanted to try out. A capsule hotel is a cheap option for salary men who miss their last train home (perhaps due to having had a drink too many?). Basically you pay for a capsule, which basically contains a bed (as well as a TV and a radio, and an alarm you can set). A locker, a towel, slippers and a yukatan are also provided (along with a tooth brush). One could see it as the Japanese version of a youth hostel dormitory. Not a bad concept, actually! And pretty good value for money, especially if you travel on your own (we paid about 20 Euros per person for our  capsules).

So, a very Japanese experience to end our holiday, then... And as you have probably gathered if you've read the last few entries of my blog, a quite simply unforgettable one. Our last trip to Japan, a couple of years ago, left us both yearning to come back. And I have to say that my this second trip has, if anything, increased my fascination for this truly unique country. We will be back, that's for sure!