Travelling is how one escapes reality. Or at least in my book, whenever I travel, I would feel like a free soul. At times, I would even feel as if I've retired happily :') That'll be my goal la to retire happily with a lot of money.
So my journey began with a night flight out from KLIA(Malaysia) to Changi(Singapore) airport via Singapore airlines. I don't know how but I managed to injure some vein on my forehead near my eyebrow in the plane from KL to SG. The pain was so bad that I swear I started praying that I wont faint or touch wood die on the plane due to a mysterious headache. T_T After a horrendous 45 minutes, we arrived at SG and I looked pretty half-dead.
Now, this is where SG's Krisflyer lounge came in. While waiting for our flight to Osaka, courtesy of my aunty, me and my sister got to rest in the Krisflyer lounge. I still had a minor headache when we got to the lounge but I stumbled upon my favorite cream based pumpkin soup and tomato juice. I initially thought that airport lounges food would be like so-so only la. But surprisingly, their food was really good. The pumpkin soup was so nice I wanted seconds, their fry mee-hoon was so yummy in that one hour span the tray was already replenished twice. Oh and there was also fish that tasted pretty nice too. (plus I'm not a fan of fish)
Fast forward to next morning, me and my family has safely arrived at Osaka! and Osaka was really really cold!
When we arrived, my mami and aunty went to collect our JR Passes as well as to book our shinkansen seats from Osaka to Kyoto at Kansai airport's JR Ticket office.
This holy JR pass is like a must have if you are planning to cover a lot of places in Japan. Now let's have mathematics 101 with Candy.
Price of this pass (JR Ordinary pass - 7 days): 30,000yen-ish( i think it was below that )
Shinkansen/JR trips that I can recall:
Shin Osaka-Kyoto: 1,420yen
Kyoto-Hiroshima: 11,090
Hiroshima-Kyoto:11,090
Kyoto-Kanazawa:7000
Toyama-Kanazawa:3,300yen
Kanazawa-Omiya: 13,590yen
Omiya-Shinjuku: 1,500yen
Total: 39,390yen (excluding normal 'in-the'city' train trips & tourist bus fare) That's close to saving slightly more than RM300 = more money to spend on food & shopping! ♡
The train ride to Kyoto was pleasant, in fact all our shinkansen rides were nice. Even their toilets were better than a plane's toilet.
The first thing we did after arriving at Kyoto station was check into the hotel we were staying at. The hotel we stayed during our Kyoto trip was Hotel New Hankyu Kyoto. For odd reasons, I spent 3 nights in that hotel but I forgot to take any photos of it. So the photos above were photos of the room I was staying taken from Tripadvisor's website. The accomodation was nice, I liked the tatami-sort-of setting very much. What I did not like was the shower in my room.
After we left our luggage with the hotel staff, we went to Kyoto station's underground mall, Porta! We after all the walking and traveling, of course we had to feed our belly. And of course, what's better than having ramen as your first meal in Japan ♡ Look at all the displays!! Almost every restaurant in Japan has these cute cute cute super duper ultra kawaii yummy displays y'know!!! ♡♡♡
We tried a miso base & another clear one. Personally preferred the miso one more. I'm always into stronger flavors and thicker broth so yup! ♡
After brunch, we got a cab to Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) Along the way to the temple, we passed by shops selling all sorts of snacks and souvenirs! It felt touristy but my sis bought a kendama from one of the shops and it was only selling for 650yen!
Since it was winter, by the time we were there I guess a lot of the trees were already bald :( But even though that, the scenery was still a beautiful one. Amber leaves during fall season are always my favorite sights to savor.
After visiting Kiyomizu dera, we took a short stroll to Gion. Along the way we passed by this totoro place. I'm not sure if it's a cafe or what but the displays were just so cute!
We passed by this souvenir shop that sells biscuits and my mom mentioned that during her previous visit to Kyoto with my aunt, they went into this shop and they were giving out food samples. Surprisingly after years, they're still giving out food samples ♡ The green tea biscuit the shop assistant gave me was really good and yummy, and I regret not buying it back home T_T
Initially I was thinking "weather so cold, summore want to eat ice cream???" But turns out, it was really nice to stroll along the streets of Japan while eating an ice cold green tea ice cream ♡
Gion was a really nice and peaceful area to walk around. Just before dinner time, we got a cab back to the hotel and went down to Porta at Kyoto station again to get dinner.
This time we had udon and rice for dinner. Food was good, and so far I'm pretty happy with Japanese food. During the entire trip, I don't think i've recalled eating anything I absolutely hated?
Just before heading back to the hotel, we got some snacks and drinks from Lawson for tomorrow's breakfast because we'll be on the train to Hiroshima early morning. And I just had to say, this meiji milk is hands down the best milk I've tasted! ♡♡♡ Definitely missing it now :(
This sums up my day 1 in Kyoto! College has started but hopefully I'll be able to update more often! Every year I make the same resolution to blog more constant, even if the posts will be short, I still fail to do so, hopefully this year I'll be able to achieve it!
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