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| Green Tea in Kyoto’s Ohkuchi Garden’s |
As I had mentioned in the previous blog, on the second leg of this adventure we will be in a port every day.. After the grand send off from Shimizu, we sailed into the port of Osaka shortly after waking up Saturday morning.
Osaka is Japan’s third largest city (pop. 2.7 million) and like much of Japan, has a blend of a deep cultural history and a modern progressive presence. About an hour from Osaka is the city of Kyoto, which has been proclaimed to be the “Cultural Capital of Japan”.
While we will still only scratch the surface of this area, we were happy to know that we would be in port overnight. This would at least give us the better part of two days to take in as much of the area as possible. We decided that since Kyoto was over an hour away that we’d spend the first day there, saving Osaka for day two.
Beyond deciding on what day we’d devote to what city, we hadn’t done a whole lot of planning (living up to our names Beth’s mom gave us “The Traveling Idiots”).
We were confident that by simply stepping off the ship that we’d find an independent tour operator that would whisk us away to see the highlights of Kyoto. Well…….we were wrong! There wasn’t a tour operator in sight. Not really a problem however, because there was a train station nearby. We knew it would require a little effort to figure it out, but that we, along with a few others heading in the same direction could master getting from the port of Osaka to Kyoto by public transportation. Well……we did, but it wasn’t easy. It required three different stations and transfers each way. One of which was through Osaka’s main station to get us (and what seemed like a significant portion of Japan’s population) to the Kyoto central station. The travel time was about an hour and a half, with much of that time spent figuring out what to do next.
Once we arrived at Kyoto’s central station we found the tourist information desk and picked up a few suggestions for our one day visit. After a little confusion on finding the right train platform to take us where we wanted to go, we decided to walk (approximately 2 miles). Thanks in part to Google Maps, it was a good decision that allowed us to see parts of Kyoto at street level.
Our first area of interest we wanted to see was the Fushimi Imari-Taisha Shrine. The original shrine was built in the 7th century and remains one of Japan’s most sacred and iconic locations. In addition to the large shrine, there are numerous other shrines along the 2+ miles path. The main path is made even more interesting by the thousands of orange gates that give it a “tunnel like” appearance. After enjoying the area for a bit of time we decided to head towards the second area that had been recommended to us, the Arashiyama district, in Kyoto’s western outskirts.
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| In front of the shrine |
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| Each gate was donated by a Japanese business |
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| A few of the thousands of gates leading up the mountain path |
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| It’s a Japanese style pancake (Okonomiyaki). It’s crispy and pretty darn good. Ours had Wagyu Beef in it. |
We had a little snafu that slowed us down a bit. After a bit of head scratching we figured out we had gone to a subway station instead of a train station. Thankfully, once we figured things out it was easy and inexpensive ( a couple of dollars) to get back on the correct route.
There are multiple areas of interest in the Arashiyama district, including the Tenryuji Temple which is a UNESCO world heritage site. We were about templed and shrined out, so the temple wasn’t on our “to do” list, but there were some amazing sites that we enjoyed. Our favorites were the Bamboo Forest, Ohkouchi Samson Garden and strolling near the Togetsu-kyo Bridge. As the sun started to set we figured it was time to start making our way back to Osaka. While we still haven’t mastered the Japanese Rail System, we’re getting there! No real misadventures on our return journey!
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| The Bamboo Forest…..we weren’t alone. Beth shot the picture on an upward angle to cut out the crowd. |
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| Garden Entrance |
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| Starting to get a little fall color! |
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| The garden was created by a famous Japanese silent film star named Ohkouchi Denjirou |
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| Togetsu-kyo Bridge |
We’re now finishing up day 2 in Osaka. The ship leaves in a few minutes. After yesterday’s big adventure we opted to simply hang out in the port area today. The area is bustling with a marketplace, a giant Ferris Wheel that lights up the sky at night and the Osaka Aquarium. We loved the aquarium, which is listed as one of the best in the world. It featured two massive Whale Sharks that were clearly the feature attractions in an aquarium that was full of amazing displays.
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| It constantly changed color and even had fish swimming across it sometimes. This picture was taken from our balcony. We enjoyed sitting, relaxing and watching the show. |
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| A couple of Giant Crabs in front of the Kaiyukan Osaka Aquarium |
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| That’s a Whale of a Shark! |
We continue to be so impressed with everything about Japan. Friendly people, incredible things to see and do, and an efficient (although somewhat confusing way to get around) rail system.
