Hello all!
Firstly, sorry for the total lack of blogging, I've been spending every waking minute with my family and totally ignoring the internet honestly.
But! We're going to Kyoto for Christmas and its only right to blog about that.
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Day 1 (24th)
Got on the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station, spend about 2 1/2 hours on the train. Brief horror when we went through a very very snowy patch, which we weren't even slightly prepared for. Luckily, there's no snow here.
Also finally got to see Mt. Fuji!
Took a taxi to our hotel and then my family went to walk about the Imperial Palace Gardens and I relaxed for the afternoon. I haven't had proper downtime in so long!
For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant called Avocado, which was delicious.
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Day 2 (25th. Christmas!)
Da and I woke up early and went and did an hour and a half of aikido at Aikido Kyoto.
Sensei Yoko Okomoto (who's dojo it is) is good friends with my father's Sensei, so it was really nice to meet her properly. I also went to her class in Tokyo when she taught at the IAF back in September.
Came back and the 4 of us went to do a walk called The Philosopher's Path and see some temples.
The walk wasn't outstanding, but the temples were really beautiful!
On the walk we saw a bunch of cats, apparently there's a massive Cat Cafe around there which was closed so they were all just hanging around the path.
What can I say? I love cats.
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| this photo is from my parents camera, props. |
The last temple we went to, Ginkaku-ji, was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!
Unfortunately my camera was on the verge of dying the whole walk so I was much more sparing than usual with the photos.
Da and I came back and read our books in our respective rooms for an hour or so whilst mum and Magnus wandered about this arcade near by.
For (christmas) dinner we went out for traditional Nepali food, which was so so delicious!
Walked around the aforementioned arcade for a bit, found an awesome vintage store that I will go back to, and may give all my money ever to. Plus Magnus said there's an army surplus store right next to it (it was already closed) which I must go to because I'm looking for something.
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Day 3 (26th)
Well, so far not so great. I woke up an hour ago with a slightly sore throat and terribly congested sinuses. I''m hoping if I get some food and a walk I've feel better, maybe it's just the stuffy hotel air.
We went to Fushimi Inari-taisha which is the head Inari shrine in the world.
Meaning it's dedicated to foxes.
There are thousands and thousands of Torii gates which you walk through for a few kilometres which is really beautiful.
Really nice walk all in all, a lot of steps though.
For dinner we went out for pizza which was lovely, I love spending time with my family.
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Day 4 (27th)
Woke up, Magnus and I are both so ill. Poor us!
Anyway. We went out to Arishiyama vi the cutest little street tram.
Once there we went to the bamboo forest, which is ok to walk about but not exactly mind blowing.
From there we walked 15 minutes or so to the Arishiyama Monkey Park, where there are heaps of wild monkeys.
So goddamn awesome! You can go into this room thing ('human cage') and feed them, or hang out outside with them (without food!) and there was even an awesome view of Kyoto. Really really good.
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| the poor Beatles... |
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| I feel safer in the human cage. |
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Day 5 (28th)
Yuck, me mum and magnus are all still sick!
Went to a museum for a while in the rain, I watched a half hour documentary on various techniques for dyeing kimonos, pretty interesting.
Went out for lunch.
Got the train back to Tokyo.
Thrilling.
I'm sorry but I'm ill and cannot think much more.
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Hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!
