Wowzers. I’m not sure why these posts are all so long! I keep thinking I’ll get two or three days into one post, but then I write about a single day and feel I have to call it quits because of all the text and pictures! I think I just packed all of these days so full. No wonder it was such a fun trip.

Sunday was my first day that I really needed an alarm and really didn’t want to get out of bed. I think it was a combination of the jet lag finally wearing off and the fact that I was literally boxed into my own personal little bunk cocoon, but I did not want to emerge as a beautiful butterfly when my alarm told me to at eight in the morning.

I think I finally made it out of bed after a little tossing and turning so I could make it in time for the free breakfast downstairs. It was a very simple breakfast of exactly two toast slices with my choice of two jams and/or butter, served with a cup of black tea or coffee. And yet, it was somehow weirdly formal. The hostel woman used little tongs to carefully dispense my two white bread slices onto a plate and then directed me to a super fancy little water-assisted toaster oven. All very strange, but the breakfast was somehow delightfully relaxing and delicious. Idk man.

Before leaving Osaka, I decided to hit up one area I had missed the day before on my little online itinerary: the Doguyasuji Arcade. This is another covered shopping street, but this one is famous for its cooking supplies, so I thought I would give it a try.

    

It was mostly just an hour of me trying not to buy everything I saw. In the end, I managed to escape with only one tiny wooden spoon and a little ceramic kumquat dish that I’m obsessed with. I think it will just sit on my bedside table and hold my necklaces until I figure out some higher purpose for it.

I also really wanted to buy a fancy Japanese cooking knife but was well aware that this would not be allowed inside my carry-on backpack on the way back home. Struggles.

I mean, seriously. Look at all these beautiful dishes!

    

Luckily, I had my already-uncomfortably-heavy backpack resting on my back to remind me that I had no room to buy a new table set for home. Thank goodness.

On my way to one last area, the Kita district, I was sidetracked by a bakery, so I stopped in to munch on this deliciously buttery, mini pound cake-type thing.

Mmmmm… I should make some pound cake.

The funny thing is, the closest train station to the Kita district was the main Osaka station, and once I got there, I did a little survey of my surroundings and a little Google searching. I realized the Kita district mostly just offered more shopping, and I decided I was kind of tired of that, so I re-entered the train station and wished Osaka a lovely day as I zipped off for neighboring Kyoto!

It was such a good decision.

When I got to Kyoto station, I took a hot second just to admire the main terminal building.

So fancy! It reminded me of King’s Cross in London.

And then I happened upon this mouthwatering dish in a 7-11 and could not refuse.

Look at it!!! It was like three? Four bucks? For such deliciousness! Ugh.

Now, I did have to deal with the weirdness of public eating again, but I don’t know what else they expect me to do! I don’t have anywhere else to go! I literally walked all the way over to the bus bays to find a little one-man bench thing, and then I sat facing the wall so that I wouldn’t have to be subject to the disapproving stares of passersby. It was still delicious, though, and I paired it with a grapefruit juice.

My plan after lunch was to follow as much of an Eastern Kyoto eight-hour itinerary as I could manage seeing as it was now well-past noon. I ran into a little hiccup on the bus, though, because I didn’t realize it was the sort of bus that drove all the way to its (and my) final destination and then immediately reversed the route without so much as a pause or announcement.

After some indeterminate amount of time, I checked my map and saw that we were just a few stops away from my target. Satisfied, I went back to blogging and sight-seeing. After another few minutes, I checked my map again, only to find that we were now somehow further from my target. That’s when my error hit me, and I jumped off at the next stop.

I hemmed and hawed for a couple minutes as I tried to decide if I should pay for another bus to get me back to where I was meant to be, but then I realized I was right across the street from a gorgeous shrine.

Ha! I thought. Take that, itinerary!

This unnecessary gloating was a little premature, though, as I noticed just a few minutes later that this shrine was actually halfway down the itinerary anyway. I was visiting the Yasaka Shrine, and it was bright and shining in vermillion.

Next, I wound my way through Maruyama Park, admiring the greenery, hanging out in the shade, and watching all the photoshoots of girls in rental geisha costumes.

I saw a couple more rickshaws here, too! Poor guys. This was another blazingly hot day.

At the top of the park was a cemetery littered with signs warning of the wild monkeys in the area.

    

Then I paid my entrance fee to the Kodaji Zen Temple which is known for its gardens, especially during the fall color season.

There were lots of fun views to take in here.

My favorite of all, though, was the back of this giant head!

If you recall, a couple days before this, I had a bit of a missed opportunity in Kamakura when I arrived to see the giant Buddha statue right after closing. I saw this giant stone statue in the distance and knew it was my time for redemption!

This realization put a big ol’ smile on my sweaty, overheated face, and my happiness grew even more when I came up to a small bamboo grove.

So pretty. My favorite thing to do whenever I saw these super tall bamboo stalks was to knock on their trunks. It is astoundingly rigid and makes a perfect hollow knocking sound, almost as if it was made of some super durable ceramic. I tried to take a video of this sound, but my phone is silly and does not start recording until a full second or two after the record button is pressed. This means that my video was just me taking my hand away from the bamboo stalk. Not very exciting.

The next adventure was to visit the giant mystery statue!

This statue, the Ryozen Kannon, turned out to be a war memorial and a Buddhist temple. I was nearly alone inside the temple walls, save for one tall European gentleman.

The statue itself depicts the Goddess of Mercy.

I enjoyed wandering around the temple grounds to explore the small shrines and artifacts in the area while also getting different views of the Goddess.

But my favorite view was definitely straight on with the gorgeous green mountains in the background.

Reluctantly bidding the temple adieu, I continued on to the Higashiyama District, famous for its winding shopping streets lined with traditional shops and scurrying little tourists dressed as geishas.

I don’t know why, but when I discovered this store, I found myself wishing I knew someone who was obsessed with frogs so I could buy them some of the cutest souvenirs ever.

This was a fun area to wander because the streets were so full of life right down to the winding, hilly design of the streets themselves.

I was also obsessed with this soap which felt like slimy mochi.

After all my wanderings, I finally came to the good stuff: ice cream! I was going to do another matcha, but I decided to change it up because this place had so many flavors. I went with the kyohou which is a type of Japanese grape. It just sounded refreshing in the moment.

In retrospect, I wish I would have tried the red bean instead, because this was the only time I saw red bean soft serve, and the grape ended up being sooooo sweet! It was difficult to eat the whole thing! It honestly was like eating grape Fanta flavored ice cream. Yummy, but very powerful.

I did some more shopping (and came across some sweet potato ice cream – didn’t get it, though).

And then I arrived at the top of this winding shopping street to reach the breathtaking Kiyomizudera temple!

The area was fairly crowded but still held that magical calm that people possess when they know they are in such a sacred place. It was so wonderful.

    

The vermillion (that’s the orange color you keep seeing) temple buildings in front of me were lovely, but when I turned around, I was met with sweeping views of Kyoto below me! So gorgeous!

There really were so many temple buildings here, though. I think this was one of the largest temples I’d visited so far.

    

    

It took me so long to get that people-less picture.

There was this funny little platform that offered unobstructed views of the landscape below, but when I first arrived there, people were literally waiting in a mushy line to take individual pictures next to the railing. After a few minutes of standing and admiring the view of the silly people, though, there was a second of hesitation during an exchange, and a couple people ran down to take pictures of the landscape at the edge of the railing. I joined them. It was great.

And yet more greatness.

But don’t forget: we were also tucked up into mountainous greenery!

Apparently a lot of that green was pink just a month or two earlier. I can only imagine how breathtaking that view would have been.

I hiked over a little bit to another pagoda and was able to get a view of the main temple across the way which is famous for its wooden stage up on stilts. I went into the temple, but no pictures were allowed. It was nice and cool in there and people lined up to ring a large bowl-shaped drum that sounded like a gong. It was mesmerizing.

Here’s the pagoda:

Another feature this temple is famous for is this “waterfall.”

Normally, a small pool of water will have a calm fountain trickling into it, and worshippers can approach the space and spoon the water into their hands with wooden ladle. There is a short ritual to perform at these fountains: water to the left hand, water to the right hand, drink (seems optional), and then clap and/or bow. The same ritual was performed here, but instead of spooning the water from a small, easy-to-reach pool, worshippers had to use long-handled ladles to reach one of three water trickles in front of them.

I was at the base of the temple now, after hiking back down the mountain, and I was able to get a different view of the spaces I had just visited.

    

As I walked back down the winding shopping streets, I passed by a large pagoda that was part of the Hokanji Temple.

    

And just across from this was a very, very, very intriguing temple that had just closed. All the doors were shut, but whenever someone inside had to exit, a woman inside would open the door just a sliver, practically shove the visitor outside, and then shut the door again. During this funny occurrence, I was able to see bunches and bunches of colorful balls hanging inside the temple walls. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but I knew I wanted to come back and find out. (Foreshadowing.)

And with that, I had officially come to the end of my itinerary. There’s a catch, though: I’d started in the middle! So I jumped on a bus and rode it back up to the top of the itinerary, paying close attention to my stop this time. On the bus, we passed the Heian Shrine and I made a note that I wanted to return here, as well.

The start of the itinerary was Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion, but I was unsurprised to find that it was closed by this time. Some temples and Shrines have grounds and spaces that are open all day long with no entrance fees, but the ones that do have entrance fees almost all close between four and five. It was about 5:30 by the time I arrived here.

But no matter! I climbed a bunch of stairs and explored a smaller temple that was open and free.

And then I walked along the famous Philosopher’s Path. This path along a creek is lined with cherry trees, so it is one of the most sought-after locations for seeing the cherry blossoms in April.

Along this path were over a dozen temples and shrines, and every time I came to a sign indicating the direction of one of these, I had to decide whether I would hike up the mountain to see it or not. The first time I went to explore was for the Honen-In Temple.

It is said to be good luck to pass between the two beds of sand that lead to the main temple building.

I was all alone in here, with nothing but the quiet and the wind for company. It was divine.

The space was not huge, but it was cozy and magical.

I do not recall the story here, but at one point, I came across this accumulation of large crystalline stones.

On my way to the next temple, I passed through a cemetery.

    

And a very small playground with a very, very, very short swing. I swung. But it was practically impossible to keep my feet off the ground.

And then I came to Anrakuji Temple, which was backed by a small bamboo grove.

I was alone here, as well, and these gardens were also lovely.

Then, finally, to the Reikanji Temple.

A little farther down the Philosopher’s Path, I came to the Otoyo Shrine.

This one was nice, but it was also a bit spooky because I was still completely alone, and now it was starting to get dark.

I had a really hard time deciding what to do after this, because I wanted to try going back to the Heian Shrine, but it would take me about fifteen minutes to get there on quiet roads in the dark. I walked for another minute or two before I finally decided it wasn’t for me. I’d just have to try to make it back over to the Eastern part of the city on another day. I hopped on a bus and got off in the center of town, relieved to be surrounded by people again.

I got a pork bun at a Family Mart (the best convenience store) because I was pretty hungry at this point.

And then I made my way back to the hostel to meet up with my cousins and the rest of the group! I hadn’t seen them in a few days, so it was nice to drop off my stuff and settle in. They were playing poker up on the roof of our hostel, and it was nice and cool up there.

The group had rented private rooms, with the two couples each in a double room, and Katie had gotten her own room with bunk beds. So it worked out perfectly that I could share Katie’s room with her and split the costs! It was honestly a really nice room. I prefer this smaller, bunk bed-style room (still with a really nice bathroom and amazing toiletries) for less than half the price of a standard hotel. Hostels are the best.

I was tuckered out by this point, and the group had agreed to meet for breakfast at eight, so I knew I had better get some shut-eye for the full day ahead! Stay tuned for more.

私はあなたに最高を祈ります/ best wishes,

-Lizzy-wa