Woodblocks and Cup Noodle, our last full day

Posted on January 9, 2020 · 6 mins reading time

We started the day with weighing our bags. We left Australia with 18kg across our two bags and we have managed to double that with the weight of books and other souvenirs ^_^ As soon as we walked out of the hotel we saw a beautiful Nissan Skyline R35 GTR. Burble burble happy noises… from me, the car sounded great too! Kamigata Ukioye Museum is in the Nanba area of Osaka, not far from the main train station. [Read More]

Osaka Castle and oodles of Noodles

Posted on January 6, 2020 · 5 mins reading time

Let’s start the day with some quick floof. Japan, no. Pepsi, plz no. Osaka Castle was today’s thing to visit. There’s an extended garden next to it, but that’s not open on Mondays, so we might come back on another day. This was an interesting place to explore. Visually spectacular from the outside, but once you’re inside it’s like you’re in any other museum or art space. Built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as much as any structure is by the daimyo. [Read More]

Kyoto to Osaka with Manga

Posted on January 5, 2020 · 6 mins reading time

Today’s a transit day, we are leaving Kyoto and heading back to Osaka. Given it’s only a half hour train away, we have some time to kill between the 11am check out and the 3pm check in at the new place. The news from home isn’t getting any better, but the art showing what a clusterfuck our political leaders are has really started to catch its stride. The only real plan we had today was to head to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. [Read More]

Nijo Castle, last full day in Kyoto

Posted on January 4, 2020 · 6 mins reading time

Waking up to more news of the horror befalling my home country wasn’t a great start. Fuck the liberals. Fuck Murdoch. Fuck everyone that’s had anything to do with the policies and corruption that have led to this truly horrifying state. That includes me I’m sure, so well, fuck me. This is going to be a short post for sure. Today was the day of “please don’t take photos here” places. [Read More]

Torii, Silver and the Palace

Posted on January 3, 2020 · 8 mins reading time

So it’s Friday the third, our second last full day in Kyoto and our first goal is to see Fushimi Inari Taisha and the Senbon Torii (The Thousand Torii Gates). A quick walk down the hill to the Kiyomizu-Gojo station of the Keihan line and we’re on our way to Fushimi-Inari station, the start of the Kyoto Trail. We’d seen these markers along the way to Shogunzaka, and a few times since, but this was #1! [Read More]

Arashiyama Adventuring

Posted on January 2, 2020 · 5 mins reading time

Today we’re doing things in Arashiyama, western Kyoto. A bus to the train station, then on the JR West train to Saga-Arashiyama station. Oh how I’ve missed trains. Kyoto is a very bus-centric city and Google Maps just isn’t great at indicating where bus stops are around here. You can keep the free internet of the big cities, and their automatic doors, just give me my rail-riding steeds. Off the train and through the suburban streets to a small section of bamboo forest walk before visiting Nonomiya Shrine, a Shinto shrine. [Read More]

Golden Pavilion and Kembu

Posted on January 1, 2020 · 6 mins reading time

Today we were off to the Golden Pavilion, which meant we had a little bit of a walk to catch the 205 bus. The first few were full (like, people almost hanging out the windows) so wandered up to the city centre hoping people were getting off there. It worked, we could get on, the bus was still packed, so I expected to stand for the forty minute trip to the temple. [Read More]

Shogunzuka Mound and Kennin-Ji Temple

Posted on December 31, 2019 · 8 mins reading time

This morning’s goal was to climb the mountain to see the Shogunzuka mound and the lookout which has been built next to it. A quick bus trip to the subway, then one stop to Keage station. These ticket machines are great. You can either use a ticket (the yellow slot) or tap the blue pad with your phone or NFC pass to tag on. They’re great. Even when you don’t tag just right and you break the light beam and the little yellow fence things pop out, the lights go red and it yells at you! [Read More]

Rainy day in Kyoto

Posted on December 30, 2019 · 9 mins reading time

Woke up feeling a bunch better today. Turned off the ever-present aircon last night and my sinuses got a rest. That might have moved it down into my chest a bit, but hopefully not. I’m still coughing like mad. -_- For the first time in the trip it was actually raining. Enough that we didn’t really see tramping to shrines and such as a doable adventure. I found the Samurai and Ninja museum, Kyoto. [Read More]

Tokyo to Kyoto

Posted on December 29, 2019 · 5 mins reading time

Today’s goal: Get to Kyoto. I went for a wander looking for the local chemist, my sinuses were spectacularly blocked last night to the point I was having panic attacks bordering on hallucinations. I swear, every time I go on holiday my sinuses just flip out. No ghosts! No punch buggies! We made our way to Tokyo station knowing it’d be a shit fight to find somewhere to stash our bags for a few hours before the Shinkansen. [Read More]