Japan Winter Trip - 22nd Jan 2007

Day 3: Northern Kyoto & Nara
We started our journey early today to Kyoto to visit two important sites that we missed out - Ryoanji Temple & Kinkaku-ji Temple. Ryoanji Temple is famous for its Rock Garden and Kinkaku-ji Temple for its Golden Temple besides the picturesque lake with mirror image of Moutain.

Ryoanji Temple (1000-1100 / 500Yen)

This temple is famous of its Rock Garden. The garden is made up of big and small rocks. It is actually a picturesque representation of moutains, hills, river and land by using a combination of big rocks, big and small stones and sand. This temple became very popular after Queen Elizabert gave high comment on it.

Other than the Rock Garden, I found the garden and Japanese lake very nice as the crytal clear lake captures the picturesque moutain and on its surface. Check out some photos below. You will notice picture is actually showing the mirror image of moutain. ;)

Kinkakuji Temple (1110-1200/400Yen)
Kinkakuji Temple is built to outshine the Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Temple) during the Edo era. Its goldern temple sitting besides a lake is awesome. When we were there, the sun was bright and it was a great moment for me to captures the beauty of this temple. Again, you should easily find out that a picture below is actually displaying the mirrow image of the Japanese Garden surrounding the temple.

After visiting Kinkakuji Temple, we took bus 205 to Kyoto Station. The journey actually took us 45minutes. By the time we reached Kyoto Station we are already very late to meet my manager in Nara. So we hopped onto a Rapid Express rail connecting Kyoto and Nara. The penalty for this super fast rail is 500Yen of surcharge that we need to pay. Of course, the seats for Rapid Express are much better. ;)

Nara: Lunch, Todaiji Temple and Nara Deer Park
After we arrived at Nara-Kintetsu Station, we were very hungry so we quickly grab our lunch which turned out to be very nice. Look at the ketsu I were having. In fact, I have to use the "lesung" to grind the sesame seed and make the source myself. Yummy... and I am completely full after the meal!!! Yeah. It costed me 1280Yen though... but I think that it is worth it.....

Todaiji Temple and Nara Deer Park
Deers are to be found everywhere in Nara Park surrounding tourists for food. Todaiji Temple has the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan. I enjoyed playing with the deers more... haha... they are friendly to me because they thought that my pocket has food. Besides, I got a souvernir Japanese sword here at 4950Yen which I later found out to be very cheap. The other shop near the station is selling at 7950Yen. Haha... :)

After Nara Park, we strolled around the Naramichi area and looked out for food. In fact, we thought of going for buffer in Nara.. but in vain as there is none around. Maybe we didn't look hard enough.. Hhaa.. but I noticed a super huge advertisement on Big Mac. Oh no no no ... it is called Mega Mac (4 pieces of beef)!!! How to finish la... :) But, instead of going for Mega Mac, I tried the Japanese Snack (I forgot the name liao...), but it is composed of flour, eggs, chicken and vegetable. It is tasty especially it is served with some source.!!! Yummy....

Back to Osaka
Since we couldn't find any buffer in Nara, we took a train back to Osaka and ended up having 2095Yen Chinese Dim Sum buffer in Yodabashi Umeda (Camera, Electronics Shopping Mall). In fact, for this price, it is more worth to go for buffer then to have ala carte which typically cost you about 800-1500Yen. So, what the h***, we filled our stomach with Chinese food on this meal. Haha.. not bad not bad!!! I don't have photos though because we were too busy eating... :P

But, I do have photos of cool desert that I noticed in Osaka. Cornflakes+cream+fruit. Good idea for business? And check out some Japanese notes and coins for the curious..

Okla.. enough for today blog. I just finished my assignment in Osaka this evening and I took a shinkanshen (bullet train) at 1953 from Shin-Osaka station to Tokyo Station. The fare is 13600Yen. It is not cheap actually but the ride only takes 2hr 45min versus bus service at 8500Yen for 8hours!!! So, I go for speed la.. since company is paying also.. so pamper myself on bullet train looo... don't envy me la.. if you put down comment here.. and I see it later.. i might get u souvenir from Tokyo lei??? haha.... I will be in Tokyo until Sunday. I am currently in Imperial Hotel (18000Yen a night loo!!!) But, tomorrow since my trip is not covered by company, I will move to hostel in Akasuka after check-out. My hostel stays for the next 3 nights are just Rm230 per person for 3 nights.!!! I will tell u whether this hostel highly recommended in my favourite hostel website (http://www.hostelworld.com) is really good!!

Okla.. I need to get a sleep liao. It is already 0145 now and my friend Stanely who is waiting to use the connection has fell asleep liao. So, I fully use the time to write-up my blog ... :)