Kyoto ’15, Day 9 – Kyoto Tower and the Train to Tokyo

Sunday was our last day in Kyoto and also the day we would travel to our final destination: Tokyo. We woke up, went downstairs to have breakfast and then packed our suitcases. It was then that I actually looked outside our window properly for the first time. XD We said goodbye to our room (number 8073) and checked out at the front desk. Since we wanted to take a train in the afternoon we still had some time left in Kyoto and we decided to visit the Kyoto Tower! I like visiting high building to oversee the city you’re in, so I was actually quite happy about that. ^^ We would also get a discount since our hotel had a special deal for the Kyoto Tower.
We left the hotel and took some outfit pictures.

Our outfits for our last day in Kyoto.
We headed to the Shinkansen ticket office first. We wanted to make sure we both had seats again, so we wanted to make a reservation. Unfortunately, the window seats were all booked, but we had seats so it was ok.
We left the station and headed to the Kyoto Tower. The Tower is located on top of a hotel, but you can also reach it through the shopping centre next to it.

The Kyoto Tower.
The ticket counter was at the back of one of the shopping centre floors, so we walked past several shops until we had found it. An old lady smiled at us and gave us our discounted tickets. Then she pointed us to the elevators. We went up and arrived at a well-lit hallway, where two statues of a young and old geisha were placed under the stairs. On our left side was the entrance to the elevators, where neatly dressed staff ladies were waiting for us. First, we were ushered to the side where we could have our picture taken with the incredibly weird and creepy but oddly funny Kyoto Tower mascot. We could purchase the picture after our Tower visit if we wanted, but for your viewing pleasure I will show it to you now (because yes, we bought it). XD

I can’t help it, but I really like this picture. This mascot is so weird!
Then we were guided to the elevator and together with some other people we went all the way up. We arrived at the top and entered the round observatory part of the Tower. Since the observatory is circular, you could walk a full circle and see so much of the city! It was a very sunny and bright day, so you could see quite a lot.

The round observatory of the Kyoto Tower.
We had barely set foot in the Tower or a staff lady approached me and asked if I wanted to participate in a survey. I needed to do it on my phone and use the local Wi-Fi and nice (and overwhelmed) as I am, I tried my best to get it working. Unfortunately, my phone didn’t want to cooperate and after an awkwardly long time of trying the lady and I gave up. x)
My mom and I enjoyed the view and using the binoculars. These binoculars were very strong and you could see very far away without loss of quality. And they were free! That was awesome. :3
The view all around was really amazing. We especially liked looking at the trains arriving and departing.

A Shinkansen crossing the amazing view.
My mom spotted something interesting in the distance and we managed to find it with the binoculars. It turned out to be a giant statue called ‘the Ryozen Kannon’. It looked amazing and absolutely huge! If we ever return to Kyoto, I definitely want to see it. I had never heard or read about it before!
You can see a lot more of the view from the Kyoto Tower in the video at the end of this post.

The Ryozen Kannon, seen through binoculars. Doesn’t it look amazing?
After having seen every sight at least three times, it was time to leave. We walked down the stairs to the lower level of the observatory, where some catcher machines containing Kyoto Tower mascots plushies stood.

Posing on front of Kyoto. ♥
We took the elevator down, passing a distorting mirror (which was really funny). We arrived at the picture desk and although initially we weren’t planning on buying the picture we had taken with the mascot, I ended up doing it after all since it was just too funny. XD
Back at the shopping mall we decided to go look for the Daiso that was apparently in the building and soon found it. Initially my mom didn’t really want to, but when she heard how close the shop was and that they sold cute, cheap things she wanted to go anyway. Good thing, because she bought some cute things there. ^^ I feel like I never truly appreciated Daiso before now.

My mom shopping at Daiso.
I also bought a package of mini matcha Oreos there, which I ate after our trip back home and they were so good! I will forever regret I didn’t buy more… x) I also bought a silly Hello Kitty key chain in another shop right before the exit of the shopping centre.
Then it was time to prepare for our last train trip. We returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage and walked to the station. My mom stayed with our suitcases while I went to the toilet and then together we went on our way to find the bento shop. When we had gone to Nara, we had passed an adorable shop filled with amazing bento boxes. Immediately we had decided to buy them for lunch on our way to Tokyo, so we walked to the ticket gate for the train to Nara. We showed our Japan Rail Passes at the desk, passed and then walked around the corner just for our bento boxes, haha!
The shop was filled with the most amazing and varying bento boxes. My mom and I ended up choosing the same one: it was the second most popular of the shop apparently! However, right at the moment we wanted to order, the lady behind the counter picked up the telephone that rang and never stopped talking! It took quite long, but she apologized deeply when she was done so it was ok. ^^

Buying our bento boxes for the train ride.
Carrying our bento boxes, Daiso purchases and suitcases we arrived at the Shinkansen tracks. We soon found the right track and a bench for my mom to sit on. It was sunny and quite warm at the platform and our train wouldn’t arrive for quite some time.

Waiting for our train at the sun filled station.
I proposed to buy us some drinks, so my mom stayed with our suitcases again while I went down the stairs again to buy some drinks. I was really hoping to find my favourite milk tea again, but unfortunately none of the shops close to our platform carried any. Of course, I could have just bought other drinks, but I felt very selfish and wanted my beloved milk tea. XD So I decided to leave the Shinkansen part of the station and went to find a 7/11. However, I couldn’t find any, so I went to ask. A kind station employee pointed me in the right direction and I recognized this part of the station: it was close to the hall that had led to the hotel of our previous trip. I decided to just walk on until I found the shop, but it turned out to be very far away from the tracks! I walked fast, found the shop and found my milk tea. ♥ I also searched for the lychee and salt drink my mom had liked so much, but unfortunately they didn’t have it so I settled with a lemon drink. I literally ran back to Shinkansen tracks, passed the ticket counter and soon found my mom again. I deliberately didn’t tell her how far I had gone. She probably would have been mad at me for going so far alone. But when she’s reading this, it’s been a bit of a longer time already so she won’t be mad anymore.
Right..? 8D
We sat down for a while. We were very early, so we had plenty of time. But finally, our shiny white train arrived.

The arrival of our Shinkansen~! ☆
We dragged our suitcases with us and soon found our seats. The whole coupé was empty except for one lady sitting at the window, next to our seats. The rest of the seats were pretty much empty. I was afraid the lady would close the window curtain so we wouldn’t see a thing, so hoping she would understand a bit of English I asked whether she was planning on doing so. For a moment she didn’t understand what I was saying, but she soon got it and immediately offered to switch seats! Oh my God this lady seriously was so nice! She sat in the aisle seat just for us and pointed us better places for our luggage instead of dragging our suitcases into the overhead compartments and we talked a lot during our journey. She told us where she lived (I think it was Odawara?) and that we should really come to visit her city someday. She was really interested in our trip and she was just so nice. ;_; She was amazing and now forever eternalized on my blog. Thank you kind train lady! ♥
Our train shot through Japan, heading for Tokyo. I believe it was in Sapporo or Nagoya suddenly a huge group of tourists joined our train, which explained all the empty reserved seats. ^^
Finally, we decided to open our bento boxes!

Our lunch: bento!
I was so ridiculously excited to eat this, you have no idea! XD And everything was so good! Every bite was a surprise every time, but everything tasted so good! Even the… slightly creepy-looking tentacle.
We drove past Mount Fuji (which was barely visible) and I spotted the ocean some times which was really cool. We drove on and on and people came and left, including the nice lady. By the time we came getting close to Tokyo, our train was quite empty again.

Getting closer to Tokyo.
The sun was slowly setting when we arrived in Tokyo. After Shinagawa, we drove on to Tokyo station, where we got off. It was strange: we were back in Tokyo, the place we loved so much, but somehow we didn’t quite feel it yet. Perhaps because Tokyo station isn’t really a place we recognize or because of the fact that we were tired. Anyway, we went on our to the JR Yamanote line that we could ride for free for a couple more days.
The station was incredibly crowded and we had trouble finishing an elevator or escalator to the right platform. Finally we did and got on the next train. We were lucky to have seats and just sat and waited until we would finally arrive at Shinjuku. I looked around at all the advertisements. I remember one of a handsome man dressed as a wolf, standing close to a girl dressed in a red hood. It had gotten dark, so there was not that much to see outside through the window opposite us. It wasn’t until we got closer to Shibuya and Harajuku that I started to recognize places.
Finally we arrived at Shinjuku station and we left the building. We were back on the street that I had been on three times already, my mom two. I saw the over road bridge leading to MyLord. The orange clock in the distance. I wanted to cry, of happiness. But I couldn’t. I was too tired. XD I really wanted to be hyper and over enthusiastic, but I just couldn’t. This bothered me a lot this time, but I got over it.
We walked to our hotel and when we set foot in the lobby, my mom and I couldn’t help but smile at each other. That beautiful lobby, that we had missed so much. We went up to the desk and I spotted a sign saying something about this hotel being a recommendation or even winning a big prize at Tripadvisor.com. This was quite a good thing, because I could tell they had made some changes, including better speaking English staff!
A kind staff lady helped us and when she told us our room number, a little light turned on in my head. Room 1452..? That sounded so familiar… It was then that I realised this was the exact same room as my father and I had stayed in during our first trip! Isn’t that an amazing coincidence? ;_; The room my dad and I had loved so much, the room we had slept in, the room from where we had skyped. I thought it was almost magical! I care a lot about these things. ♥
We took our things with us upstairs and entered room 1452. Finally, our final hotel room.

Our Tokyo beds (haha).
I still cannot believe we stayed in that exact room. It’s just so surreal.
We decided to not have a heavy dinner, since we had had quite a big lunch. So my mom suggested to have some ice cream at Café Est! Est! in the shopping mall MyLord to celebrate our arrival in Tokyo. I cannot tell you enough how much I love that place and you will be able to find lots of stories about it in my previous Japan posts.
We went on our way to MyLord and decided to look around at the shops for a bit first. They had recently opened an Axes Femme there (love that shop ♥), so we wanted to take a look there! ^^

The beautiful new Axes Femme Poetique shop.
There was one customer that behaved really strangely, but we didn’t let it bother us. The shop had the most amazing things and yet I wasn’t really drawn to anything in particular. I did see a really nice long skirt and my mom fell in love with a vest. I tried it on first because she felt a bit embarrassed to do so, but it was already a bit snug on me and so warm! My mom and I can’t stand heat, not a good idea I felt a bit sorry for the shop girl though. She was so nice and accommodating. Sorry dear shop girl!
We also visited the F.i.n.t. shop. I had loved that brand during our last trip, but their winter collection wasn’t to my taste. My mom however fell in love with a bag (again) and considered buying it later during our trip. A beautiful Lolita walked into the store when we were there and she looked so pretty I decided to tell her so, but I believe she felt very awkward because of me! Whoops.
We visited a lot of amazing shops, like Candy Stripper and a great jewelry shop, but I have decided to keep it short this time. x) We went up to the floor where Café Est! Est! was located and asked for a table for two.

Café Est! Est !, where all your sweets dreams come true~! ♥
We had chosen our ice creams in the shop window already and found them on the menu after a while. I was hungry after all and ordered a coupe that was… bigger than I thought. Well, I should have expected it. It had two pieces of cake in it. ^^’

My cake on the left, my mom’s on the right. ♥
I should be ashamed, but… I am not. XD It was so good! The green cake was matcha flavoured. This flavour really grew on me during our trip.
I secretly also looked around for waiter-san, the handsome waiter we had spotted during one of our previous trips, but he wasn’t there. x)
After our delicious dinner/dessert, we headed back to our hotel. We bought two bread rolls at the bakery Hokuo. Back at the hotel room I took pictures of our purchases and then we went to sleep. It had been an exciting day and more exviting days were to come!

Purchases of the day
And to end this post with, here is the video I made about our adventures in Kyoto! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 9 from 6:25 until the end. Please take a look if you want! ♥


Thank you for reading! ~☆~

Kyoto ’15, Day 8 – Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Nishiki Market and Shopping

After a very good night’s sleep, we woke up, got dressed and went to get breakfast. The breakfast room was downstairs next to the front desk. The room had no atmosphere at all: the tables and chairs looked cheap, everything looked modern. However, since I had expected the entire hotel to be like this and this was not the case, I didn’t mind so much. The breakfast buffet wasn’t spectacularly good quality, however there were many choices and the food was pretty good. Of course, the traditional cold fries were present and especially the bright green kiwi sauce to put over your yoghurt drew my attention.
I was however quite annoyed by a group of elderly people who were loudly discussing their upcoming day. As we turned out to have the same nationality, we spoke the same language so I could understand every single word. They had quite an interesting view of the world and their trip so to say. My mom and I just ignored them as much as we could (and sometimes laughed when someone said something really dumb).
After breakfast we went upstairs to collect our things and then we went on our way to Arashiyama. While looking up information about Kyoto my mom and I had some discussions about where we wanted to go. Of course we had seen some things in Kyoto already, so we discussed what other things were on our list. One of my mom’s things was the bamboo forest of Arashiyama, which is located a short train ride away from Kyoto.
We left the hotel, took some outfit pictures and then went on our way.

Our outfits of the day. ^^
It was a beautiful, sunny day. Perfect weather! We entered the station and quite easily found the right platform. Unfortunately, a lot of people needed to take the same train, so it was completely packed and quite warm inside. I wasn’t feeling all that well, so this didn’t help. After a bit of a stressful train ride (I couldn’t always tell at what station we were) we finally arrived at Saga Torokko station. Most of the passengers left the train with us, so we just followed everyone.

Saga Torokko station.
We left the station and found ourselves in a charming suburban neighbourhood. It almost seemed to come straight out of an anime! On our right, the railway crossing barriers went down and a train drove by. We crossed a little bridge over a little stream of water. The houses were bigger here and had small cars parked on the driveway. Honestly, I absolutely loved walking there! It gave us a small look into the daily life of a Japanese person living just outside a big city. The houses were all so amazing and so different from back home. My mom and I pointed out small things to each other, like statues or flowers in the tiny gardens. It was so peaceful and nice.

The adorable and quiet neighbourhood we crossed to get to the bamboo forest.
Then suddenly we arrived in a more crowded street, where buses were driving and people were walking along the road. A few tiny cafés marked the entrance to the bamboo forest. It was unexpected how, in the middle of these houses and shops, suddenly the bamboo forest started! A lot of people were entering and we joined.

The entrance to the bamboo forest.
Describing the bamboo forest is quite difficult, since it was mainly just a path surrounded by low wooden fences and enormous bamboo poles behind it. You’d think that’s just it, but along the way, the structure of the bamboo changed. Sometimes it was really like a forest, very closed and dark. At other times it was lighter, greener and the sun shone through the leaves. The path wasn’t just straight either. Sometimes there were curves and sometimes the road ascended quite steeply.

The beautiful bamboo forest of Arashiyama.
A few minutes into our journey through the forest, I suddenly spotted a few really big spiders. I didn’t tell my mom until we had left the forest again and luckily they were only at the beginning of the forest, but I didn’t like it at all! XD
We walked for quite a long time, but still the forest wasn’t as big as I had expected. It was basically a one long path.

My mom following the path in between the walls of bamboo.
The funny thing is… when you look at our pictures or at my video, the forest seems really peaceful and beautiful, but to be honest it really wasn’t. They say the weather we had that day is perfect: only a slight wind that makes the bamboo rustle. We heard the rustling maybe for one minute at the start of the forest, but after that it really only was noisy tourists talking loudly in sharp, unknown languages. Their electric devices bleeped and played music. No one walking there seemed to long for the peace my mom was hoping to experience. In this case I am glad you can’t hear the sounds in pictures. x)

The forest seems so quiet in our pictures…
I know it’s hard to understand when you’re not there, but my mom was so disappointed she almost cried. It just wasn’t what she hoped it to be and that made me really sad. She was also really afraid her pictures were all ugly as well, however her pictures were great and I really love this one:

My mom was afraid she hadn’t taken any pretty pictures,
while I absolutely love this one! ♥
In the end, my mom was happy she had seen the forest, but she wished she could have seen it in peace. If only, if only… Next time we will visit it at 5 am. XD

Despite my mom’s disappointment, she did have a nice time.
We headed back to the entrance/exit of the forest, passing a small field of grass with benches and a torii where apparently something interesting was going on. At the entrance/exit, we had some ice cream. I had kakigori, shaved ice, with milk(?) for the first time! It was quite nice. My mom had some normal ice cream.

Ice cream after a long walk.
We walked back through the suburban neighbourhood and to the station. I was not feeling well at all anymore: I was so tired and slow and my mom felt the same. Finally, the train arrived, but this one was also packed. I was grateful when a seat opened up for me and later one for my mom. We were so tired we decided to have some sleep back at the hotel.
The train ride wasn’t very long, but still too long for our tired selves. We did do some people watching though. There were a lot of school kids, including a super cute dark- skinned girl in a pastelly uniform. She looked so sweet! <3
Finally we arrived back in Kyoto and headed back to the hotel, where we slept a few hours.
Our alarm clock went off and somehow we dragged ourselves out of bed. We had decided to go to Nishiki market. Even though we had been to Nishiki market during our previous stay, my mom liked it so much there we decided to visit it again. So we went on our way!
This is when something really strange, kind of scary and super weird happened. Once again I had trouble finding the right subway line, heck even finding the subway itself was troublesome! When we had finally found it, I just couldn’t figure out how to get to the market. It was hot and I got really frustrated by the stupid system, when I spotted a Japanese man helping some other tourists out. So I asked whether he could give me directions too. He was very nice, he did talk and repeat a lot though. x) Somehow we understood each other and he explained to me we had to get to a certain station first and transfer there to another line and other subway corporation. He helped me buy tickets and showed us the right platform. We got on the train and went to the transfer station, but there I got confused again by the stupid machine and the crowd around me. I thought would have a panic attack when suddenly, the same man appeared again! He was trying to convince us to come with him and suddenly showed us two tickets. Apparently he worked for the subway company of this line(?) and had free tickets, so we thanked him and took them, after which he guided us to the right platform and told us to follow him. He walked down the entire platform and we followed. He went on the train with us, talking with us and asking whether we liked Kyoto etc. We felt so uncomfortable because he stuck with us the whole time and we had no idea whether his intentions were sincere or not, but we were close to the market and hoped he would leave us alone by then. But when we arrived at the right station, he still stayed with us and kept walking with us! My mom and I were both so nervous he wouldn’t leave us alone, but in the end he just wanted to make sure we took the right exit and it turned out he really just wanted to help us! He took the tickets back from us and said he hoped we enjoyed Kyoto and that Kyoto people are really friendly. We thanked him a hundred times (I really was super grateful XD) and then he disappeared forever. Thank you kind Kyoto man! ♥ You are hereby eternalized in my blog.
At this point my energy level was pretty down and I couldn’t find the entrance to the Teramachi street, so I went to ask. Finally we found it and bought some drinks from a vending machine to get reenergized. It helped and we went on our way~!

Teramachi street.
We walked along the street for a bit and looked at the shop, but we didn’t enter any of them. We also passed the shop window of Metamorphose, but didn’t enter it this time. Sorry Meta. I did take a picture of it though. ^^

The Metamorphose shop window.
After a bit of walking, we arrived at the start of Nishiki market. It was quite crowded already, so we decided to walk along the left side of the street until the end and walk back along the right side.
If you don’t know what Nishiki market is: it’s supposedly the best food market in Kyoto. Basically it’s one really long street with dozens of stalls selling food (and sometimes other things like socks, interestingly enough). Also, the roof has these really nice yellow-red-mint pattern lamps all along and the atmosphere is really nice.

Entering Nishiki market.
My mom and I walked along the whole market and pointed out things to each other. We were especially mesmerized by the Tako Tamago (tiny octopuses with quail eggs in their heads). We passed several amazing stalls and tried some foods. I also spotted the sock stall where I had bought several pairs of socks last time, haha!
Most of the people working at the market were super friendly and some even posed for pictures with their goods.
br > My personal favourite shop was the one where they sold roasted chestnuts. I thought the whole canon performance in Osaka was just for show, but apparently they really roast the chestnuts in canon-shaped machines! It was really cool.

Shop ladies preparing the chest nuts.
My mom also bought a present box for a friend. It was quite fun walking down the market, but it was also quite crowded.

Nishiki market is so colourful and amazing!
We reached the end of the market and walked back on the left side of the street this time (right side if you look at it from where we started). Unfortunately, I was still very tired and it was getting more crowded, so while walking I felt myself getting overwhelmed a lot. By the time we arrived back at Teramachi street I was so tired and full in my head I had to sit down. We were actually planning to go search for the newly opened Angelic Pretty shop after the market, but I remember myself thinking ‘I don’t want to go anymore. I want to stay here. I don’t even like Angelic Pretty!’
“I don’t even like [insert thing you really love here]!” is actually a family inside joke at our home. I can’t really explain it. x) But I guess it shows how I felt at that moment. My wise mom then told me to stay seated and she went to get something sweet from a bakery on the other side of the street. She returned with two pastries.

The pastry mom got for me that saved me. ;_; ♥
Apparently the pastries were really expensive, but they were really good and they really saved me. My energy levels went right up and I felt so much better! Magical pastries of love~! ♥
We stood up, walked back to the entrance of Teramachi street and went to look for the shopping mall where Angelic Pretty was located. While walking, we suddenly passed a Sanrio store I had forgotten all about! Of course we couldn’t skip on that, so we entered it.

The Sanrio Gallery in Kyoto. ☆
We walked around the two floors and of course there were just too many cute items to buy! Argh, Sanrio! Why do you manage to steal my heart every time? I really contained myself this time though, even though I fell in love with the cutest My Melody heels.
Since it has become obvious my mom and I really love Sanrio items, I have decided it is our destiny to visit Sanrio Puroland someday, haha!

Shopping at Sanrio is always wonderful! ♥
However my mom did not contain herself! She discovered a really cute soft pink My Melody bag that she seriously considered buying. She doubted about it being too childish for her age. However, if you seriously look at it the little My Melodies on it are quite subtle: the print is not flashy at all and it looks like a proper handbag. So it’s more like ‘grown up kawaii’. And in the end she bought it! Yay mom! It also turned out to be cheaper than we thought, maybe because of a tourist discount. That was a really nice surprise. ♥

My mom’s beautiful new bag! Do you like it?
We left the Sanrio store again and continued our search for the Angelic Pretty store. It is located in the same mall as the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright store we had visited during our last trip, but I couldn’t really remember how we had found it. This time however, we easily found the mall and I already spotted the sign with newly opened stores, including Angelic Pretty.

I wonder if you can find the sign that says Angelic Pretty? XD
We entered the mall and I immediately spotted a small Claire’s shop (it was almost a stall instead of a store). My eye fell on a tulle bag with cute bows in it and I realised these were the kinds of bows I had been looking for for ages! Just simple, pastel bows. Not too big, not too small. This is a reason why I like Japan so much: they have the things I am looking for in stores. You can touch them and look at them with your own eyes, instead of seeing something in a store that resembles what you want but not quite. I decided to get the bows on the way back.
We went up to the 7th floor and there it was, in all its radiance: the Angelic Pretty store. This shop had really just been opened, on the 11th of September I believe. There weren’t even pictures on the official Angelic Pretty website, it was that new. And the store was so beautiful… Usually Angelic Pretty stores are hat typical light baby pink and look really sweet, but this store looked much more mature (as far as that is possible of course) with bright hot pink closets and curtains and tile floors. It was wonderful! ♥

Browsing Angelic Pretty Kyoto. The store looked so amazing!
The shop girl working (who look super cute by the way) was helping a customer make a custom order for the Holy Lantern series, so my mom and I browsed the shop quietly. They had a lot of lovely things on sale. I must say the special Dolly Cat set in ivory looked quite lovely. I won’t say I regret not buying it, but it was very pretty! However, there was one blouse I absolutely adored. It was sax blue with chiffon see-through sleeves and cute buttons. It was just so pretty… I had also fallen in love with a really cute bag. It reminded me of a perfume bottle, but when I looked up close at had a tag on it that said ‘Drink me’, so apparently it was based on Alice in Wonderland.
My mom really liked the Wonder Gallery print, especially the black one piece, and several more grown up casual dresses. Yes, there were too many lovely things. XD

My mom and I showed each other several things we liked. ♥
There was a really cute table filled with blouses and cutsews that had all these cute picture frames and decorations on top. It made the shop even cuter, because it added a lot of colour. ^^

The cute accessories table that brightened up the shop even more.
I checked out the jewelry here too, but nothing caught my interest. Plus, my attention kept going back to the lovely bag…
In the meantime, the customer for the Holy Lantern series had left and the shop girl was free again. I started a conversation and I said I am a Lolita too. She was very happy about it, noticed my Angelic Pretty necklace and loved to hear I had been to several Tea Parties in Paris already. She was so nice!
I told the shop girl I was interested in the bag and she told me they only had two left in store. I asked my mom for advice and she said: ‘Well if you like it so much, I think you should buy it.’ Deal sealed. However, I didn’t have enough cash money with me, so I asked whether the shop girls (there were two now. The second had amazing multi coloured hair!)) knew where I could find one. Luckily, there was one in the building, so I headed to the right floor. I had to wait for a bit since there were other customers as well and then the elevator took ages to get me back to the right floor, but finally I returned to the store and bought my beautiful bag. ♥ I thanked the lovely shop girls and then we left the shop. Thank you sweet Angelic Pretty girls! ♥

Happy with my amazing purchase. ☆
On the way back I quickly bought the bows at Claire’s and then we left the shopping mall.
We were honestly too tired to take the subway back again, so we decided to take the bus. Luckily, we walked past a tourist information center (what a surprise!) and asked for the right bus numbers back to Kyoto station. That helped a lot! We crossed the street and waited in line at the bus stop. For a moment we got confused by the bus numbers, but soon the right bus arrived. We were lucky to get a seat, even though they were very small. x)
Soon we arrived back at Kyoto station. There, we spotted a sign that said ‘Restaurant&Café’ and an arrow pointing down some stairs, so we decided to check it out as we were quite hungry and it was time for dinner. We arrived in a big hall that was part of Kyoto station’s ridiculous network of tunnels and found a whole underground street of restaurants! We didn’t have that much money to spend that night, so we looked for something not too expensive, but most restaurant were quite pricey unfortunately. However, eventually we decided on ramen! We had wanted to try that for a long time, so this was the perfect change! We picked two dishes we looked from the shop window and were soon seated. I walked back outside for a moment to compare the menu to the fake food dishes in the window and then we made our choices. My mom and I both chose a bowl of ramen combined with a bowl of egg on rice.

Taking pictures of each other with our food. ^^
The restaurant was quite nice and I liked how all the waitresses were older women. They looked very dedicated to their work. ^^
The food was quite nice, although thanks to my cold I didn’t really taste it that well. Also, it was too much! x) But very good!
We paid and went back to the hotel, where we met some drunk but funny hotel guests at the elevator. They posed for a picture and it was super funny! XD Finally we entered our room and could just lie down on our beds. It felt very good…
I took purchase pictures and then we went to bed. It had been a very busy and exciting day.

Purchases of the day
And to end this post with, here is the video I made about our adventures in Kyoto! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 8 from 3:05 until 6:24. Please take a look if you want! ♥


Thank you for reading! ~☆~

Kyoto ’15, Day 7 – Visiting Nara and Sushi-Go-Round

On Friday the 16th of October we would depart for Kyoto. My mom and I woke up on time, had delicious breakfast and packed our last things. We dragged our suitcases downstairs, checked out of the hotel and took some outfit pictures. We wanted to leave well on time, since we wanted to take a (fairly) early train, because we were planning to go to Nara!

Our outfits of the day.
We took the tram to Hiroshima station and went to find the Shinkansen office. In order to get to Kyoto, we needed to take two different Shinkansen trains so I wanted to try and reserve seats. We soon found the office and stepped inside. There were two desks and we ended up in front of the right desk, with a small old man sitting behind it. He didn’t seem very happy, however he was still polite. Once we had communicated where and how we wanted to go, he showed us our first train was already completely reserved. So our only option was to board one of the non-reserved cars. Our second train from Shin-Kobe however was not a problem, so we made a reservation for that train. My mom and I went back to a small supermarket to get some drinks for the road. We wanted to try new things and it was no problem at all since we barely spotted anything recognizable. So my mom ended up with a ‘salt and lychee’ drink while I wanted to try the milk tea with cute Disney characters on it. We were much too early at the station, but we didn’t mind at all since we didn’t need to hurry. So we just sat down on a bench and waited.

Waiting for the Sakura train.
It was then that we noticed just how noisy the Shinkansen part of the station was. Every time a train was approaching, an alarm would start blaring and since there were a lot of platforms and incoming trains, the alarm went off and off. I felt sorry for the platform staff. x)
In the meantime, a small line started forming and I decided to line up as well. Soon my mom joined. We were about fifth in line so I figured getting seats wouldn’t be so problematic.

Standing in line for the Shinkansen. This wasn’t our train yet by the way.
Soon the train arrived and I discovered the mistake I had made in my head. I had forgotten Hiroshima was not a depart station, but a transit station. This meant that there might already be people sitting in the train. Which was certainly the case unfortunately! When we entered the train, most seats were already taken. Luckily, my mom and I managed to get two seats behind each other. However, there was no way to stow our luggage in the overhead compartments, so we just put them in front of our knees. We were actually quite lucky: some people had to stand or sit in the alleyway. We were sitting fairly comfortable, so it was okay.
I listened to some music and took some selfies. Initially I hadn’t noticed, but my mom was making weird faces behind me. The next one is my favourite, although by then I had figured out her scheme. XD

Very nice, mom. XD Also, that sleeping man next to her really completes this picture.
I also drank my milk tea, which was incredibly delicious to my great surprise! It tasted just like my favourite Bubble Tea back home, I was overjoyed! <3 My mom’s drink was really weird by the way. At least she liked it. In return, she hated mine.

Drinks, drinks, drinks~!
After a while, one of the passengers next to my mom left so we went to sit next to each other. After a while, we arrived in Shin-Kobe and my mom and I left the train. We waited for a while and then our next train arrived. The reserved car was almost empty this time! It was very relaxing to just sit down without having a lot of people around you.

On our way to Kyoto!
We arrived in Kyoto around 1 pm. The sky was beautifully blue, the perfect day for a trip! We walked into the giant, crowded station and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. This station is just so incredible!

The incredibly impressive Kyoto station.
We walked out of the station and went to find our hotel. The Kyoto Tower was shining in the sun, very hard to miss. I had a bit of trouble figuring out my map for a moment and went to ask for our hotel’s location, but in the end we walked the right way and it was really just around the corner of the station. A perfect location! To be honest, I was a little bit worried about this hotel. Compared to the other hotels we had booked, this one seemed… a little dodgy to me? I am not sure whether that is the right word. This hotel was smaller and not very pretty, even the staff (as we would experience during our stay) wasn’t 100% friendly. However, the location was great so that was already a big plus!
We left our luggage at the hotel and went on our way to Nara! Well, after we had some coffee and… donut balls(?) at a café. They were really nice. ^^

“Lunch”. ^^
During our previous stay in Kyoto I had already learned that Kyoto station and I are no friends. Where I am generally perfectly capable of finding my way in other stations, Kyoto station is just so unclear and weird! During this stay, we officially became enemies! XD Anyway, we found the right train and started our journey to Nara.
It took long! I didn’t know Nara was that far away from Kyoto! I thought it was maybe a 20 minute ride, but I believe it was around 45 minutes/an hour or so! Our only view was fields of yellow flowers and houses which I usually like, but after a while it became a bit monotonous

One of the views from our train.
Eventually, we finally arrived in Nara and it felt like a slap in the face. Maybe I hadn’t read enough about this place, but somehow we were expecting this peaceful sweet village, a bit like the houses and shops on Miyajima. However, Nara was… a city. Like any other city, with grey buildings and flats. But somehow, I felt quite down just walking out of the station. It was not a very nice place… My mom felt exactly the same, very strange.
Anyway, we didn’t let a couple of buildings stop us, so we went to ask for directions. Our goal was the Todaiji Temple. Apparently, most of the deer (which were our superior main goal, haha) apparently roamed there. However, a friendly station lady said it would take over 40 minutes(!) to walk there and that instead taking the bus would be better. So we exited the station and walked up to the bus. I asked the driver’s assistant (I guess that’s what he was) whether the bus drove past Todaiji Temple and the man confirmed, not very friendly however. And it was 200 yen per person, no matter the distance, which was very pricey compared to other places we had been! It was clear they were very focused on tourists here. I nodded and my mom and I entered the bus. We wanted to sit down, but the bus driver’s assistant ran after us, literally yelling we had to pay in advance! It was just so rude, especially since in most buses we had been in before we had to pay afterwards. That was not a very nice experience.

Riding the not-so-fantastic Nara bus. x)
A nice couple let us take a look at their map for a moment and then we arrived at Todaiji Temple, where we followed the stream of people. We immediately spotted deer in the distance! Deer, yay! *o* We entered the park leading to the temple and saw so many deer, it was great! We spotted a small stall where they sold special deer crackers to give to the deer. Of course my mom and I didn’t want to pass on such a wonderful thing, so we both bought a package for 150 yen.

Deer crackers look a lot like cookies! ♥
Of course many deer quickly realised we had food and came up to us. We wanted to take our time feeding the deer, so we only gave out little pieces of cracker. Feeding the deer was very fun, except for the fact the male deer weren’t… very friendly. When they wanted to be fed and we weren’t fast enough for them, they bumped their head against our leg or butt. Even though their antlers were filed short, this actually hurt quite a lot! Some were even quite aggressive! My mom and I decided to try to avoid the males and focus on the females and baby deer. When we consequently followed our own advice, feeding the deer was amazing. They were all so cute and had the most beautiful eyes and fur! Their lips carefully took the food from our hands and they were so gentle and sweet! It was lovely. ♥

Feeding the deer of Nara.
We passed a brilliant sign that said: ‘The deer of Nara Park are wild animals. They can occasionally attack people, so please be careful.’ It was accompanied by pictures of deer attacking people, it was amazing. XD

The dangerous deer of Nara. Dun dun dun…
We walked in the direction of Todaiji Temple while feeding deer along the way. Sometimes we were surrounded by three or four deer! You’d expect that they’d be sick of those deer crackers having to eat them every day, but none of it.

Feeding the dear was just so, so great. ;_; ♥
We reached the entrance to Todaiji Temple, where the deer no longer followed us since they had learned it’s not allowed. The building leading to the Todaiji Temple grounds already looked quite impressive by itself!

My mom in front of the entrance to the Todaiji Temple grounds.
I paid for two tickets at the desk and my mom and I walked up to one of the three ticket gates. Then, in the distance, we could see the Daibutsuden of Todaiji Temple. This massive building is the biggest wooden structure in the world (not surprising) and home to a 15 meter tall Buddha! When I looked up information about Nara, there were only two things I really wanted to see: the deer and this temple.

The Daibutsuden of Todaiji Temple. ☆
I cannot really explain it, but I was really mesmerized by this building. The enormous wooden building, striking in front of the perfectly blue sky. It was so big. Pictures and videos just don’t do it justice!

Just look at how small the people are in front of the entrance!
We walked up to the building and climbed the big steps. In front of the entrance was a small bowl with sand, a small fire and incense sticks. Usually, when we visit a church, my mom and I light three candles for three family members who all passed away in 2010. This time, we decided to light incense sticks for them.

Incense has such an amazing, special smell.
We entered the Daibutsuden and immediately found ourselves right in front of the Buddha! Wow, I cannot tell you how big it is. It’s 15 meters tall, incredibly impressive and nearly impossible to get it on camera for me because it was such a dark statue. -_- Nevertheless, I hope this picture can give you an impression of it. It was amazing!

The enormous Buddha. Pictures really don’t do it justice.
Next to the Buddha there were more statues of several gods, a stand where yo could sponsor a temple tile for the roof, models of the building and a lot of pillars. One pillar had a hole in it, at the base. Apparently, being able to climb through it brings good luck, but the hole was honestly really small and getting stuck in their was very likely for a lot of people. Nevertheless, I watched as some people took their chance and some succeeded! Not me though, no way I wanted to embarrass myself. x)

Kokuuzobosatsu on the left, Koumokuten on the right and the hole of doom in the middle.
At the end of our round were a bunch of souvenir shops. I ended up buying a small and cute deer key chain there. My mom actually bought multiple things!
We left the Daibutsuden and headed back to the deer park.

Selfie in front of the Daibutsuden. ♥
We had of course arrived in Nara well in the afternoon, so it was time to slowly head back to the train. While walking back to the bus, we fed a lot of deer, so it still took a long time for us to get to the bus stop. But the deer were just so cute! ;_; <3

My favourite picture of me with a deer. It’s just so cute! ^o^
Then it was finally time to really say goodbye to the deer. ;_; I love deer so much, they are so sweet and cute. I wonder if I’ll ever return to Nara, but being able to visit it once is really like a dream come true!

A last cute deer picture, just for you! ♥
We passed some cool-looking rickshaws and found the right bus that took us back to Nara station. This bus driver was also very grumpy and rude. While sitting in the bus and looking outside, we realised that we really dislike Nara. Yes, the deer (who literally walk everywhere by the way, even at the most random places) are amazing and the sights are wonderful. But the city itself is grey and depressing. It was honestly pretty disappointing. Maybe I just got the wrong impression somehow, but well. The deer however were amazing, which made everything so much better. ♥
We arrived at the train station and I noticed a train back to Kyoto station would depart soon. When we entered the train, the most magical thing happened. An old lady entered after us, grabbed the back seat of a bench and just switched it to the other side so she could sit down and face the travel direction (is that even a word?)! These seats were super versatile! Not only could you change the back seat so you could face the travel direction, you could also form a four-seater at will! The lady was quite pleased to see my amazement, haha!
We sat down and the train departed. Unfortunately, as I later realised, our train to Nara had been a rapid train that only stopped at a few stations, but this train stopped at every single station between Nara and Kyoto. The train ride took sooo long… Well, maybe it wasn’t long at all, I have no idea, but it felt like hours! Plus, in the seats next to us there was a family with annoying children and it was just awful. I was so grateful when we arrived in Kyoto! I can honestly say our trip to Nara had been one with big ups and big downs. x)
By now it was time to eat, so after a short discussion my mom and I decided to try something we really wanted: the conveyor belt sushi (or ‘sushi-go-round’) restaurant we had seen during our previous stay. When we visited Kyoto in April 2014, we had seen a sushi restaurant with a merry-go-round of sushi in the restaurant window. It looked absolutely amazing, but we never got the chance to eat there. So this time, we wanted to try it! Somehow I found the right hall and soon we spotted the restaurant! It was strange and great to see it was still there, unchanged. However, a small line was standing in front of the restaurant. After a few seconds of doubting and discussing, my mom and I decided to see how long it would take.

The sushi-go-round restaurant we had been dreaming of for 1½ years!
In the end, it didn’t take long at all! We talked for a bit with the lovely Belgian couple behind us and soon we were seated on a bench in the restaurant itself to wait for the next couple of people to leave. It was actually quite nice, since it gave us the opportunity to look around well. The restaurant was really amazing. People sat around the conveyor belt while chefs inside the ring prepared the food, visible for the customers. They prepared sushi like lighting! It was great to watch. Then it was our turn! We were seated at a corner along the
conveyor belt.

The sushi chefs at work.
Soon the Belgian couple joined us and they told us they had chosen this restaurant because Tripadvisor said it was the best conveyor belt sushi restaurant in all of Kyoto! Lucky us!
My mom and I first just observed for a bit to figure out the system and to see what kind of plates passed us by. We quickly figured out the system and decided to only take blue and rainbow plates, since those were the cheapest.

The plates of sushi passing us by. I quite liked sitting at the corner.
And everything was so good! ;_; Of course we were hungry, but I can honestly tell you the sushi was delicious. We also ate a lot of ginger, because my mom and I both love it (hehe). It was so much fun to wait for something you wanted. When they were out of a certain kind of sushi or other food, the chefs prepared new ones immediately. The most varying things passed us by. My mom even tried one kind of sushi with tiny elvers. At first we thought it was bean sprouts, but then the bean sprouts had really small eyes. x) No thank you.

Some sushi (and other food) close ups.
So yeah, our dinner was absolutely great. ^^ And so cheap! We ate quite a lot, our stack of plates was so big! And we still paid less than 2000 yen! Amazing…

Finished! Please keep in my mind that these are both our plates. x)
We headed back to our hotel, checked in and picked up our luggage. We took the tiny elevator up to our floor and soon found our room. It was small, but comfortable and despite the interesting green bed sheets the beds were super comfortable. The bathroom however was super small and the shower tiny! But we didn’t mind one bit. The room was better than I expected, so yay!
I bought some drinks from a vending machine on another floor, we skyped and then went to bed. It had been a great day.

Purchase of the day
And to end this post with, here is the video I made about our adventures in Kyoto! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 7 from 0:00 until 3:04. Please take a look if you want! ♥


Thank you for reading! ~☆~