Today we woke up early because this day we were going to leave Tokyo and drive with the bullet train to Kyoto.

As planned we left our hotel room to check out at around 07:30. We travel light which means we left our big suitcases in storage at the hotel and travel with only 2 small trolleys to Kyoto. Check out went well and we went to the Shinkansen gate at Shinagawa Station. Luckily those gates are  our side of the station. As soon as we put our train ticket and seat reservation into the slot of the automatic gate, the gate opened and we could search for the right track and car-number.

Because it is not possible for non-Japanese people to reserve Shinkansen tickets in advance (the website is Japanese-only and a Japanese credit card is required) a Japanese colleague from Sander ordered the tickets for us. He got us seats for the Nozomi Shinkansen in car number 5, row 7, seats D and E. The Nozomi arrived exactly on time and we left Shinagawa at 08:27. From our seats we had a great view at Mount Fuji, or Fuji-San (that’s how the Japanese call Mount Fuji).

After 450 km, 2 stops in Yokohama and Nagoya and 2 hours and 10 minutes later we arrived at Kyoto Station at 10:37. About 30 minutes later we were on our way to our hotel with the free shuttle service.

In Kyoto we will stay one night at the ANA Crowne Plaza Kyoto hotel. The hotel is located directly in front of one of Kyoto’s most popular tourist attraction, Nijo Castle. After check-in we went to our room and we have a view on Nijo Castle, which we will visit tomorrow. And of course we have a hightech-toilet! The lady from check-in recommended us to buy a 1-day-bus-pass and take bus-line 12 towards the Kinkakuji/Kitano area to visit the Kinkakuji Temple and the Ryoanji Temple.

We were not the only ones with this idea do we ended up in a full bus driving through a very busy city of Kyoto. After 30 minutes we arrived at the Kinkakuji Temple. This Temple, also called Rokuon-ji or known as the Golden Pavilion, is a Zen Buddhist temple. Although not much information is provided in English it is really beautiful and you cannot stop taking pictures from the pavilion and the amazing landscapes. It is also a Historic Monument of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage Site.


After we had green tea and a little piece of cake in the tea house we left this beautiful site and went to KYOTO’s next UNESCO World Heritage Site, called the Ryoan-ji Temple. We went here by foot and during the walk we got ourselves something to drink from one of the vending machines you see every where on the street. And we also found our first Geocache during this vacation.

The Ryoan-ji Temple is also a Zen Buddhist temple and is famous for its Rock Garden or zen garden. The temple belongs to the Myõshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. To visit the Rock Garden we had to take of our shoes before entering. After visiting this garden we wandered around and took a lot of pictures.

We wanted to see as much as possible from Kyoto today as we are here for only 1 day. We were recommended also to visit the Kiyomizu Temple/Gion Area at the other side of Kyoto. We walked a little around and took bus-line 10 right through Kyoto. Because of the amount of traffic it took over more than one hour t get there. As soon as we got of the bus it was time to find something to eat and we found a little place called Ringer Hut. Because we can not read Japanese we order food from the pictures and it is always a big surprise what you will get on your plate. This time we had some fried rice with gyoza. For dessert we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. I had three scoops of Love Potion #31, Easter Egg Hunt and Love Struck Cheesecake. Really delicious.

Next stop was the Yasaka Shrine. We discovered some festivities but can not really what is was all about. Nothing was explained in English. But the were a lot of lights and candles. We walked further through the Maruyama Park and saw a little from the Higashi Otani Mausoleum and the Ryozen Kannon Temple. As it was getting a little darker the lights and candles everywhere got more beautiful. We walked up the mountain through small streets with a lot of small shops as we arrived at the Kiyomizu Temple. A very big complex of temples and shrines beautiful lit for great photo opportunities. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stayed here a long time to take pictures.

Than it was time to go back to the hotel. After we walked down the mountain we needed to find out where we exactly were and how to get back to the hotel. We walked back to Gion and took bus-line 12 back to the hotel. After arriving in the hotel we ordered Deep Fried Chicken as room-service because we didn’t feel like going out tonight.

Tomorrow we leave Kyoto and go with the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.