Japan 2018 Day 1: Kyoto
DAY 1: 22 NOV 2018
My break has finally arrived!
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| Autumn leaves at Tofukuji Temple |
Our family decided to chase the autumn colours this year and Kansai region was the best
place to view the colours at the end of November.
We flew via Cathay Pacific and arrived in Kansai International Airport at 1pm.
Immigration was orderly and we were out in no time.
Our first destination is Kyoto and we went straight to the Airport Station
to get our ICOCA x Haruka package.
This package costs 3,600 yen which includes a one way train ticket to Kyoto and
1,500 yen worth of money in the ICOCA card (similar to Singapore's ezlink card).
As the ticket doesn't include reserved seating, we headed to our platform
immediately and managed to get a seat as we were ahead in the queue.
The ride is supposed to take about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Unfortunately for us, we were forced to disembark at Shin-Osaka station as the train
services towards Kyoto were suspended due to a "human damage incident".
We were so close as the next stop in fact, was Kyoto Station!
Honestly speaking, I panicked as I couldn't understand the announcements made in Japanese.
We decided to take a chance and sought help at the ticketing counters.
Due to the language barrier, we communicated using google translate and
the staff told me that there was a train leaving for Kyoto now.
We managed to board the local train and the journey took 1.5 hours due to long stops between
the stations.
We had to disembark at a station as it was the last stop.
Thanks to a Japanese who was aware that we were going to Kyoto station,
he translated the announcement for us and guided us to the next platform for boarding.
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| Kyoto Tower |
The sky has turned dark when we arrived at Kyoto Station.
Exiting from the Central Gate, we took a 10 minutes' walk to our home,
Self-check in was done rather smoothly and a 4 digit password was issued to us upon completion.
The room was similar to a service apartment with many amenities such as a kitchen,
washing machine etc.
The bedroom was tiny as it had 3 beds and there wasn't much space to walk.
Nevertheless, the cleanliness and the amenities made up for this minor drawback!
We were famished and we decided to have ramen for dinner!
Initially we wanted to try out Honke Daiichi Asahi.
However, it is closed every Thursday.
So, we settled for another popular ramen place just next door,
Shinpuku Saikan.
Initially we wanted to try out Honke Daiichi Asahi.
However, it is closed every Thursday.
So, we settled for another popular ramen place just next door,
Shinpuku Saikan.
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| Kyoto-style ramen |
This place is famous for their kyoto style ramen which is a type of shoyu ramen.
The broth was not too salty which is good.
The slices of pork were so soft that they instantly melted in my mouth.
The medium sized portion costs 800 yen which is really affordable for kyoto standards.
Although this is probably one of the best shoyu ramens I had,
I still perfer the richness in the flavour of tonkotsu broths (:
It was close to 7.30pm and we decided to hang around Kyoto Station
instead of visiting Kiyomizu-dera for its night illumination.
An underground mall is situated at Kyoto Station and there were at least hundreds of shops.
However, do note that most departmental stores close at 8pm.
The broth was not too salty which is good.
The slices of pork were so soft that they instantly melted in my mouth.
The medium sized portion costs 800 yen which is really affordable for kyoto standards.
Although this is probably one of the best shoyu ramens I had,
I still perfer the richness in the flavour of tonkotsu broths (:
It was close to 7.30pm and we decided to hang around Kyoto Station
instead of visiting Kiyomizu-dera for its night illumination.
An underground mall is situated at Kyoto Station and there were at least hundreds of shops.
However, do note that most departmental stores close at 8pm.
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| BAKE cheese tarts |
While walking around, I spotted BAKE and they were selling matcha flavoured cheese tarts!
Of course I had to try some.
And they were as good as I have expected.
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| Imagawayaki |
Japanese red bean pancake can be found at almost all departmental stores.
They are very generous with the amount of red bean here too!
So give it a try when you are in Japan.
We decided to head back to rest as we will be waking up early to beat the crowd tomorrow!
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