I have starred certain temples on Google Maps in Kyoto and one that I hadn’t un-starred yet was Konkai-Komyoji Temple, and the Big-Haired Buddha. The buddha’s hirsute stylings is not part of the official temple name, just so you know. It’s mine. It was under an undecided sky on the day that I entered through…
How does a visit to Monster Street in Kyoto, Japan sound? Monster Street, otherwise known as Yokai (妖怪; monster/ghost) Street, resides in a nondescript area of north west Kyoto city that warrants a ramble along if you’re “templed-out”. It is actually, in the real world, Ichijo Dori. Which probably translates to First Street. Or something. Map…
As you scroll around Kyoto on Google Maps you will see dots of green sprinkled around indicating, one would think, a park of some stature and presence. More often than not, you will find a small sand filled playground. Not somewhere you can go and relax. Kyoto does have some decent and real parks hiding…
So you’ve visited Arashiyama to the west of Kyoto and seen what it has got to offer. Lovely. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further… Take a 25 minute or so meandering walk from the main street in Arashiyama and you will come across one of the most…
2020 and 2021 (most likely) will probably be the only time to see a lot of Kyoto’s temples and shrines without the throngs of tourists. We are trying to take this opportunity to visit ALL THE SHRINES! We won’t. There are over 1600 temples in Kyoto (17 of them are UNESCO World Heritage sites). Here…
Yes, I’m writing this in February. If you’re stuck in Kyoto around Christmas in the year 20?? (I’m guessing blogs won’t exist come 2100) then you can’t do wrong with waddling up to Hyatt Regency in Kyoto for some tasty and surprisingly affordable Christmas Day fodder to snuffle into to. As we were in Kyoto…
It might reverse-surprise some of you that English is not particularly focused on as a main form of communication in Japan. Speaking as a mono-language western white idiot, I can’t criticize this too much. Alas, I can’t help my primal monkey-brain feeling all high and mighty when I see grammatical errors from Japanese companies who…
Japan companies like to launch special once off products (mostly food and drink) so that we can rush to the local Life or Familymart salivating and throwing old people out of the way until we reach the aisle of our longing. And so Calpis have released this week Calpis Soda Shifuku no Jikan (which is…
A number of years ago if you mentioned ramen to me I would initially muster up visions of lid peeling and add-boiling-water-to-sachet-contents endeavours. Followed, naturally, by the depressing and soul sapping wait for all the processed ramen things and dried up sachet contents to congeal together to form a cheap and instant artificial flavour buzz…
Part 1 here. Osaka We trained up from Miyajima, back through Hiroshima, and on to Osaka. The trip took less than 2 and a half hours. And so began, our journey into more touristy areas. The throngs of people got bigger and shoulders rubbed more frequently. We stayed up at the Courtyard by Marriott (review…