Help I'm a tourist, get me out of here: Kyoto Edition

Evening all Cj here, with my round up of Kyoto so far...

So we finally arrived in Kyoto city after 8 hours on our glamorous night bus from Tokyo. Fully rested, on what felt like a few hours sleep, we headed to our hostel.

A cracking location in the heart of the city was our first stop in 'Ayado Inn'. A fully stocked fridge of beer at only 100yen a can is right up my street! Hostel is strange as each bunkbed has a hospital curtain around it, very secluded. My bunk is opposite a geisha house and I can see them eating as they witness me putting on my shorts every morning! Lovely.

So I've heard a lot of good things about Kyoto and I wasn't dissapointed. Culture staring you in the face around every corner. Our first stop was in Arashiyama where we hit up the Tenryui Temple; set in the mountains and along a river this small part of town looked like something out of "crouching tiger hidden dragon" especially on the bamboo walk, with bamboo shoots in every direction creating an arch of parellel lines as far as the eye could see. To finish the day off we swung by a monkey temple up in the hills to take in the view of Kyoto. A cracking view across the summer haze. Today had been the hottest on the trip so far, so i was looking suitably Western with my sweat patches and trusty Japenese fan!

Next on the list was Nijojo Castle and Imperial Palace, hugely impressive buildings built from wood and stone to house and protect  royalty and visitors. The Nijojo castle had an impressive moat the colour of lime green. Both these sites and almost every temple has a cracking garden. Titmarsh eat you heart out, these gardens were hand groomed with the ultimate presicion. From the trees being cut and trimmed to the waterfalls and ponds being crisp and clear with huge Carp swimming amongst the surfacing turtles.

Not one to do on a hangover is the Nishik food markets. Set in several  industrial sized alleys is a host of local food stalls selling everything from your local tuna to a mini octopus on a stick. Not being one to turn down free food means the tasters are a gamble. I generally don't have a clue if I'm eating meat or veg, cooked or raw. What I have mastered is the poker face of "mmmm thanks, gag, smile" One thing I am proud of is the size of the fruit here. Oranges and apples the size of small melons definately a bargin.

One of the huge attractions here, and I'm sure you've all seen the pics, is the Fushimi-inari taisha Shrine which is home to the Tunnel of Torii Gates. The large red wooden arches paint a red brick road past 15 shrines up a hill encompassed in a dense forest. Quite a trek in the humidity and flip flops.  Safe to say I looked a right state once I got to the top! Watch out for the monkeys a rare sight!

Right that's the culture done, now onto the important bit...
The food and drink is pretty good here. I've found the prices cheaper and the local brew of beers impressive, more importantly it is served at breakfast. Great way to start the day, when a lot of walking is involved.  I can also safely say I've had the best Yakisoba of my life in this town, so good I've gone back again, twice.

In the evenings a beer down by the river is pretty chilled, people set off sparklers and a random dj brings his decks down, as you do.

Only a few more days in Kyoto before we head back up to Tokyo for a flight to China. Need to get planning the next part of our trip, any recommendations for Beijing do let me know!

The good, the bad and the ugly pics are too follow of Japan in the next few days. I will send out a dropbox link.

Cheers
Cj

The first few days in Tokyo...

So, turns out the Japanese have their own language, eating utensils, no shoes rule and a unique way of flushing the loo. 

We arrived at our first hostel Asakusa Smile a few days ago after successfully navigating our way in circles in the Japanese heat and with our heavy backpacks. 

Our room was a nice lil' shoe box. Our shared toilet was an experience for both of us. Their loos are high tech Panasonic or Toyota branded with many buttons. Neither of us wanted to get our hair wet, so FYI don't hit the blue button.

Our first morning was spent walking into what we call 'town' (just the local high street) to get some breakfast then we walked to Tokyo skytree to purchase tickets for the sky hop bus. On this open top, very touristy bus we ventured to Odaibo where we had the pleasure of seeing a famous japanese girl group, think spice girls on steroids! Actually we pretty much thought this whole area was on steroids. This place called Fuji TV and venture fort was full of over enthusiastic animations, high pitched singing, and was generally a really strange place. It was like a theme park but its an actual place with shops, restaurants, a professional TV studio and a big ferris wheel (yes we went on this).

After this experience we went to the more sophisticated, high end Ginza. This is just like Oxford street. From Ginza we then went onto the Electric town for dinner and to see this part of Tokyo lit up in the evening. This place was also very different, it was full of arcades and Japanese girls standing on the streets in tiny maid costumes promoting restaurants but actually, they looked like they were promoting Anne Summers. It felt like their red light district so we have a feeling these restaurants were not the norm inside.

And this is where this first post ends. We are writing this nearly a week into our trip so when we next have our spare hour we will post about our visit to Roppongi and pics of our new hostel (we are in cool traditional capsules).

Cj and Sam

And we're off

...And so it begins. The bags are packed, my clothes are creased and I'm already a flip flop down...

Tonight signals my last day in the UK before I embark on a 10 month trip across the globe!

I've packed everything from my sunnies and mankini, to my girlfriend and what seems like half the local pharmacy! All said and done, the zips have finally closed and i'm ready to get cultured! We're heading out to Japan first and will be making our way across China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and down into Singapore and Indonesia. A huge dose of Asian Culture as we work our way through South East Asia for the next 4 months. After that we head up to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji; and finally down into the US of A and Mexico before heading back to the UK!

I've never written a blog before, so bear with me. I'll be writing about a whole host of things; but don't worry I wont be chatting about my feelings, or how I stared into a goats eyes and found enlightenment! I'll be uploading a fair few photos on here to, so do come back and check on the progress of my beard!

I cant wait to get out there now and start the adventure! Look out for the "snapchats" on a Monday morning, and I'll see you all Next April, with a hopefully a beard, tan and cultured compass.

...arrivederci Ladies & Gents...

CJ


Errrr, he wont be coming home with a beard if I can stop it!  I am packed and ready to go too. Fitting 10 months worth of stuff into a backpack is a very difficult task, especially when you have a zillion clothes to choose from and several factor 50 suncream bottles -I have a feeling this high a factor may not exist outside of Europe. At least I have my cheer bow loud and proud (special thanks to my amazing cheer stunt group for my bow).

I am definitely excited to touch down in Japan and get this adventure rolling and I cannot wait to go back to Zoo Negara in Malaysia where I volunteered for a month back in the day, when I was a youngen. There will be loads of photos, scorps (for the cheerleaders) and possibly a sky dive video (yes, apparently I'm doing a skydive somewhere along the trip) so this blog is going to be packed full of stories.


Gaahhhhhh, we are now officially backpackers!


Sam
xx