asp1990

[asp1990]

Day 20: Sunday January 19th, 2025 [Final Day]

[asp1990]

Day 20: Sunday January 19th, 2025 [Final Day]

Breakfast: konbini coffee & snacks

Lunch: dry aged wagyu steak meal set

Dinner: veggie teriyaki noodles

Steps: 14,621

Last day post! Deciding now to trek out to Nara was the best decision we could make. We woke up at 8:30am and had ample time to shower and negotiate our packing situation. Yet again, I was thankful for packing my mini suitcase inside my larger one as it allowed us a bit more grace in fitting in all of our goodies.

We checked out at 11am, left our luggage at the hotel, and went for a stroll through the Shinsaibashi shopping mall… again. We visited the Pokemon store… again. We then walked for 20 minutes to visit the Namba Yasuka Shrine, which is famous for its dragon head design. We took a few photos but the line to make an offering was huge, so we decided to get some lunch instead. A very quick visit!

We walked back towards Dontoburi for lunch - I’d found one last place off my list for us to try that Google suggested was “not as busy as usual” so we were hoping we wouldn’t have to queue. As soon as we lined up a waitress came and showed us a message on her phone that said “the queue is for 1 hour. We can guide you to our sister restaurant with a similar menu” so we said sure! We ended up a few doors down at a beautiful restaurant called Kitan Hibiki Yakiniku & Steak. We were seated upstairs where the grill round table was fully occupied, so we got to sit at the bar all by ourselves. We enjoyed two beautiful ‘dry aged wagyu steak meal sets’ that had steak over rice with egg, miso soup, pickled veg & soba noodles. Delicious! We enjoyed a long lunch and decided which last touristy thing to do. Morgan suggested karaoke or a maid cafe but both felt a bit off for the middle of the day on a Sunday. I suggested one more “sky high” view and Morgan agreed. I booked tickets through Klook and we caught the train to Harukas 300 Observatory.

Once out of the station we tried to follow signs to the observatory but it was very confusing! We got a lift up to the fourteenth floor and were confused again. We followed signs with a blue bear covered in clouds on it but that stopped suddenly. Infuriating! Finally we found the damn ticket desk and there was no queue, so we went right up. Phew!

The observation deck was beautiful and second highest to Tokyo Skytree that we visited at the start of our trip. The sun was shining bright and it was so hot we had to remove our coats. We could see the Donki Ferris wheel that we’d ridden and Osaka Castle in the distance. We stayed for about half an hour before needing to head off. We did some shopping (surprise, surprise - there was a mall underneath) for one more souvenir for Morgan’s mum that he’d struggled to find. We then caught the train back to our hotel. We collected our luggage, charged our phones and booked a taxi to the train station that was where our connecting train would be if we took PT the whole way. We were worried about taking bulky luggage on the subway during peak hour and wanted to be on the train as little as possible.

We got to the train station at 5:20pm and luckily it was a station with elevators. We went up to the platforms easily and accidentally boarded a pre-booked train with comfy seats and room for luggage. We sat down, heard the PA announcement say “please have your tickets ready to show the conductor” and promptly jumped off at the next station. Whoops! Luckily the correct train arrived 4 mins later and it wasn’t packed at all, so all anxiety about being an inconvenience was alleviated. It took 30 minutes to get to Kansai International Airport.

As soon as we walked through the doors to the international terminal it was chaos. No lines, no rules, and a whole lot of confused looking white people. Morgan hadn’t been able to print or download our boarding passes so we were already at a hurdle. It took ages to queue for luggage tags, the conveyer belts weren’t working and both our bags were overweight. It took us an hour to check in properly. When it was finally our turn, we were too tired to exit the line and reorganise our luggage, so we had to pay $124 for 8kg of excess. We then made it through security and customs without any issue and had time to have a final sake in the departure terminal before boarding.

Our flight was huge - 3 rows of 3 across and very full. I took a sleeping pill and hoped I’d be able to snooze during our 7hr flight. I sat between Morgan and an elderly woman, Elizabeth, from the States who was very ready for a chat when I was ready for a snooze. Thankfully we both dozed when the lights went off. The woman behind me incessantly poked me in the back when reaching things from her seat pocket, which was frustrating, but otherwise a smooth ride.

We arrived in Cairns at 6am. It was nice to be back in Aus. The customs guy made fun of my for filling out my declaration form in purple pen (it was the only one I had) but let it fly. Then on to Melbourne!

I had the most wonderful time in Japan with Morgan, but am desperately craving my own bed, clothes not from a suitcase, being able to cool, warmer weather & our cat. This was a trip of a lifetime though! 🇯🇵🍜⛩️

[asp1990]

Day 19: Saturday January 18th, 2025 [Hiroshima]

[asp1990]

Day 19: Saturday January 18th, 2025 [Hiroshima]

Breakfast: konbini coffee & snacks on train

Lunch: street market fries, coffee & softserve

Dinner: mapotofu ramen & gyoza

Steps: 18,133

We left the hotel at 7am to get the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. We realised once at the station that the tickets Morgan booked were useable for any time during the date it was purchased for. We were mad at being robbed of a wee sleep in, but glad to be making the most of our day. The bullet train took just under 90 minutes to travel 329km and it was a breeze. We had konbini coffee and sandwiches for breakfast during our trip and listened to podcasts.

Once in Hiroshima, we got the tram over to Memorial Park to see the dome relic and memorial statues and shrines. We hadn’t really made a plan, but wanted to see as much as we could.

We met Shun, an 11 year old volunteer tour guide, in Hiroshima Peace Park and were delighted when he offered to give us a tour. His English was excellent and his knowledge of the park artefacts and history of his city was inspiring. He initially approached us near the A-bomb Dome and offered to give us a tour and then approached us again in the memorial park saying that, if we had time, he had more to share. Adorable! Being shown around the gardens and surrounding areas by Shun made our day and I wish I had a Japanese child to explain all monuments and landmarks to me during this trip. He explained the relevance of different memorials and locations where survivors had been when the A-bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. The most interesting, for me, was the man who was in the basement of the ‘Fuel Store’ just 170m away from the epicentre. He survived whilst all his colleagues perished. He suffered from radiation poisoning in his 60’s, but lived until he was 84. Remarkable. My favourite thing Shun told us was when we were looking at the flame memorial. It was surrounded by the water and had a grass garden opposite that people were not allowed to walk on. It was covered in pigeons. Shun said “this place is a paradise for birds. They can get water here and rest over there. But it represents peace, so it’s very good”. I’m obsessed with Shun.

Morgan did some research on Shun and found this article:

https://www.novakidschool.com/blog/a-novakid-student-gives-tours-in-hiroshima/

After we said farewell to Shun (I wish we’d gotten a photo with him, but I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate) we crossed the bridge and booked a ticket on a scenic ferry that would take us to Miyajima Island. My friend had been and said it was only a 10 minute ferry, but we panic bought tickets for the 45 minute scenic trip. Ah well! ¥8200 for two tickets and beautiful views.

Miyajima Island was so beautiful. It was like a tiny beach-side town full of market stalls and temples. They are known for their iconic, giant Tori gate in the water, away from the shore. They also had free-roaming deer posing for photos, enjoying the sunshine and bugging tourists for food. Our plan for our final day was to visit Nara for the deer, but this possibly scratched that itch..

We took photos of the Tori gate then wandered around the market. We bought some souvenirs and a coffee. We wanted to get food, but were worried about running out of time for our return ferry. We walked past a woman who made personalised rubber stamps and had to get one. We got Phillips written in Katakana and a picture of a bowl of ramen - our favourite. She said it would take 15 minutes to make but I looked at the time and we had 20 minutes until our ferry. Morgan said it would be fine, but I started to stress. He stayed to wait for the stamp and I headed back to the port to see if we could change our ticket. The staff were frustrated when I rocked up by myself and one man tapped his watch repeatedly and said “hurry up! Hurry up!” I said “I can’t! We are two!” and the woman at the gate snatched my ticket and gave me two new ones for the later departure time. So rude. I walked back into town and found Morgan. The stamp looked super cute but I was frazzled after being yelled at. We bought some fries and an ice cream (Morgan’s had chocolate chip ‘deer poop’ on top haha) and sat on the shore to relax for 15 minutes before heading to the boat. The ride back was very relaxing and the sunshine on the calm water was a pleasure to watch.

We got the tram back to Hiroshima station and confidently purchased Shinkansen tickets for the 4pm trip back to Osaka, using machines all by ourselves!. We got a drink and a pork bun to eat during the trip and watched a movie on my phone.

Back in Osaka we caught the train to our hotel to drop things off and reset for our final night in Japan. We left again at 7:30pm thinking that Shinsaibashi would be pumping on a Saturday night, but everything said it closed at 9:30pm! We visited a Casetify shop so I could get a new phone case and were going to visit a shop for Morgan, but it closed at 8pm. We went to a delicious ramen restaurant that we found on Google called Susuru Susuran and were absolutely stuffed when we left. Morgan had cheesy ramen that was flame grilled at our table (almost dangerously so) and I had mapotofu ramen with spice.

Walking back through the shopping mall we found a hilarious gocaphon machine that dispensed butt keyrings and bought a few for friends before doing our final evening konbini stop and heading home for the night. Man, Japan has been so fun!

[asp1990]

Day 18: Friday January 17th, 2025 [Universal Studios]

[asp1990]

Day 18: Friday January 17th, 2025 [Universal Studios]

Breakfast: konbini coffee & snacks

Lunch: teriyaki chicken pizza & beer

Dinner: Taiwanese pork belly & rice

Steps: 12, 366

We were out the door at 7:30am this morning and on our way to Universal Studios Japan! Our final theme park for the trip. We took 3 separate trains to get to USJ but it only took 45 minutes. Melbourne public transport would never dare be so efficient!

We thought the queues to get in were going to be reminiscent of DisneySea (chaotic) but we were pleasantly surprised when we were in within half an hour with bags checked and tickets scanned. People were running to get into the park and secure early access to the newly opened Super Mario World but as Morgan and I walked, Morgi scored us a timed entry pass for 9am. There was a 15 minute wait for the Hollywood rollercoaster that I wasn’t interested in, so Morgan took advantage of the short wait and got on. While I was waiting for him I visited a merch store and got Mario ears and a keyring.

Once Morgan and I were reunited after his rollercoaster ride (he was so jazzed) we walked over to Mario World and cruised right in. We spent ¥9800 (ridiculous) on interactive wristbands and went in to explore the absolutely phenomenal Nintendo world. The design was hyper-realistic and photographed like a dream. We queued for Mario Kart for 70 minutes and enjoyed walking through Bowser’s castle while we waited in line. The game was fun and similar to the other laser-tag style games we played at Disney. I scored the most points for our cart and scored 120 coins for my wristband. Yay gamification! We then lined up for 70 minutes, in the cold again, to get a photo with Mario & Luigi. I was getting grouchy about the long wait and the cold - it was 7° but the weather app said it felt like 1° but meeting the brothers was super cute and the staff were really friendly. We tried to utilise our bands more throughout the park by visiting Donkey Kong Kindgom but the lines for the rides were way too long to justify waiting. We tapped our bands on things to score points and Morgan bought a banana smoothie. We visited the gift shop and bought some Mario merch for friends. After 3 hours we couldn’t be bothered with the crowds anymore and decided to get some lunch. I’d scored more points that Morgan with our wristbands but there was literally nothing to do with the points when you were done… it was just a tool to make the world more interactive. Fun, but not sure it’s worth $50 each.

We got two pizza meal sets from a restaurant called Amity Landing and enjoyed defrosting at a table in the sun. The flavours were a bit odd, with Teriyaki Chicken & Honey Mustard Bacon, but the tasted nice. We weren’t in a rush to visit Sesame Street or the Despicable Me section but were very keen to visit Harry Potter World so headed over there.

Harry Potter World was magical! Pun intended! I always think that I’ve outgrown my Harry Potter obsession, but walking through the gate directly into Hogsmeade was breathtaking! We visited the lolly shop and got some gifts for Morgan’s family and then lined up to get some hot butterbeer, which was surprisingly tasty. We visited the clothing store and I bought a Ravenclaw scarf - it was needed! I gave my black scarf to Morgan, who had forgotten his, and donned my merch before heading into Hogwarts for the best ride for 5-years running, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We had to queue for just over an hour before being shepherded inside and asked to put our belongings in a coin locker - it would appear things were going to get bumpy!

The ride was incredible! Half 4D immersive ride, half rollercoaster, we were thrown through the world of Harry Potter and it felt like we were flying on broomsticks. Half the ride was us in front of 3D screens and the other half was our carriage being turned about in rooms with life size sets and props of dementors, the whomping willow and the forbidden forest. Best ride we’ve been on this trip!

It was 4pm when we left Harry Potter World and decided to explore the other, less interesting, side of the park. We thought we’d line up for a 4D “theatre experience” about an anime called Detective Conan because there wasn’t a line and we got to sit down. Wrong! Once inside we got guided into another room FULL of lines. Ugh. The show went for half an hour and was about a teen detective stopping a villain from stealing a rare diamond. Chaotic but a bit of fun.

We came out of the theatre at dusk and had nothing else we wanted to do. We did one last lap of a gift shop, collected a stamp from the guest service desk and headed out. We were absolutely exhausted.

The train ride home was jam packed. Literally. For one leg I was sandwiched between two guys and separated from Morgan. Each station we stopped at, more people crammed in and it was very uncomfortable. Our next train was delayed and our final train was near-empty with lots of available (and heated!) seats.

We got home just before 7pm and were absolutely pooped. We’d stopped at a konbini to get a snack to tie us over until dinner but as anticipated, once we sat down on the bed, we were very reluctant to get up again. I had a bath and we ordered some Taiwanese food through UberEATS for a night in.

[asp1990]

Day 17: Thursday January 16th, 2025 [Osaka]

[asp1990]

Day 17: Thursday January 16th, 2025 [Osaka]

Breakfast: konbini coffee & snacks

Lunch: ¥10 pan - crappy custard waffle

Dinner: Sumo bento, sake & ice cream sando

Steps: 19,674

I was excited to visit today’s shrine and we were up early to make sure we could make the most of our day. We got a train and a bus to Katsou-Ji temple, in our itinerary as ‘angry boy shrine’. My favourite Japanese motif is the Daruma doll and this shrine was full of them! The trip was expensive - about $13 each for public transport and then $10 each for entrance. Worth it though!

The grounds of the temple were beautiful and built into the side of a mountain. On arrival we got given a blank postcard and there were 6 stamps to collect that formed a full image of Daruma dolls. Cute! We walked up towards the temple where we bought a blank Kachi-Daruma doll to write our goals on.

We followed the steps here:

https://katsuo-ji-temple.or.jp/audioguidance/index.php

Walking back down the hill, we could see hundreds of tiny Daruma dolls that people had lined up along the path - it was adorable. I am glad we got the bigger ones to take home though.

We got the bus back down the mountain at 11:30am and got the train to Osaka Castle. I’d pre-purchased an open-date ticket and was glad of it as when we arrived there was a snaking queue for the ticket booth. We walked right past it and into the castle.

Osaka Castle is in the middle of Osaka Castle Gardens and really catches the afternoon sun with its gilded embellishments. It really is a stunning building. Inside is a museum and a lot of it pertained to the end of the Edo era. We were hoping, like the other castle we visited, to see recreations of how the building was used during its prime, but it had been refurbished inside and mostly housed paintings and small video screens, which was a bit disappointing. We made our way up to the top mezzanine and enjoyed 360° views of the gardens and city skyline. I’d really hit a wall by this point and was craving a nap. We hadn’t really had anything to eat and were both fatigued. We caught the train back to our apartment and indulged in a two-hour nap.

We left the hotel again at 5:30pm. Morgan had booked us tickets to a Sumo Experience Show. We had missed the official sumo wrestling season, but this touristy show still gave us a taste. We walked through another crazy-busy and never ending shopping district called Ebisu Bashi Suji and were both in awe about the constant consumerism that seems to have a chokehold on Japan. We stopped at a Pokémon store to find a gift for Morgan’s sister but they didn’t have the right stuff so we moved on.

The Sumo Experience was hilarious. Way more performative than regular Sumo, there was a female MC who spoke to everyone in English and our ticket included a bento box and sake on arrival. We also had a fan and magnet on our seats. There were 4 Sumo performers who opened the show with the a dramatic re-telling of the history of sumo then had 3 rounds of wrestling after demonstrating the rules. The final act invited audience members to challenge the wrestlers - it was adorable! 2 kids and one mum got called to the stage and the Sumos were dramatically defeated by all of them after initially stonewalling them. A kid of about 6, Archie, was the best. He really thought he got knock his Sumo over then got flipped 360° and gently put down before his Suno feigned a fall and we all cheered for Archie’s victory! After the show we lined up for a photo with the cast and left in good spirits.

On the walk back to our hotel we looked in a few shops and visited a gaming arcade. Morgan tried to win me a CinnamonRoll plushie and it was hot property - 3 other couples tried to win it. None of us were successful. Morgan bought some gochapon toys for friends and I bought some Haircare as gifts.

We got back to our hotel at 10pm and were exhausted after our second biggest day of walking. We watched some Japanese TV, without any clue what was happening, and hit the hay. Universal studios tomorrow!

[asp1990]

Day 16: Wednesday January 15th, 2025 [Transit to Osaka]

[asp1990]

Day 16: Wednesday January 15th, 2025 [Transit to Osaka]

Breakfast: chicken & veg hot pot, egg & rice

Lunch: Kinosaki cheeseburger & fries

Dinner: 2.5cm pork katsu with egg rice

Steps: 10,002

We woke up for our pre-booked 8:45am breakfast in Kinosaki today. We wore our yukatas down to the restaurant and were surprised by the very generous meals we were served. Morgan had fish and I had chicken with a selection of pickled veg, salad, egg and rice. It was very savoury and a good way to start the day, but definitely too much food.

We planned to have one more bath before checking out at 11am, but when we went downstairs again the baths were closed for cleaning. Morgan said he was going to be brave and try one of the public baths! He was very nervous but wanted the experience. He went out for an hour and I stayed in our room and read. He returned very pleased with himself and that the biggest challenge was how to open the door to the bathroom haha.

We checked out at 11am and it was what our weather app called a “wintery mix” it was snowing but also raining at the rain time which made it miserable instead of picturesque. Our sever had taken a photo of us at dinner the night before and we were given a framed copy of it and a handwritten letter on our departure. So cute! We said goodbye and walked to the station with our tiny umbrellas. We popped our bags in a coin locker for 2 hours so we could walk around the town without everything getting wet. We bought some matching chopsticks and then had lunch in a burger shop. The burgers were surprisingly nice for non-Japanese food in Japan.

At 1.25pm we boarded our train and had a three hour trip to Osaka. Our final stop for our Japan adventure. The train rides had been flying by so far, but this one felt a bit tedious. I read a big chunk of my book and listened to music. The snow was falling for the whole trip and it was lovely to see the countryside covered in white. We arrived in Osaka at 4:30pm and navigated our way through to our connecting train our to Shinsaibashi.

Our last hotel, Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi, looked very flash from the outside! Our luggage had arrived safely from 7/11 the day before and check in was very simple. Our room was on the 7th floor and while it was lovely, it was tinier than our Tokyo accom. We had to negotiate our luggage, with a lack of storage options. Morgan took everything out of his suitcase and mine fit under the TV.

We walked towards Dontoburi for dinner. I’d seen a pork katsu place online that I was excited to try and we only had to queue for 30 minutes before seats were available. It was a tiny, 12-seat restaurant called Chiyomatsu Osaka, that appeared to be family owned. The dad did the cleaning, mum ran the show, the son did the cooking and the daughter organised customer orders in the queue. The only thing on the menu is pork katsu with egg rice but you can have a 2.5cm or super chunky 5cm cutlet. The mega was sold out, so we settled on the 2.5cm that was more than enough! The egg was delicious, the katsu crumb was crunchy and the serving size very generous. Two meals and two beers cost us ¥4040.

After dinner we walked through Dontoburi, famous for a canal running through the middle of giant restaurants and iconic light-up billboards. We saw the giant crab, the angry chef, the Asahi sign, the Glico sign and the Don Quijote Ferris wheel. We got photos of each and decided to ride the Ferris wheel for ¥1000 each. I thought I’d be fine, but it went SO much higher than I’d thought and I got a bit nervous. Morgan loved it though. The ride lasted for 15 minutes and I felt ok after we were on our way back down to the ground.

We decided to do one final Donki shop and it was an absolute circus. It was mega crowded, we kept getting jostled or separated and it was impossible to get to things I wanted. We finally had a basket full of gifts and items that we bought tax-free and got out of the madness. By the time we got out shops were starting to close and it was very cold on our faces. We looked in a few silly shops before heading back to our room. We have a lot to fit into our final 3 days, so we will absolutely need our beauty sleep.

[asp1990]

Day 15: Tuesday January 14th, 2025 [Kinosaki]

[asp1990]

Day 15: Tuesday January 14th, 2025 [Kinosaki]

Breakfast: Apple Danish & a latte

Lunch: beef katsu ekiben (train bento)

Dinner: maybe one of the nicest dinners I’ve had!

Steps: 7,185

We checked out of our Kyoto accomodation at 9:45am and headed to the 7/11 to organise our luggage delivery to Osaka. Morgan filled out the paperwork and it felt very strange to leave our luggage at a convenience store. I took photos of our suitcases, screenshot the location on maps and made sure my AirTag was working. Paranoid much? After that we got the bus to Kyoto station, had a coffee and purchased our ‘ekiben’ lunches to get the Shinkansen to Kinosaki - the only part of our trip that Morgan organised before our departure haha.

The train ride was about 2.5 hours and it flew by! I finished my book, ate my bento and listened to music and suddenly we were there! We’d sailed past lots of fields full of snow and were pleased to see that Kinosaki was also snow capped! Upon closer inspection though, it was leftover icy snow and not cute, powdery goodness. Ah well! Still snow!

Our hotel was 7 minutes from the station but it was 2:15pm and check-in wasn’t until 3pm, so we dropped our bags and went for a walk. The whole vibe of Kinosaki is that of a ‘resort town’ where you can walk around in your robes and visit different onsens. I was incredibly hesitant to go to a public onsen for a few reasons:

1. They’re segregate by gender so I wouldn’t be able to sit with Morgan

2. I didn’t want to be naked (mandatory) around a bunch of Japanese women

3. I have tattoos and they are not allowed in a lot of onsens due to symbolic ties with gangs.

Morgan had thankfully booked us into a hotel with their own private onsens, Kinosaki Onsen Sensui - problem solved! They were tattoo friendly, included passes to all other onsens in town (if Morgan was so inclined) and included all meals! The staff were super lovely and very eager to make sure we enjoyed our stay. We had a comprehensive ‘check-in’ process and enjoyed a complimentary welcome tea and sweet upon arrival.

Our room was ‘traditional style’ - we had lattice-style sliding doors, a cute little sunroom and a short table with floor cushions to sit on. There was no shower in our room - we would need to use the showers next to the private pools downstairs. Our host, Kamako, gave us a tour of the hotel and showed us around our room. She gave us a map of all the onsens in town and pointed out her favourite. She spoke English very well and was adorably hospitable.

We’d been given robes to use (Yukata) if we were going to roam around. Morgan spent about half an hour stressing about wearing them correctly, but thankfully our room had a guide on how to wear them. They also had a hand-drawn ‘Welcome to Kinosaki’ guide that had recommendations from hotel staff that was really cute, and very helpful! We had some sake in our room before heading down to the hotel onsens at 4.30pm. They weren’t reservable, but luckily one was free! Once we’d showered and hopped in we realised how hot it was and had to crack a window. We spent about 15 minutes in the bath before getting out and heading back to our room haha. We then got ready and headed down to dinner at 6pm, as instructed by staff.

When I say this dinner was divine, it is an understatement. When booking, the website had stated that crab was their main delicacy, but I don’t like shellfish, so Morgan had booked us the ‘beef menu’. We arrived to a beautiful restaurant space, next to the lobby, with personalised menus and a handwritten welcome note. This place was so cute! Kamako was back as our server and guided us through our 7-course meal. I’d never dined in degustation way before. Morgan has some additional seafood in his courses, but mine were all vegetation or beef. They were delicious! My favourite was absolutely the Tajima beef grilled steak - it was buttery and served with delicious salt & wasabi. It is quite possibly the best steak I’ve ever eaten. We ended the meal with some caramel sorbet with sweet potato custard, served by the chef, and I hope our compliments didn’t come across too hasty.

After dinner we were treated to a complimentary sake tasting in the foyer. They were yum and the third was the most fragrant. We then put on our Yukata coats and took a brief stroll to the Main Street to take photos of the river lit by the streetlights. It was very beautiful even if the snow was a wee bit patchy.

Back in the hotel we treated ourselves to a bath in the second onsen (much nicer and less steamy, before the heat made us sleepy and we jumped out. In our room we read our books, had some green tea and were delighted to find that our room had been set up with traditional, mat-style beds for us to sleep on.

I really didn’t do any research for Kinosaki, as this was Morgan’s project, but it has been an absolute bloody delight! This specific onsen-hotel is beautiful, the staff are lovely and the town is gorgeous. I can’t wait to explore it more tomorrow before we head off to Osaka!

[asp1990]

Day 14: Monday January 13th, 2025 [Kyoto]

[asp1990]

Day 14: Monday January 13th, 2025 [Kyoto]

Breakfast: konbini onigiri & latte

Lunch: udon noodles with chicken tempura

Dinner: konbini egg sandwich & chicken

Steps: 19,388

Day 3 in Kyoto today and I was excited to visit the Otagi-Nenbutsu-ji Temple (written in our itinerary as ‘Happy Buddha Boy Temple’) that was hidden away in the mountains about 13km from our hotel. Google Maps said it would take 90 minutes to get there via public transport and 30 minutes by car. We planned to get PT but by the time we left the house at 9.30am, we would have gotten to the temple at 11am and then had a similar commute home and lose a lot of day-activity time, so we chose to pay ¥5300 for a taxi which was very worth it! We were at the shrine by 10.15am and there were hardly any people there. They had a free commemorative stamp which I was chuffed about as we hadn’t found any stamps since Tokyo!

I found this temple online and was instantly enamoured with the 1200 ‘rakan’ stone figurines that cover the grounds. The temple has a history of being destroyed by extreme weather and natural disasters and struggled to maintain structural integrity. In 1955, Kocho Nishimura, a Buddhist statue sculptor and restorer, was ordered to be the chief of the temple and restore it. He created the main project of the era which was to create the 1200 carved statues. He asked the people creating the statues to ‘bring forth the unique, personal figures that were hiding in the stone’. Some of the statues were posed seriously, some in prayer, and some in silly, goofy poses. My favourites were the ones in pairs - two were whispering to each other, two were hugging and two were sharing a bottle of sake. They were an absolute joy to photograph.

We’ve finished almost a dozen shrines and temples in our two weeks in Tokyo and whilst my temple-fatigue is starting to set in, I’ve really enjoyed seeing the different approaches to worship, religion and personal connection. Some of the shrines have been so serious and purely for prayer, whilst others have been silly and designed to make people feel welcome and comfortable in what they’d like to pay respect to. The Shinto religion doesn’t rely on an almighty god, but instead gives space to worship a wide range of ideals and values. They do focus on worshipping animalistic Gods called ‘Kami’, but it’s been fascinating to see how this has transferred into different shrines in different parts of Japan.

After leaving the happy Buddha boys, we walked down the hill towards a lesser-known bamboo forest. The main bamboo forest in Kyoto is Arashiyama, and I’d read nothing except that it was super crowded and full of people doing elaborate photo shoots. No thank you. We payed ¥500 each to enter the smaller forest, that was attached to a cemetery and shrine, and got our necessary, people-free, bamboo photos. We continued down the hill, stopped for a coffee at a beautiful little coffee shop (playing Ariana Grande of all things) and then found ourselves in a stunning suburb of traditional houses and ‘members only’ clubs. We continued down until we accidentally hit the Arashiyama bamboo forest and were glad to be able to just stroll through without getting caught in crowds. There were stacks of tourists being pulled around on rickshaws by hot Japanese dudes - I couldn’t think of anything worse. This seems to be a big thing in Kyoto as we’ve seen them everywhere.

After exiting the other side of the bamboo forest, we found ourselves in a strip of tourist shops and restaurants. We stepped into a chopstick shop so Morgan could buy gifts for his family and then went next door for lunch where we had delicious udon noodles and tempura chicken. After yesterday’s dinner shenanigans, we were glad to not have to queue for our food.

After looking in half a dozen gift shops, we finally found ourselves at the bottom of the mountain and at the train station. We got a stamp for our books (our second in Kyoto! What a day!) We got a local train back towards the city then transferred to a bigger, city train to visit the Nijo-Jo Castle (formerly the Imperial Villa). We’d driven past it on the way to the temple in the morning and it was a spur of the moment decision to visit.

The castle and grounds were beautiful! We did a tour of the inside, but were not able to take any photos, which was a real shame as the gilded walls with stunning depictions of animals and nature were really something. We have just started watching Shogun on Disney+ and I was excited to see if the historical ears overlapped, but I’m not sure they did. There was a lot of information about the Shogun that was ‘in charge’ at the time and the use of each of the rooms in the castle and how people used them to appease him. We walked around the gardens but they closed at 4.30pm and we were running out of time.

We got a bus back towards our apartment with the plan to have a wee rest before heading out to explore Gion at night and find some dinner. We got sidetracked by Don Quijote (we hadn’t been to one in a week!) and stopped to stock up on skincare and other goodies. We then visited a manga store so Morgan could have a look but he didn’t end up buying anything. Fatigue suddenly hit and we were both desperate for a rest. We marched home in 15 minutes and it was pure relief to take our coats, beanies, scarves, boots and bags off.

We left the house at 7pm to visit Ninenzaka street at night and hopefully stumble across a cool place to eat. 99% of Ninenzaka was closed but still lit up, so we got some cute photos. We really struggled to find somewhere to eat and ended up just getting something from 7/11 for dinner, which isn’t as grim as it seems. The convenience stores here are full of goodies. While we were there we also got luggage transfer tags to forward our big bags to Osaka as our hotel doesn’t utilise this service. We ate on our beds (the Japanese would be furious) and watched the Simpsons. Not all meals need to be fancy!

Today was a wonderful day, but my feet are ready for a rest! Off to our next overnight stay tomorrow!

[asp1990]

Day 13: Sunday January 12th, 2025 [Kyoto]

[asp1990]

Day 13: Sunday January 12th, 2025 [Kyoto]

Breakfast: konbini onigiri & latte

Lunch: karaage & strawberry mochi

Dinner: duck ramen & duck rice 🦆🍜

Steps: 16,545

We started our day at Fushimi Inari Shrine today! We were hoping to maybe get there before the crowds but the advice we’d seen online had been to get there at 7:30am and that was never going to happen. We got there just after 10am and it was PACKED. Oh my goodness. So many people.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is like the Japanese Kokoda Trail in Melbourne (aka the 1000 steps). You walk up Mt Inari, to the summit, through 1000 tori gates ⛩️ that are beautifully similar but somehow all different. There are hundreds of tiny shrines as you climb and lots of little tea rooms and, somehow, vending machines, for you to stop at along the way. It took us just over an hour to get to the top. The first section was absolutely packed with tourists and more Japanese girls getting their Instagram pictures. People were stopping dead in the middle of packed crowds to get their Instagram pictures which was very frustrating. The higher we climbed, the less people there were and the more opportunity there was for photos without people in the background. The summit was beautiful and we made an offering at the main shrine.

Once we got back to the bottom, we collected a printed goshuin for our books and walked through the jam-packed market stalls. We had been there for 4 hours and were definitely in need of snacks. I bought some chopsticks for friends and was going to get them engraved, but there was a 50 minute wait. In a series of unfortunate events, a girl bumped into me and made my drop my phone on the ground, I got split up from Morgan as we tried to find snacks, my eSIM data ran out and I couldn’t contact Morgan and when we did finally buy some chicken karaage, I dropped mine on the ground. I was instantly grumpy and needed space away from being jostled to get over myself. We sat on a bench near the station and ate our food before getting on the train to go home and figure out what the afternoon was going to look like.

We spent an hour at home relaxing under the heater before going to the laundromat to do some laundry before the last leg of our trip. We figured there’d be a coin exchange machine there, and there was, but we only had large denomination notes and the store the laundromat was attached to refused to exchange notes. Morgan had to go hunting for a konbini and I sat and watched our clothes. We had enough coins for one load of wash & dry, but needed coins for an additional “wash only” load. Riveting stuff. We had overpriced coffees and edamame in the adjoining cafe while we waited. The cafe was strange and the coffee was not worth the ¥800 it cost.

Both loads took 40 minutes and we carted them back home in bags and our carry on luggage. We decorated the apartment with our wet clothes and walked to a popular restaurant called Duck Gion Noodles. It is only known by emojis (🦆🍜). We had to line up in a dark alley for 90 minutes, which felt ridiculous, but all the reviews said it was worth the wait. One review literally said “Was spending more than two hours in a dark, narrow alleyway worth it? Surprisingly, yes.“ it was 7:30pm when we arrived so we either had to wait or risk queueing up somewhere else closer to closing time and missing out on dinner. Initially the wait was fine, but the cold really started getting to us. The concrete we were standing in was really pushing the cold up through our shoes and I was wearing gumboots! It really would have been great if they’d had a light, blankets while we were waiting and maybe a bit of music. We would never line up like that, for that long, in Melbourne.

We were invited in just before 9pm and were pleased to just be inside. Our order had been taken while we were waiting so our food arrived within 5 minutes of sitting down. The meal was delicious, with succulent duck, buckwheat noodles and a perfectly boiled duck egg. We had a house beer each and a duck rice to share. We both wolfed down our meals and were back in the cold just before 9:30pm. The ratio of time in queue to time enjoying food was way off. Was it worth the freezing wait time? Maybe. It was delicious but we were so cold when we left that we marched straight home and the rest of our evening was spent under the covers in our apartment.

[asp1990]

Day 12: Saturday January 11th, 2025 [Kyoto]