My Friends Invade Japan - Part 5 (Kyoto)

Right after our visit in Nara and Osaka, we quickly headed over to Kyoto. We arrived in Kyoto roughly about 4pm and we took a bus to our hostel. We got there around 5pm, and it was a nice place to be honest. But all of us did not digg the 10:30pm curfew that they had. They also had other strict rules that made us feel like it was a prison cell. We all wanted to enjoy night life Japan... it was all part of traveling, but this hostel denied us this opportunity. But it was better to have a place than have no place at all.

Knowing that we were like Cinderella and had to be back at a certain time... we left the hostel and walked over to Gion Street to check out some places to eat and drink and chill for the next day. Along our walk, I found a cool wine that had cherry blossoms in them and I was this close to buying it... but after having cherry blossom frappuccino at Starbucks in Matsuyama before and not enjoying the slight aftertaste.. I decided to not buy it. There were many people on Gion Street and we were simply amazed. We checked out the sakura trees that were lit up that night and we enjoyed its beauty.












Along with finding a place to eat for the next day, I went searching for my favorite ramen shop. I visited this ramen shop thanks to my friend Robert when we came to Kyoto with two other friends in the Summer of 2006. I remembered vaguely where it was and as I used the surroundings as hints, I found it in no time. It was how I last remembered it. I was determined to take my friends here for a "second dinner" the next day, and I was very determined that I would get a bowl. I really wanted to eat this ramen. The best that I have had in all of Japan. And that's saying something... I guess haha.

We got something to eat and walked back to our hostel before our curfew kicked in. We found a mochi/dango store along the way where we bought some sweet rice cake dessert. We ate them on the side of the street. They were grilled on the fire so they were very hot, but they were nice and warm and crispy. I would definitely come back to this stand to eat more. Anyhow, we walked forward and got back to our hostel. There we met a German guy who was actually half Japanese. He was on vacation and to my surprise, we had something very in common with each other. I found out that his mother is from the same prefecture as my mothers and his middle name or his Japanese name was Daisuke. I was like "Whoa!? What a small world!?" Indubetibley... we live in such a small world and the people we meet is simply amazing. We talked for a little bit, and it was like 11:30pm when we finished talking. My friends and I were all tired so we decided to sleep early. As we closed our eyes, we did think... dang... curfew is lame haha

The next day, April 1st... there were no April Fools jokes whatsoever. I guess my friends didn't feel like doing anything and playing jokes on people. What a relief that was. Anyhow, I woke up a little early to go on a run around Kyoto. It had always been my dream to take a stroll in Kyoto when it was quiet and peaceful. At 6am, there were no tourists in my way as I ran up the stairs to a temple to hear a morning service by a monk. His voice was vivid and boisterous and so harmonic. His chants were amazing and I felt so happy to hear this. I continued my run up the mountain to visit other temples and shrines and I eventually headed down to Gion River to check out the sight there. The river scenery was also gorgeous and I just kept running along it. Eventually, I realized that my friends and I were gonna check out out of our prison hostel early so I ran back. I took a route where I could see the most cherry blossom trees to finish up my morning run.

We checked out of our hostel by 8am and we headed over to our new hotel which was a capsule hotel. This was my second time at a capsule hotel and it was the first time for all of my friends. We were imagining small closed sleeping quarters, but to our surprise... they were pretty huge. They actually looked comfortable. They came with a comfy bed, TV, air conditioning, and so forth. It pretty awesome. The best part was... no curfew! haha We dropped our stuff and headed toward our first destination, which was the Silver Pavilion. Now.. I gotta admit, but the Silver Pavilion is way cooler than the Gold Pavilion. Well that's my opinion, but the Gold Pavilion kind of not satisfies me because it looks kind of fake and it's a huge tourist trap. But the Silver Pavilion is a little different... it satisfies me in terms of authenticity and the beautiful garden that surrounds the pavilion. Anyhow, there's mix opinions on which one is better and so forth... but my vote is for the Silver Pavilion haha

Anyhow, we take a bus there and we check out the cherry blossoms that are in full bloom along the road up to the Silver Pavilion. They were very beautiful. We took pictures and videos of how beautiful they were. We were also asked by some tourists to pose in their picture with them. Now it was a little weird at first, but it was all in good fun. We finally get to our destination, and just like I remembered it from the last time I visited... the Silver Pavilion ceases to amaze me. I am very glad that I was able to take my friends here and have them check out one of my favorite Kyoto spots. It was cloudy that day, but the garden and view was spendid.

We left the Silver Pavilion, did some shopping along the way to the bus stop, and headed towards another favorite Kyoto spot of mine. We headed over to Sanjūsangen-dō or also known as Hall of the Lotus King. Its an amazing temple hall holding over a thousand deity statues and the very famous Thousand Armed Kannon. It such a sacred place that no one is allowed to take pictures. Its a long hall of just simply amazing-ness. haha I like this place, because I am amazed with the incredible amount of statues that are housed in this hall. It's hard to describe, but it will definitely leave most people stunned with amaze. My friends and I were very impressed and we took our visual photos in our mind. I hope my friends wont forget this place even though they did not take any actual pictures. =)

We left Sanjūsangen-dō and headed over to Kiyomizu temple, which is another favorite Kyoto destination of mine. We walked up the hill all the way up and we were presented with a great view of the city. Once again... it was a little cloudy that day, but still beautiful. We checked out the Love Shrine that is part of Kiyomizu and none of us were really into having our love life predicted haha. We were amazed with the combination of the temple and sakura flowers, and I felt happy to see Kiyomizu again... but this time during Spring. Always seen it during Summer. We left the temple and walked down to get some grub. We found ourselves eating cheap and delicious beef bowls for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to split off and do our own thing. Some of us wanted to shop, others wanted to walk around and find an arcade, and others wanted to sightsee more. So we split off and decided to meet in an hour or so. I went with Rishi, Brian, and Dudley, and we ended up at a Starbucks drinking matcha or green tea frappuccinos. We did some people watching and developed interesting theories about foreigners in Japan in comparison to different groups of people in the US. When our hour of free time ended, we met up with everyone and did some souvenir shopping in the shops near Gion Street. After shopping and finding some random UFO catcher games to waste some money on, we went to dinner... which was a treat.

Now I went to this place before thanks to Robert who I traveled with 4 years ago. It was an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place for like 2000 yen and all-you-can-drink for like an additional 1000 yen. My friends and I decided to go all out because it was the last night in Japan in which I would spend time with. We ordered many plates of food and many rounds of drinks. We were very full and pretty buzzed when our two hours came to an end. The food was good and we decided to celebrate our night with some arcades. We visited some arcade parlors near Gion and played the usual games as always.... Mario Kart. Rishi really wanted revenge so we played... and hands down.. Rishi won. Piece of cake for him. He is truly the master at that game. haha I just dont know why I won that one time in Matsuyama haha. Well anyhow, we played other games like this one game where we use these block to create towers for these bird creatures to jump to the highest point they can. Very simple... but very fun. We owned the game with just the three of us: me, Rishi, and Dudley. We also did some UFO catcher as well and we actually won something. Dragon Ballz! muahaha... We just need 5 more!




We parted ways from Cuyler and Dudley because they wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep. The rest of us decided to roam the city of Kyoto a little more. We went to a random reggae bar where we saw many Japanese people grooving to the jam. We try to visit other bars, but because it was a weekday... it was not cracking. It was raining on top of that. Hence why... in the picture you see next to this passage... we are like "WTF!? Where are all the open bars!?" haha But overall, it was an interesting night full of funny stuff happening and so forth. It's a story worth sharing I guess. Oh yeah... definitely got a bowl of my favorite ramen to seal the deal.

The next day, we all wake up around 9am and check out of our capsule hotel. We all had a good rest thanks to the comfortable-ness of the capsules. We arrive at the JR Kyoto station by 10:30ish and we head to the top of the station to check out the view of the city one last time and go to a restaurant up there. Everyone decided to take pictures of people taking pictures so we did an epic picture battle. Yes... a little strange... but the picture angle we had on each other was pretty funny. As soon as it was 11am, we went to our restaurant, Katsu-Kura, a tonkatsu restaurant to eat some delicious tonkatsu. It was a great meal to end my trip with my friends. We finished eating and did some souvenir shopping again. Once that was all done, we took one last group picture and I saw my friends off at the Shinkansen terminal. They were continuing their trip to Tokyo and I had to go home to run in an 10km race in Matsuno, a city south of Uwajima in Ehime.


I had a wonderful trip with my friends and I am very glad that they came. I had so much fun. I wish that my other friends can come and visit and I can show them around. We now have a number of great stories and I cant wait to go back to the states and talk about them with them and with other people. This trip has been one of my highlights during my stay here in Japan. I was very glad to travel the Land of the Rising Sun with my friends. I thank my friends very much for coming and I dedicated these blog entries to them. I'm not the greatest story teller, but it was sure fun to reflect on the trip and write briefly about it. =)