15th June, North-west of kyoto

FULL OF EVENTS DAY! (not that the others aren't..)

Today is the day we explore the north-western side of kyoto.

We had to take a train and a bus to reach our first destination of the day...

First stop, Kinkkakuji. Proudly showing off a ticket that everyone have and has no particular value other than sentiments.

some nice close ups by sheila

nice pic, bad composition, aahaha kidding - by sheila

It was magnificent, however tonnes of tourists sort of killed the japanese feel of the place.

Group PEEKTURE! as usual... 

sadly the picture is nowhere to be found.

Nonetheless, i shall paint a picture with words. Erica and joey called out for a picture

with swarms of humans everywhere, joey trying to get everyone's back to face the kinkkakuji.

But luckily she was loud and mighty and roared everyone in place, and SMILE!~!~!~!

Followed by a rush to buy charms. many little adorable charms again. many are frantically

buying charms for their friends and families and thus not a picture was taken.

Tsk, singaporeans, slow down a bit can?

Some coin collection pot... though it stood there with seemingly no purpose,

it didn't stop anyone from trying to give it some purpose.

Maybe people give things purpose.

Here we observe a fenced specimen, of a human trying to toss circular metals

into a metal pot in hope that he may be rewarded with food if it rings.

Well, jokes aside, we enjoyed this place, particularly LJ, look at him go.

Tossing yen after yen, adorable thing.

We then travelled to arashiyama on train...

It was different, it looked older and feels less city like.

Is that Erica?

The train travels very near houses. We arrived at arashiyama, and took

us awhile to be oriented again.

Gachapon oriented, Dont worry there's more gachaponnish craze later in the trip.

It was lunchtime, and we decided to eat first since is raining...

I was almost sure that the rain was going to spoil the day.

YAY!! a picture of the starving tourists!!

Take this picture now or starve!! all of you!!

FOOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!!

First we have, a dish with egg and presumably fried chicken or pork

looks like, i can relate the taste of how the japanese make their eggs.

Second dish, Beef hamburger set. Very nice. Juicy seared beef with

juices sealed in, coupled with the slightly sweet and sour sauce brought

much delight to my taste buds.

Third, CURRY RICE. Japanese curry, needless to say its good.

Conclusion. The food is perversely delicious.

I think this is a fact that all of us would agree to.

Popping out onto the streets of arashiyama

Rickshaws? Are they called? Well, I noticed that they wear special shoes and

had legs of a kangaroo.

We didn't let the rain dampen our spirits, after a little hiccup of the missing lecturers

in which they went to look for each other and either one seemed to be swallowed by

a freak wormhole, but popped back to continue our journey.

This is a view we had when crossing the bridge to go to the bamboo forest.

Very beautiful...

Himi and Yq?

 We came across a few locals wearing traditional costumes

AAAAAnd took pictures with the friendly folks. 

This shot is one of our dreaded upward hikes...

We trekked for quite awhile, the rain and the physical torment

slowed down the pace... We were rushing to finish this, but somewhere

a bit over the midpoint, the lecturers suggested maybe those who

do not wish to continue may leave, so the group seperated at some 

train station, a ride that takes you to look at the view.

All of us took a break, sat down and rested our arty farty legs

that have no place in the mountains. But the story of the entire group stops here.

What I know is that the rest took a hike back down, to return to the hotels

and then to visit some other place in kyoto.

But Lj, Vina and I wish to explore more, and thus joey had to follow us. 

I guess she don't want a case of students missing in the mountains, so 

thank you joey.

This is a story that I would love to share with the rest, we really had an

experience in there.

We took a path to visit a place of stone monks. further up north east of the bamboo forest.
Its still drizzling.

We came across this statue and decided to pose with it. 

I have no idea why. ok maybe for fun.

This is a memorable picture, as we walked around this plot of farmland.

Getting lost around a farmland plot. I don't know how to explain it, its silly.

Looking at those huge ravens on it. 

We walked through a village, not a single soul in sight. Quiet, but far from creepy,

the streets and houses emanate peace.

All we could hear is our footsteps, raindrops, birds, and our chatter.

A beautiful street, very peaceful...

AND A MOUNTAIN CRAB! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Some people at last, though I don't know how long have we trekked.

I was sheltering the adorable ceramic monks from the rain.

We continued, talking about how the houses looked..

They look old yet new, a strange feeling about them.

Soon, we stumbled upon this display. 

Its a display of little sculptures of animals, made of white ballish thingies.

As I looked, i glanced to my sides and noticed a flight of stairs on either side, I took the

one on the left, I crept up carefully. The stairs on the picture above is the stairs on the right.

As I was slowly walking up the stairs, an old lady appears and spoke in a soft and welcoming tone, almost unbelievable. It reminded us of a Spirited Away -like scene (just that it's less creepy)

I didn't know how to react, I looked at joey. And she nodded, thus we followed the lady.

She was extremely polite as she guided us to the door of the workshop. 

constantly saying " please do " in japanese.

And at the door, we wondered of we are supposed to take our shoes off,

since it is wet from the rain, and she signaled to us that its okay.

It was a shop and a workshop, in the middle and the walls, filled with shelves

 of those little sculptures that we saw downstairs. 

And we saw a man.

He was so excited to have visitors, he bumped his little desk as he tried to get

up as quickly as he could.

A massive conversation of gestures and laughter ensues.

"I speak english"

"I have a pen!"

(gesturing to wait as he tries to remember one more..)

"I am a boy!"

as he exclaimed in excitement and in english.

He is a very happy man, and shared many things with us.

Even to how he made his rabbit, when i asked about the white balls, 

which i guessed are silkworm cocoons, and they are.

Macha and 5 coloured peanuts, Served by the man's wife, with such hospitality

that we would feel guilty recieving it.

we were getting our works with little notes written by him, when he found out that Joey is a sensei. He was exhilarated. He was amazed at her being a teacher at such a young age.

Japanese seem to have a great respect for teachers.

Before we left, he showed us, notes in English he kept from his visitors. Though old and crumply, he still kept them nicely and preciously.

we chatted a lot and took a picture together.

the never ending goodbye wave by the man, until we were out of sight.

We can never forget this warm experience.

we headed on to our destination after that. most of us bought

his works from him.

still a long walk

met a construction site. HELLO excavator

old houses...

a tori gate that stood in between a split end.

to the left is a dark gloomy road that joey didn't want to go, but Eugene was 

attracted to it. 

We went up to the shop and they said its the dark gloomy way, but its closed.

SO, YAY! dark gloomy road one.

Tired joey zero.

ok, so no more visiting, the hard part is to get back

thats where we came from.

a very quiet mountain road

thats the direction of the bamboo forest

the busstop that we waited for awhile before continuing.

Hey handsome.

and waiting.....

The mood change after a puff is drastic

the village between the road and the mountains that we passed through

GROUP PHOTO!!

we trekked and found a bunch of guys. waiting for a bus i guess.

soon enough a bus came and we hopped on.

Salvation

back to port.

the train tracks that will lead us back to Kyoto.

A shopping street that Eugene's sister introduced.

Lj, just wants food.

Himi would like these.

Nishikin food market, closed. supposedly contains very delicious foods.

He is happy he has food.

Ramen

Pork tempura

The food wasn't nice, because we didn't know we walked 

into a bar until we were out of it.

P.S. I left my umbrella in there.

And back to the hotel with full bellies and a fantastic experience.

I would like to hear the others' story of today. 

_________________________________________

Some Reflections from Yq...

Before going to Japan, I heard quite abit about the country. About how nice the place is, how nice the food are and lastly how friendly the people there are. I was really looking forward to Japan, since its quite a well known fact some Singaporean staff can be quite unfriendly at times.

Japanese staff are well, the total opposite. The greet each and every customer who enter their shop happily, and thanks each and everyone sincerely.

Someone asked a Japanese couple the price of a souvenir thinking that they are the sales assistant there. Instead of giving the weird stare ( which I think will most likely happened in Singapore) they went all out to call the sales assistant, check with them the price and translate it to English for us. Something that I'm amazed, how nice people can actually be.

Oh yes, i think all of us got hit by how mindful and considerate the Japanese are.

_______________________________________

And From Mr. Kang

We packed up a luggage early then move to the subway for going to Kyoto. It was so 

crowded; a lot of people walking with a fast pace. It was extreme. We reach to the Kyoto. 

Expected to be chilled or cool but it was hot.

 We walk around the city and stay in the

Khaosan Kyoto. At night I got lost with a friend in Kyoto. Thankfully, I was able to speak

little bit of Japanese, so I asked citizens where was the Khaosan Kyoto. The last person was 

so kind, he led us a way until the Khaosan Kyoto. It was somehow terrible but also new 

experience. I hoped that was the first time and the last time.

Joey and Erica was so worried for LJ and Kang. That night, thank the Japanese.

Everyone had great experiences overseas, and everyone had spent their time well.

I think it would be very nice if singapore had such great culture. It would make 

singapore a much better place. I felt that maybe its the population that

needs improvement, rather than the buildings.

That all for now. see you next time.

P.S. sorry for the late post. was busy lately and will catch the posts with more

consistency. :D sorry.