Anyway, back to my traveling journey. So after spending 5 days in Osaka, we headed over to高野山, which is reportedly the holiest place in Japan. That mountain is filled with tombs and temples. We spent one night over in one of the old temple on the mountain (which ironically had a damn good wireless connection. That was also where I first chatted with Harvey since I left Singapore) Quite a cool experience. Our room was almost like a 旅館 (Japanese style high class hotel) and the atmosphere there was really serene. The next morning we woke up at 6am to attend the morning service. It was freezing in the morning, and we were all so sleepy, but I guess attending the morning service was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Crazy pose in our room:
And after staying in 高野山 for a day, we went down to京都. 京都 is a must-visit if you ever come to Japan. The richness of the Japanese culture and tradition is so thick that it is almost palpable in the air. Went to 金閣寺and 清水寺. If you ever come to 京都, these are the two must-visit tourist attractions. If you like shopping, then you can’t miss 祇園 and the food district. Good food, traditional handcrafts, and lots of clothes and accessories! Really shop till you drop.
In front of 金閣寺:
舞妓さんと一緒に写真を撮った:
Our hotel room in Kyoto (highly recommended by Lonely Planet and me):
Kyoto University (Japan’s Second Best University). Kit chan, Kyodai whoooooor!
And we went past this fantastic cake shop, which sells all kinds of fruit cakes. Everything in the shop looks so yummy, and despite the exorbitant price, we headed in for our afternoon tea (S$10 per slice but it was heaven):
After 京都, we went to鳥羽, which is right besides the seaport. There we stayed in a Ryokan, and I finally experienced that kind of 幸せ感 that is always depicted in Japan Hour. The onsen was really good, and it has a whole array of Shisedo skincare products (Japanese’s upmarket skincare brand) for the customers to use after the bath. I think I used up at least half bottle of their skin conditioner. But the best thing about a Ryokan was its dinner. Look at the Sashimi boat!!! Lobster, fresh fish (dunno what fish but it tasted good anyway), abalone!
Marvel at the myriad of 海鮮料理。There were like fried oysters, miso-boiled oysters, French cuisine baked fish, more sashimi and many other kind of foods. And as the rest did not really like oysters, I think I took their shares and gobbled down more than 10 oysters. (Ash, aren’t you jealous? Hah:p)
Look at Weili’s and my totally satisfied faces:
I think for those (Desmond and Ashley) who are coming to Japan, you got to try staying in Ryokan for at least one night. It doesn’t come cheap, but if you wanna experience that kind of 気持ち illustrated in Japan, you really can’t miss it! Yah, the next morning, I woke up early to take the morning Onsen. Breakfast was served at 8.30am. And again, it was another feast of seafood. Hahz (my stomach is hungry again).
So after鳥羽, we finally and regrettably concluded our amazing weeks of traveling. Really shiok to travel and shop and eat, but I guess it is also a good time to bid farewell to this kind of life, at least for a while. Too much traveling is exhausting and law of diminishing marginal return starts kicking in after certain point.
From鳥羽, we took a 3 hours train to Osaka. Afterwhich, we took an overnight bus from Osaka to Fukouka, and then another 2 hours bus to Beppu Wan. Lastly, a cab down to AP House.
And here at AP House, another journey of amazing experiences awaits the 4 of us. I’m sure we will have hell lots of fun over here in APU.
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