Thursday, 23 October 2014
Related posts: Tokyo D1, Day 2, Day 3, Kyoto D4, Day 5, Day 6, Tokyo D7, Day 8
Today is our last day in Kyoto. We woke up early and had breakfast at the ryokan. The dining area was connected to a small Japanese garden. It amazes me how despite the small land they have, Japanese people are able to make the most of it. They gave us 2 options for breakfast: japanese or western.
We don’t really feel like having Japanese that early in the morning so we chose the French toast. Turns out it was quite good.
We checked out around 10AM. The plan is to visit another attraction this morning before taking the shinkansen at 1:33PM back to Tokyo. We hailed a taxi and went to Kyoto Station. At the station, we stored our bags at one of the many coin lockers they had at the station. The large locker that we took was ¥700 per locker per day (they charge per day).
From there, we took the JR train to Inari Station to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine. Founded in 711CE, the shrine is famous for their red torii gates.
The main shrine is located on Inari mountain which is 4KM from the entrance. That’s roughly 2 hours of trekking up. Most visitors just take photos of the torii gates halfway through.
From the shrine, we explored the nearby shops and bought a chicken skewer as a snack. It smelled so good from far, we just had to give it a try.
We took the JR train back to Kyoto Station. We had about 40 minutes before we need to head to the shinkansen so we decided to check out the shops at Kyoto Station.
Kyoto Station is a massive complex with an impressive architecture. It has its own shopping area in the underground area, and is connected to a number of shopping malls adjacent to it.
We took the Hikari shinkansen train to Tokyo. Similar to the train to Kyoto, JR Pass holders are only allowed to take the Hikari and Kodoma trains. JR Pass is not permitted on Nozomi trains. The Hikari train departed at 1:33PM and arrived at Tokyo Station at 4:10PM.
From Tokyo Station, we took the JR Yamanote train to Hamamatsucho station. We were not required to purchase any additional tickets as the Yamanote train is part of the JR Pass. At Hamamatsucho, we walked 2 blocks east to arrive at our hotel.
- Accommodation: Hotel Comsoleil Shiba
- Room type: Standard double room
- Price: ¥35,400 for 3 days, 2 nights (USD295 or RM1,070)
The hotel is located in a convenient district. There are a lot of shops and eateries nearby. As for the hotel, they provide wifi, laundry, printing service, and even gave us a Starbucks card for breakfast. The hotel room is just slightly bigger than the one we stayed previously at Sunroute Shinjuku (refer to Tokyo Day 1)
Related posts: Tokyo D1, Day 2, Day 3, Kyoto D4, Day 5, Day 6, Tokyo D7, Day 8
Imran Jaafar 