Japan Day 2: Being Japanese For A Day,

Hello,

Day 2 in Kyoto was a little more interesting that the previous day because... WE GOT TO TRY ON JAPANESE TRADITIONAL WEAR!

There was a yukata rental shop called Yumeyakata Photo Studio that's located near where we were staying. In fact, it was just a minute walk away from our lift lobby! Had our breakfast at home before heading down to the place. It's a 4-storey building. Each level has different purposes. For instance, the first level's the lobby and the area where you pay and choose you kok-kok slippers; second storey is for ladies to choose their kimono/yukata. I can't remember which level I went for my hairdo but either level 3 or level 4 was for the guys, and another level for bags selection for the female. Wow!

Fun fact: the outfit that I was wearing was called yukata and not kimono. Kimono is a traditional wear during the winter when ladies would want a thicker traditional wear. Also, they've to wear socks to keep themselves warm too. Yukata is a thinner outfit to be worn during summer. Ah, but despite it being thinner, I felt like I was suffocating! Yukata has to be worn tightly aka NO LOOSE SPACE AT ALL! My rib cage was almost breaking when the staff helped me with the yukata. But all's good! I got used to it after 10 mins or so.

I was torn between the pink and navy blue pouches. Both are really nice but to match my yukata, I chose the latter! Anyway, I'm thankful that Mr. Z was being super spontaneous about wearing traditional outfits. I was still contemplating on our first day there because our my eczema but Mr. Z assured me so many things. Also, another reason for being so thankful was because... Most of boyfriends we saw did not wear it with their girlfriends and it was really a waste because photos are for a lifetime! It's definitely worthy to try it with your partners! No regrets!

We took public transport all the way. Yes, in our traditional outfits! We bought our tickets and headed to Fushimi Inari which is on the Keihan line. It's really convenient the attraction is just a few minutes walk away from the station itself.

The station looks very old school, just like what you always see on tv. This is also what I love about Japan. Time to explore Fushimi Inari, one of my favourite places in Kyoto!

Always very amazed by the millions of torii there. Each torii was also said to be donated by Japanese businessmen which makes each and every torii a unique one. The wordings printed/craved on each torii have different meanings. I've no idea what the wordings are because... My Chinese deteriorated. LOL!

We didn't hike all the way to the peak because we were having a hard time walking in our geta (the traditional slippers that a Japanese wears).

Left the attraction after taking tons of photos because vainpot couple! Came to this food street. We got hungry and melting under the hot sun so it's time for snacks before we proceeded to the next destination!

Beef skewers 

Mini melts

It was time for our next attraction at Ginkaku-ji Temple where it was mostly greens. Recommended only for people who like viewing natures. There was nothing much for us to see except taking photos of ourselves with the greens. Hmmm.

Tickets have to be purchased at the ticketing booth outside the temple. It costs us 500 yen each for an adult ticket. Not sure why but we had to purchase tickets for most of the temples aka tourist attractions in Japan.

Really bright!!

Philosopher's Path

The route to Nanzen-ji Temple

Let's just say that Japanese generally walk faster than me? It took us more than 7 minutes to reach Nanzen-ji Temple unlike what was stated on the signage! Both our legs were already aching super badly by this time after walking with geta for the whole day. We needed to reach Nanzen-ji Temple ASAP before making our way back to the studio. Another reason being that it's almost 6pm and we had to return our outfits by 7pm to avoid extra fees incurred. HAHAH!

We changed, went up to our apt to rest/make our bags lighter and headed for our dinner at Ippudo Ramen! Noms! It's a must to visit when one is in Kyoto! How can you miss Ippudo Ramen. Just like how can one miss Kichi Kichi Ramen (though we really missed it!)?!

Ippudo Ramen is located in a small alley. It's not really easy to spot if not for the customers queuing outside of the restaurant. Ah, indeed, it's famous among the tourists. You can easily hear Singaporean accents in the restaurant too! Hahah.

Ippudo Ramen rlly lives up to their standard! We ordered extra ramen because the glutton in me wanted more BUT I OVERESTIMATED MYSELF AS USUAL! Have yet to try the one in Singapore, I wonder how the standard would be.

Not a really interesting entry here because I focused mostly on Fushimi Inari. Totally not guilty of it! Shall end off with a vlog of how we spent our day 2 in Kyoto! :)

It's my first time uploading a travelogue here on my blog. Not sure how it'd turn out to be. Not sure if I'd be asked to remove as well due to the copyrights issues. Trial & error. Lol! I'll be changing it to private video if I'm asked to remove this video by YouTube one day.

On a side note, SJ4000 is not suitable to take videos. No image stabilisation, quality is bad and the list goes on! So much for wanting to make a nice travelogue T_T

Goodbye! 

Japan Day 1: The day we hop into sushi-land,

Hello there,

I'm back for an update for my Japan trip! Shall hop onto Day zero and one now! :)

Oh, before I proceed, just for memory sake. I dyed my hair to ombre red one day before my trip! It was an online lucky draw contest with Fayth and Black Hair Salon! Super thankful to be one of the 3 selected winners! Woots! Totally free for the colour that I've been wanting to try!

Day 0: Overnight Flight

I used to apply makeup when before left home for a flight because... Which girl doesn't want to look good once you step out of your comfort zone? However, during the recent years, I've learnt that it is best not to apply any makeup when you're travelling via plane because the air up there would be super dry and erm, dirty which will cause a breakout / acne to appear. So I'll always bring my specs along to "cover up" my very bad dark circles.

I would usually wear my makeup only after I reach my accommodation. I find it a hassle to hand carry my makeup and skincare pouches up with me to the flight because, why bring along when you can put them in your luggage?

One thing that I always look forward to during my flight is their in-flight meals! It takes about 7 hours to travel from Singapore to Japan. Imagine if you have nothing to eat during this 7 hours of flight...

In-flight meals are also a surprise for me as I have no idea what my food would be. I'll always make a special request for my meals because I am allergic to seafood. There was a time when my in-flight meals were the same for HKG & BKK flight so I was kinda sian upon opening the aluminium foil. Thankfully, my meal was different during this trip! Even the entertainment on movie section was different too! :)

Breakfast #1

Breakfast #2

Always pack pills up to the flight because you never know when you need them. My bag would always have a strip of flu tablets in pink, gastric and diarrhea pills. No idea why but my gastric would always act up during my flight.

Day 1: Tokyo > Kyoto

We landed in Japan, Narita International Airport at about 10am. Collected our JR Passes at a station (I can't rlly rmb where)

Reached Kyoto Station

 Took the subway from Kyoto station to Gojo station. Our apt was located just 2 minutes walk away from the station. This is really very convenient because you wouldn't want to stay far away from the station when you're travelling. Convenience will always come first!

Settled down and put on my makeup before we started on our #zachleentravelogue in Kyoto! We passed by this lake and the view was superb! The sun was rlly scorching hot but the weather was good! The view made it up to it! :)

Our first stop in Kyoto was Kiyomizu-dera Temple. We headed there by foot. We walked past one station (as seen in the 2nd image of this entry) but we didn't take their subway.

We purchased two tickets to take a look at the temple. We even paid to pray to draw lots. I got a positive lot. Dear God, please make my prayers come true!

We visited Jishu shrine which wasn't far away from our first destination. The reason why we inserted this into our itinerary was because of the Love Stones at Jishu Shrine! Researched upon this myth, though not sure about how true it is, individuals who are seeking for true love can try walking from Stone A to Stone B that are 18 meters apart with your eyes closed. If you were to succeed walking to Stone B, you'll find your true love.

Stone A

Stone B

Dry blood, because of the burden eczema

Headed to Gion District in the evening hoping that we'd meet Geisha. But luck wasn't on our side on our first night in Kyoto. Walked around to check out what's there to eat. Checked out the menu outside each restaurant before deciding to enter one called Gion Kanto. Actually I'm not sure if that's the name of the restaurant but since it's written on the cloth at the entrance, I shall assume it is?

I have no idea what we ordered because I didn't take any photos of their menu. If my memory didn't fail me, I think the first image as shown below is okonomiyaki! It's a Japanese pancake that comes with different ingredients, depending on what you have chosen from the menu.

We also ordered yakisoba, Japanese fried noodle, usually cooked with sliced pork and vegetables. I can't rmb which dish I preferred more but one thing that I can say is, both Mr. Z and I have many praises for these dishes.

This was also the first restaurant we entered in Japan so it left a deep impression in me for quite some time though I had better okinomiyaki in Osaka.

Then guess what! We went by foot from Gion District back to our apt!! It was a gruelling 30-45mins walk and I think I was on a high tide mode that time. Thankfully my bladder could hold my liquid all the way till we reached back home!

That's all for our first day in Japan, Kyoto! Goodbye!