Itinerary:
- Kinkaku-Ji Temple aka Temple of the Golden Pavilion
- Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
- Tenryu-Ji Temple
- Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine
- Nara Deer Park
- Dinner
After breakfast, we took a taxi to our meeting point near Kyoto Station as we have a day tour to visit some of the famous sights in Kyoto and Nara.
Soon, we were picked up by the tour bus and it was pretty full as most of the tourists are from Osaka and were picked up from there first. After the tour guide welcomed us, he gave us a brief description of the Kinkaku-Ji temple that we are going to visit first. The Kinkaku-Ju Temple is a Zen Buddhist temple also known as Temple of the Golden Pavilion as the pavilion in the middle of the water is made of gold leaf coating.
After arriving at Kinkaku-Ji Temple, we were given an hour to visit as we still have a lot of other places to go. So, we walked around the surrounding quickly and it was a very pretty place.
When we arrived to the tour bus, it was time to leave for our next destination : Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. We had to walk to the Bamboo Grove from the parking lot, on the way we passed by some stores selling food and also more temples such as Tenryu-Ji Temple. Since we are on a time limit, so we didn't went in Tenryu-Ji Temple.
After visiting the bamboo grove, we walked back towards the tour bus to the main street where most of the restaurants are and picked a place for a quick lunch as we don’t have much time.
We continued to our next destination which is Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Southern Kyoto. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is an important Shinto Shrine with thousands of torii gates painted in red. Foxes are thought to be the messengers for Inari which is the Shinto God, thus we see a lot of fox statues in the shrine grounds.
Outside the temples or Shrines in Japan, there is the Tsukubai where visitors purify themselves by washing their hands and rinsing their mouth before entering a holy place.
The hike to the summit of the mountain would take about 2-3 hours and since we are on a tour, we didn't go all the way up. After touring the Shrine, we went to our last destination which is Nara Park to feed the deers.
I have always thought that the deers were gentle animals but I was so wrong. We bought the food from the tour guide and started feeding the deers when we arrived. The deers were so aggressive and kept hitting my body trying to snatch the food. I was so scared that I threw the food on the ground and all the deers came running for it. It was a very scary experience and I probably won't do it again.
Nara Deer Park is our last stop for our tour before we headed back to Kyoto soon afterwards. It was a long and tiring day and we slept on the tour bus as it was an hour ride to return to Kyoto. Once we reached Kyoto, we went to find a nice restaurant for dinner as it was my mom's birthday.
Everyone was super tired after dinner and we took a taxi back to our hotel.
Soon, we were picked up by the tour bus and it was pretty full as most of the tourists are from Osaka and were picked up from there first. After the tour guide welcomed us, he gave us a brief description of the Kinkaku-Ji temple that we are going to visit first. The Kinkaku-Ju Temple is a Zen Buddhist temple also known as Temple of the Golden Pavilion as the pavilion in the middle of the water is made of gold leaf coating.
After arriving at Kinkaku-Ji Temple, we were given an hour to visit as we still have a lot of other places to go. So, we walked around the surrounding quickly and it was a very pretty place.
When we arrived to the tour bus, it was time to leave for our next destination : Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. We had to walk to the Bamboo Grove from the parking lot, on the way we passed by some stores selling food and also more temples such as Tenryu-Ji Temple. Since we are on a time limit, so we didn't went in Tenryu-Ji Temple.
After visiting the bamboo grove, we walked back towards the tour bus to the main street where most of the restaurants are and picked a place for a quick lunch as we don’t have much time.
We continued to our next destination which is Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Southern Kyoto. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is an important Shinto Shrine with thousands of torii gates painted in red. Foxes are thought to be the messengers for Inari which is the Shinto God, thus we see a lot of fox statues in the shrine grounds.
Outside the temples or Shrines in Japan, there is the Tsukubai where visitors purify themselves by washing their hands and rinsing their mouth before entering a holy place.
The hike to the summit of the mountain would take about 2-3 hours and since we are on a tour, we didn't go all the way up. After touring the Shrine, we went to our last destination which is Nara Park to feed the deers.
I have always thought that the deers were gentle animals but I was so wrong. We bought the food from the tour guide and started feeding the deers when we arrived. The deers were so aggressive and kept hitting my body trying to snatch the food. I was so scared that I threw the food on the ground and all the deers came running for it. It was a very scary experience and I probably won't do it again.
Nara Deer Park is our last stop for our tour before we headed back to Kyoto soon afterwards. It was a long and tiring day and we slept on the tour bus as it was an hour ride to return to Kyoto. Once we reached Kyoto, we went to find a nice restaurant for dinner as it was my mom's birthday.
Everyone was super tired after dinner and we took a taxi back to our hotel.
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