{"id":11904,"date":"2010-12-24T20:46:18","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T12:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=11904"},"modified":"2011-01-02T16:38:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T08:38:58","slug":"day-3-kobe-through-osaka-to-kyoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/12\/24\/day-3-kobe-through-osaka-to-kyoto\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 3: Kobe through Osaka to Kyoto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 3 was when we said goodbye to Kobe and made the move to Kyoto, the real highlight of our 10.5 day trip to Western Honshu. We had to time our check-ins and travel time carefully though to make sure that we minimized the time we\u2019d be spending lugging our heavy baggage around.<\/p>\n

Firstly though; we spent a good part of the morning doing a final walkabouts of the Kobe Station, looking for breakfast at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4804-kobe-kobe-station\"
Ling pointing to us where we are in Kobe Station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most eateries and restaurants were closed, and we didn\u2019t think McDonalds was going to offer the same hotcakes breakfasts that we love in Singapore LOL. There was a Doutor Gourmet Coffee Shop beside the donut shop at Kobe Station that Ling had bought from on the first day. Ling didn\u2019t think the donuts were that great after all, so we ducked into the former for breakfast.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4825-kobe-kobe-station\"
The Doutor Gourmet Coffee Shops are everywhere. I saw these in Kumamoto too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4816-kobe-kobe-station\"
Ling liked breakfast, and would have liked it even more were it not for the smokers. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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One thing about all these caf\u00e9 eateries though is that the non-smoking sections are placed real close to the smoking areas. If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve do dislike about going to Japan as a tourist, it\u2019s the number of smokers everywhere and their having to puff away even in restaurants and eating places.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4827-kobe-kobe-station\"
Ling approves!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right beside the bus terminal in Kobe Station is an octagonal-shaped forum called \u2018Sun Porta\u2019. Yep, with the \u2018L\u2019. But the morning sun\u2019s light shining through the glass ceiling made for a pretty nice picture.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4828-kobe-kobe-station\"
Kobe Station's Sun Porta! Sounds like American-African speak.:)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Post-brunch, we checked out of the hotel at 10:00 AM and headed to Kosoku Kobe subway station and took a \u2018Limited Express\u2019 JR Hankyu line to Juso station in Osaka, then onto Karasuma Station in Kyoto itself.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4838-osaka\"
Ling is getting real adept in buying train tickets for us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4842-on-train-to-kyoto\"
Seats had too little leg space for us to fit in our main luggage bag and for someone to sit. So, Ling sat and I stood.:(<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We blooped a little here in our travel arrangements though. It wasn\u2019t necessary for us to alight off Juso station \u2013 which we did based on our ticket fare. Rather, we could have taken paid a single fare from Kosoku Kobe to Karasuma Station. Oh well \u2013 lesson learned having paid about double.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4844-kyoto-karasuma-station\"
Ling checking out more directions upon arrival at Karasuma Station in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The combined train rides between Kosoku Kobe and Karasuma Stations was just over an hour. But including the time we took to transfer, get our bearings, paid for tickets the second time (sigh), by the time we got to our mainstay for our trip \u2013 Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto \u2013 it was about 12:15 PM already.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4849-kyoto-mitsui-garden-hotel\"
Ling will do a post on Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto - very soon! :)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Normal check-in time at the hotel was 2:00 PM, and the concierge was only willing to let us in by earlier by an hour, so it was more exploration on foot. Kyoto has a very different feel about it compared to Kobe or Kumamoto that I was in last year\u2026 it feels a lot more upscale (?!).<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4855-kyoto\"
Kyoto! Show me the food! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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While prowling the area to see where we could get lunch, we got into a shopping mall called “Laque” that made us feel very poor. It was all boutique and very expensive looking. Thee was a lovely florist at the basement level with very well-arranged bouquets though\u2026 all going for at least a hundred dollars and above.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4859-kyoto\"
Boutique florist for the rich and very rich.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, it was back to the street level for us on the look-out for lunches on a budget! More in the next post.:)<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4880-kyoto\"
Freezing at 5\u00b0C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 3 was when we said goodbye to Kobe and made the move to Kyoto, the real highlight of our 10.5 day trip to Western Honshu. We had to time our check-ins and travel time carefully though to make sure<\/p>\n

Read More Day 3: Kobe through Osaka to Kyoto<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[463,482,481],"class_list":["post-11904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dining","category-traveling","tag-japan-2010","tag-kobe","tag-kyoto","wpcat-9-id","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}