{"id":12798,"date":"2011-01-01T15:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=12798"},"modified":"2018-07-16T15:14:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T07:14:26","slug":"kobe-kyoto-nara-osaka-reflections-on-the-trip-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2011\/01\/01\/kobe-kyoto-nara-osaka-reflections-on-the-trip-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka: Reflections on the trip – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our 11:30 PM flight home from Kansai International Airport back to Changi in Singapore was remarkably smooth in one respect. I was semi-conscious until I was awaken seconds before midnight by the SQ pilot leading the cabin crew and all passengers in the 10 second countdown to 2011, at which point I was asking Ling if we were still taxing. She chuckled and said that we\u2019d been in the air for 30 minutes already! I didn’t feel or sense a thing when the plane took-off. Likewise, the landing was as soft as a feather with zero bumps, low noise \u2013 just perfect.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, just two rows ahead of us was a crying baby who \u2013 somehow \u2013 managed to cry continuously throughout the entire 7 hour flight home. You know it\u2019s real bad when even Ling gets exasperated and says it\u2019s either a problem with the baby or the parents! She even wrote Ann that \u201cMurder had never been more real in my mind!\u201d LOL.<\/p>\n

Either way, neither of us managed to get much sleep; and right now at 2:10 PM and finished unpacking, laundry, picked up Hannah, had our brunch, cooked and fed her lunch, did her laundry, cleaned up the house \u2013 the two of us are just about to completely bowl over from lack of sleep!<\/p>\n

Still, blogging comes first before the memories of our trip start to blur and every experience we got from our 10.5 day trip start to feel the same. There are still a few more posts after this, though they\u2019ll be a selection of videos taken by Ling (our video camera girl this time), and also my panoramic compositions.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

A 10 day trip through Japan was about perfect for us to get a good feel of the country and at the same time just about exactly long enough for us to start missing home (i.e. curry puffs, Hokkien noodles, roti prata, (real) dim sum, and Hannah). Of the four cities we traveled to and visited, here\u2019s what we think is a doable length of stay for most first-time travelers to these cities:<\/p>\n

Kobe<\/em><\/strong>: recommended 3D 2N<\/span>, which was the length of time we spent. There aren\u2019t many definitive sight-seeing spots in the city, but those that are:<\/p>\n

Kitano-Cho<\/a> (~ 2 hrs exploration time)<\/p>\n

Nunobiki Falls & Mts. Maya & Rokko<\/a> (~4-8 hrs)<\/p>\n

Sannomiya Station stretch<\/a> (~2 hrs)<\/p>\n

Chinatown<\/a> (~2 hrs) \u2013 are all well worth visits.<\/p>\n

\"2010-japan-DSC_3426-kobe-chinatown\"
Kobe’s Chinatown lit up like a Christmas tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4672-kobe-mt.maya-nunobiki-waterfall\"
Kobe’s Nunobiki Waterfalls at Mt. Maya.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kyoto<\/em><\/strong>: recommended 6D 5N<\/span>, though we spent a longer 7D 6N here. If you\u2019re up to visiting all the temples and shrines, then a longer visit is recommended. But if you\u2019re interested to just view the most important religious institutions, then an 7 day stay might be excessive, as we both felt now that we\u2019ve been there done that. Kyoto\u2019s palette of sites are significantly more varied, the more so considering it\u2019s such a convenient jump-off point to many other cities nearby. That we missed Himeji Castle was disappointing, but I\u2019m assuming that we\u2019d go back to Kyoto again for a second visit at some point. High points we felt during our Kyoto stay and our recommended length of visitations included:<\/p>\n

Nijo-Castle<\/a> (~2 hrs)<\/p>\n

Kyoto Station (~4 hrs, but multiple visits really since it\u2019s a central transit point. An absolutely gargantuan structure!)<\/p>\n

Higashiyama area<\/a> (~4-6 hrs, including Yasaka Shrine\/Maruyama Park<\/a>, Kiyozumi Temple<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Gion area<\/a> (~4 hrs)<\/p>\n

Katsura<\/a> and Shugakuin Imperial Villas<\/a> (~1 hr + 1.5 hr, admission applications required)<\/p>\n

The Philosopher\u2019s Walk<\/a> (~4 hrs)<\/p>\n

Arashiyama area<\/a> (~4-6 hrs \u2013 the bamboo grove is a must see!)<\/p>\n

Nishiki Food Market<\/a> (~2 hrs)<\/p>\n

Kinkakuji Temple<\/a> (~ 1 hr)<\/p>\n

Fushimi Inari Temple<\/a> (~4 hrs \u2013 enough time to climb all the way up to the summit)<\/p>\n

\"blog-\"
Ten thousands of torii gates at Fushimi Inari in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_3540-kyoto-maikos\"
Maiko spotting at Higashiyama in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP4952-kyoto-nijo-castle\"
Nijo Castle in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4102-kyoto-katsura-imperial-villa\"
Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP5334-kyoto-kyoto-station\"<\/a>
The Monstrosity, er… Kyoto Station I mean, in, well, Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You could probably manage the above itinerary with 5D 4N too, though you’d probably not spend much time shopping then. We also initially included a few more Kyoto temples as well, but took them out at the last minute after Ling started getting cold feet about visitations there. Another alternative, but smarter way of arranging the itinerary is to visit each Kyoto area according to its cardinal direction; i.e. day 1, go East, day 2, go West etc. In our case, it was a mite bit messed up, but we\u2019ve learned from this experience.:)<\/p>\n

Nara<\/em><\/strong>: recommended 1D<\/span>, and as a side trip from Kyoto. The highpoints included:<\/p>\n

Deer Park<\/a> (~1 hr)<\/p>\n

Todaji Temple<\/a> (~1 hr)<\/p>\n

Yoshikien Garden<\/a> (~1 hr)<\/p>\n

Isuien Garden<\/a> (~2 hrs)<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4009-nara\"
The very serene Isuien Garden in Nara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4029-nara\"
Snowfall at Todai-ji Temple in Nara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Osaka<\/em><\/strong>: recommended 3D 2N<\/span>, though we spent 2D 1N. You could manage just spending as short a stay as we did, but only if you\u2019re not going to do any sort of shopping.<\/p>\n

Osaka Castle (~2 hrs)<\/p>\n

Shinsaibashi shopping arcades<\/a> (~1D \u2013 i.e. The Mad House<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Umeda Sky Building<\/a> (~4 hrs \u2013 the best time to go up could be late afternoon in order to catch the sunset, and also stay long enough for the night shoot)<\/p>\n

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan<\/a> (~4 hrs)<\/p>\n

\"blog-2010-japan-DSC_4806-osaka-floating-garden-observatory\"
The Umeda Sky Building in Osaka. The Floating Garden Observatory is alllllll the way up there!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"blog-2010-japan-OLYP5575-osaka\"
Shopping Arcades, i.e. Mad House Full of People, in Osaka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continued in the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our 11:30 PM flight home from Kansai International Airport back to Changi in Singapore was remarkably smooth in one respect. I was semi-conscious until I was awaken seconds before midnight by the SQ pilot leading the cabin crew and all<\/p>\n

Read More Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka: Reflections on the trip – Part 1<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[463,482,481,493,503,593,619],"class_list":["post-12798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-japan-2010","tag-kobe","tag-kyoto","tag-nara","tag-osaka","tag-reflections","tag-travel-retrospection","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/blog-2010-japan-DSC_3540-kyoto-maikos.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12798","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=12798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}