Are we in Japan or Manchester!?!

We decided to get up and out today as we were travelling to Osaka and we wanted to explore Miyajima island. We'd planned to do a hike to the highest point on the island, Mount Misen but it was bouncing down (raining). The mountain was covered in mist and even Japan's largest island Honshu wasn't visible. We decided to do a short walk that included Senjokaku Pavilion, Toyokuni Shrine five-story pagoda, Itsukushima Floating Torii Gate and Momijidani Park. It was slightly surprising how many tourists were already up and about even with the awful weather. They're resilient and patient folks these (mainly) Japanese tourists.

Momijidani Park wasn't really a park as such it was more like a nature trail and included bridges, waterfalls and more deer. It winds it's way up through a wooded area up to the ropeway and Mt Misen climbing trail where we turned around as the weather defeated us this time! I'll get you need time Gadget!!! (I mean weather).

We decided to make a stop in Himeji on the way to Osaka as we'd read good things about the castle and the weather still wasn't particularly great. We boarded the ferry, back to the mainland, a little after 10am and arrived into Himeji via a local service back to Hiroshima and a Shinkansen to Himeji about 1pm.

We found a local pizza restaurant for lunch not too far from the station as it was just over 1km to the castle and the current queue estimate to enter the main keep was 2 hours!

When we arrived at the castle grounds there was indeed a lot of tourists even at 3pm. We admired the castle from just inside the walls (it's free to go into the outer part) and took a few photos before the heavens opened again!!! This time we'd just purchased our tickets, about £7 each, to enter the main keep. The website still seem to suggest a couple of hours wait....we got very wet but on the plus side it did only take about 45 minutes to get into the castle.

It was an impressive building and has survived wars, earthquakes and fires so is orginal* The main keep is a wooden structure that contain 6 stories but there isn't anything to see on the various level until you reach the 6th floor. This floor contains a small shrine and has a multitude of windows facing all directions allowing us to see the sights of Himeji city and the castle grounds.

After re-tracing our steps back to the station we got on a JR train bound for the third largest city in Japan, Osaka. We were staying in the Kita Ward so reasonably close to Osaka station (in fact only one stop on the JR loop train). It was one of those evening where you just want to get a takeaway and watch a movie but as we don't really know Japanese, didn't know of any local takeaways and we were in a new city we braved the outside once again!

We headed to the food and entertainment district of Kitashinchi and found a quante Japanese restaurant that had a fish I'd never tried before called bonito, tastes and looks a little like tuna. After food we searched for a bar near by and we found one called Captain Kangaroo... We had to go!! It was a fun bar serving over 50 beers (most bottled including Newcastle Brown Ale) and had more of a western vibe to it. 

Key-o-toe

Morning! Today was our first full day in Kyoto and as we found a free waking tour the night before we headed the 2km over to the Statue of Izumo-no-Okuni to met our guide for the morning, Dominic.

It was interesting learning about the Kabuki and the importance of Okuni to the classic Japanese dance/drama performance which eventually led to women being banned (even to this day!!!) in performing it in official theatres.

The walk led us through the Higashiyama area of the city which famous for its Geisha district, here we got to learn a little more about the Geisha and Maiko, their education and strict lifestyle.

We saw the theatre where the Maiko normally perform and their school, Kyoto itself has around 300 Geisha and it was staggering to learn how much money they can make for a an evening in a tea house. It's not for everyone though as it's a very tough profession taking 5 years of true dedication to pay back all debts owed for costumes, hair, board and lodging. Seems like way too much effort if you ask me.... The cost to see them perform privately in a teahouse for 2-3 hours would cost over the £1000 mark.

Next was a quick stop in the grounds of Kennin-ji where Dominic explained about the tea ceremony (which we were lucky enough to experience earlier in Kanazawa). The walking tour continued to a little temple, Yasaka Koshindo Temple (full name is Daikoku-san Kongo-ji Koshin-do). It is now famous for its fabric monkeys that are hung around, giving it a colourful, intragram-esc, appeal. Apparently if you give up one of your bad habits, tie it up in the monkey your wish will come true...  I don't think they have enough monkeys for me!

On our approach to the monkey temple we saw Hōkanji Temple (Yasaka-no-Tou) which is a 46 metre high pagoda (tower) which looks overlooks the Higashiyama District and is so close to all the traditional houses.

Our final stop on the walking tour took us to Yasaka-jinja Shrine when the gods must have been angry at us as the heavens opened so we temporarily found shelter before rejoining the group to see how the Buddhists perform a purification ritual. 

NEED FOOD!! After consulting Dominic we walked a few hundred metres from the Shrine to one of his favourite Ramen restaurants. It was our first taste of Ramen and certainly wouldn't be our last as it was delicious and relatively inexpensive.

Having recharged our batteries we planned to visit a few temples which we'd researched as Kyoto has over 1600 temples so you got to be a little picky with limited time.

-  Shōren-in Monzeki Temple

This temple is a rarely visited retreat on the main Southern Higashiyama tourist route and has a superb garden giving very picturesque shots from the temple itself.

- Heian Shrine

This temple was a little walk away from Shōren-in. It is a colourful shrine with vast gardens (although we didn't go in the gardens as you have to pay and we didn't have time)

- Nanzenji Temple

We now had to walk back on ourselves a little to reach this temple but it has it all: expansive grounds, a fine kare-sansui (dry landscape) garden, intimate subtemples and soaring halls. Its also the start/end of the Philosophers Walk.

- Jisho-ji (commonly known as Ginkaku-ji - Temple of the Silver Pavillion) 

We took the Philosophers Walk from Nanzenji on this trail of about 2km following a small stream and stopped of at a couple of smaller temples on route, Reisen-dori and Hōnen-in Temple. Unfortunately though we didn't make the Ginkaku-ji (Temple of the silver pavilion) as it closed at 5pm like most temples. Again... To ambitious to get to every temple and do a walking tour in one day! Our feet were a little tired so we caught the bus back to our apartment it would have been another 6km and we didn't fancy it!

In the evening we tried a restaurant that served okonomiyaki a popular dish in there area which is a type of Japanese pancake / omelette which was heated on the hot plate on our table. It was definitely different and topped with Worcestershire sauce (but I'm not the biggest fan of eggs).

After eating like a local we decided to drink like one and proceeded to a sake bar(JAM + SAKE) and both tried three different samples which were all subtlety different, the blossom flavoured one was a little too floral for our palettes.