Budget Journey to the Land of The Rising Sun, aka, Japan Day: 3 – Osaka – Himeji – Kyoto

Waking up at early of 6 AM in Japan time (4 f-ing AM in Jakarta time) was really hard for me normally, especially when you had a sleepless night before and only got 5 hours of sleeping, but the holiday’s endorphin really kicked in and made me wide awake. We only had one bathroom for a room occupied by 4 persons, when I did the math (which I really do) we only got 15 minutes of bathroom time. After some of us had finished our bath time, we rushed to go to the cafeteria to redeem our free breakfast meal (yess free food!!). we had to choose, whether a Japanese or western meal, and guess what? No one chose western (we’re in Japan of course we have to try the local dishes). The Japanese meal looks like this:

(Japanese breakfast: Seaweed, Vegetables, plum, miso soup, tamago egg, salmon and rice with apple tea)

After we finished our delightful breakfast, the rain started to pour hard in front and none of us dared to go through. We unfortunately decided to ditch one attraction and Shintenoji was the one. Rain was still pouring outside but passable, we stored our baggage and borrowed umbrella from the hotel and rushed to the shin-osaka  station. It took only less than 10 minutes to arrive. We used our JR Pass to go from Shin-Osaka to Osaka and Osaka-Jo Koen station.

(Osaka Jo Koen)

After arriving at the Osaka-Jo Koen station, right after the gate we saw the sign for Osaka Castle, we strolled around the park to get into the inner ring of the castle. In spring, Osaka castle will be full of Sakura, but thankfully we were greeted with ume or plum blossom.

Guide of Japan flower season

(Plum season in Osaka Castle)

(detail of plum)

(Osaka Castle)

(Osaka Castle)

(Osaka Castle)

(view from Osaka Castle's surrounding)

(us in Osaka Castle)

After we had finished our day at Osaka Castle we made our return trip to Shin-Osaka to catch the Shinkansen to Himeji for 38 minutes. Inside the Himeji Station we looked for Yoshinoya to try the famous buta don (pork rice bowl). In Jakarta we mostly don’t eat pork, so this kinda edition is prohibited in Indonesia. I guess the taste was OK, not too good as people said, the sauce was too sweet for me.

(Pork Yoshinoya)

From Himeji station to Himeji castle we walked for about 15 minutes to reach the front gate and bought our ticket (buy the castle and park for only 1050, 50 yen for the park). Outer the castle the route was like a maze to confuse enemies to break through castle’s defense. Right after we reach the inner castle, we had to take off our shoes and change it for slippers to prevent dirt from outside. Inside the castle we climbed up the narrow stairs, it was like never ending  super narrow stairs to reach the shrine in top of the castle. From the top you could see all Himeji surrounding (since there is no other tall buildings)

(walk from Himeji Station to Himeji Castle)

(meet with a group of Taiwanese in Kimono)

(front gate of Himeji Castle)

(Front Defense gate of Himeji Castle)

(Water supply for Himeji Castle)

(walk to inner circle Himeji Castle)

(Inner Himeji Castle forms a good maze to confuse enemies)

(layer of defenses from Himeji Castle)

(Himeji Castle)

(Himeji Castle)

(Inner Himeji Castle)

(small slopes stairs from inner Himeji Castle)

(Himeji Castle's structure)

(Himeji Castle's tower Osakabe JInja Shrine)

(Himeji Castle's map)

(view from top of Himeji Castle)

(Himeji Castle)

Since we already bought ticket to the kokoen or the garden, we gave them a short visit (my time limit was running down) to the main gardens. Typical Japanese garden is a complete garden with water, trees, Stones and earth elements.

(Kokoen Garden)

(Kokoen Garden)

(Kokoen Garden)

(Kokoen Garden)

(Kokoen Garden)

At the Himeji Station (after fight through the icy wind along the way), we rode our shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka to collect our bags and return to Shin-Osaka for Kyoto. Our Hotel, Kyoto Annex Hotel was 5 minutes away from Kyoto Station (pretty strategic, right?). We checked in and dropped our baggage inside the bedroom, and got back to Kyoto Station Bus feeder to catch a bus to Shijo Dori. Turned out Shijo Dori is a long lane from west to east, and our bus dropped us in some kind of a quiet suburb. Our stomachs growled so loud and we didn’t have time to find the right Shijo Dori. We looked for local bar or izakaya around and found a restaurant with various menu. Their specialty was the Ichiban Ramen (literally no 1 ramen with such confident) and I ordered ramen of course (my first ramen in Japan). While eating, we checked our ios weather apps to look for the weather, it turned out snowy after 9PM with 100% chance. So we rushed to swallow our food and got back to Kyoto Station. The night wind had become very cold and every 100 meter we had to enter pachinko to warm our bodies up. How to take Bus without daily pass

(Ichiban Ramen)

(Kyoto Tower and Snow)

(it snowed harder)

After arriving Kyoto Station bus stop the snow started to pour. It started with a flurry snow like a soap bubbles and became bigger and bigger (not to mention colder). It was my second snow but it always felt like the first. Some of us couldn’t bear the cold and back to Hotel while me and 2 others were playing and taking pictures in snowfall. My friend wanted to try what Crayon Shinchan always did, eating the snow!!! It was so funny!! After playing for a while we ran to the nearby Lawson to warm up and buy sake for tonight. It was a Choya Ume sake and tasted nice in cold weather.

(snowed hard)

(snowed hard)

(blizzard)

(plum choya)

(my feet got blistered because of the cold and wet)

That was the unforgettable moments in my day 3, i had my very first snowNext day we will go around Kyoto!!

follow me in my Instagram