Kimonos in Kyoto: National Day 2018

My hostel in Kyoto was right next to the train station on the 10th floor so I had a nice view of the city. I had found an article about weird and wonderful hostels around the world and this one was one of the ones featured in it. Book and Bed hostel was exactly how i imagined sleeping in a library

would be. It's a small place with only about 20 beds to get into which you have to climb through a hole in a bookcase. It was so chilled out and quiet that it was a nice change from the busy chaos of Osaka.

I was both lucky and unlucky in Kyoto as the weather wasn't great. On the one hand, it kept most of the people off the streets so i could walk in an undisturbed peace. However this meant that all of the restaurants and covered areas were crammed with people.

Kyoto is a very picturesque place with whole areas of 'traditional Japanese culture' which looked pretty even if they're not authentic but instead manufactured. I haven't been able to find out which is the case, but it doesn't really matter. The annoying thing was the Kimono wearing tourists who were trying to get the perfect Japanese picture. I have no problem with people wanting to take nice pictures, I know i do the same, it was just the sheer quantity of them. Hundreds of people would swarm the streets in the breaks in the weather and, as they were on a time limit until the next shower, would get angry and sometime rude or aggressive if you happened to wander into their shot. I tried to stay out of as many as I could but it really was impossible and I had to just accept getting nasty looks as I walked past people.

Kyoto and Osaka are about as different as two places can be, which is impressive as they are only an


hour apart. Osaka is the busy shopping center of flashing lights and chaos whereas Kyoto is a chilled out temple filled traditional cobbled street labyrinth.

I changed my plans to have two nights instead of one in Kyoto. Many of the attractions of Osaka were closed after the typhoon so it made very little difference to my overall trip. It actually worked out well as I was able to get to the two most beautiful places very early in the morning before all the crowds and get to see it in all its glory.

My first early morning adventure was to the Fushimi Inari Shrine which is only a little way out of town. Google maps is a wonderful thing that I appreciate every time I leave China, I say this as it saved me from getting lost on the side of the mountain many times. The shrine consists of 10,000 red gates spread over trails all over the side of a mountain. From what I could gather, all of the trails looked the same but were different length and lead to a different road for the exit. I was advised to get there early enough to avoid the tour groups so I got up at yuck o'clock and got lost on the train system for about half an hour before stumbling across a lost couple who were also heading to the shrine. I followed them and luckily it all worked out fine.

After walking for miles around the shrine I headed back to Kyoto for a quick nap before going in search of temples. As it happened, I failed to find temples but instead just picked a direction and walked.  Kyoto is smaller than Osaka but somehow still has a bunch of different districts, old, new, shopping, food and parks.

The next morning I went in search of the famous bamboo forest. I had seen pictures of the forest when it was busy and knew that I did not want to see that, so I went early in the morning and had the place between me and only a few others. A very good decision!

After my trip in a trip to Kyoto, I went back to Osaka for a further day and a bit of shopping and sushi before heading back to Kunming and a mass of classes.