2 Autumns ago we decided to bring J to Japan for one good holiday before he starts primary 1. Our HK friends joined us for this trip as they always wanted to travel around Japan with us as we speak Japanese and can order nicer food and bring them around with more ease.
The plan was to meet up in Osaka, pick-up the car and then make a quick stop in Nara before checking-in to Kyoto. From there we will travel to Hida-Takayama, Shirakawago, Kanazawa, Kinosaki, finally a quick detour to Takeda Castle before returning the car in Osaka. The total distance traveled for this trip was at least 1,000km.
Day 1
We took the afternoon SQ flight to Osaka-Kansai as Grandma is with us on this trip so we want to take it as easy as possible. By the time we reached Kansai Airport, it was already 9pm. By the time we reached Namba it was already past 10pm. Our HK friends met us at the station and walked with us back to the hotel. Along the way I grabbed a few snacks from Dotonbori before the stalls closed for the night~
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| Gyoza to fill the tummy~ |
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| What's Osaka without takoyaki? |
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| Dotonbori late at night~ |
Day 2
Early next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and the restaurant for the hotel was on the top floor of the building and it was a glorious morning~ The buffet spread was decent enough for a business hotel but the queue can be pretty long!
After checking-out, we left the large luggage with the hotel as we will return to this hotel at the end of our journey. Then we promptly went to collect our car at the car rental~
With everyone happily seated, we started our drive through the busy morning peak traffic towards Nara~ The day's drive was supposed to be from Dotonbori to our accommodation in Kyoto, with a stopover at Nara.
Nara was just a quick 45 minutes drive away. Even with the morning peak crowd and the red-leaves tourists crowd, it was no more than an hour, which is about the same time if one takes the train.
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| Hello Nara! |
After lunch we made our way to Tōdaiji 東大寺 which was just a 5-10 minutes stroll away. Along the way there were beautiful red leaves, food stalls and countless deers roaming around the area!
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| The Magnificent Todaiji~ |
Our stay for the night was at Yadoya, which is slightly North of the Kyoto city centre. The place was good for up to 8 person, with living + bath on the 1st floor and sleeping area on the 2nd floor. Considering it was Autumn peak season, I paid around S$900 for 2 nights which I felt was a fantastic deal!
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| You get the entire house! |
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| Taken from the 2nd floor |
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| Front room on the 2nd floor |
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| Rest of the bunk beds and rooms |
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| The bath on the 1st floor~ |
After getting ourselve comfortable it was time to get moving. We took the local train to go to Gion for dinner. Parking can be quite a challenge in Kyoto and we just wanted to try the local train~ and J loves the train~
The dinner for the night was at 天壇. It was a magnificent building of yakiniku, an excellent way to end the day~ We had a private room for ourselves and the meat was fantastic!
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| Awesome meat! |
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| Awesome meat Part 2! |
After we returned to the house, we opened up the dessert that the owner bought for us. We also got some fruits from the neighbourhood supermart near our place. Fresh local fruits at good local prices~
Looking forward to the next day in Kyoto! It's going to Kinkakuji, Arashiyama, Nijo Castle and illumination at night!
See the rest of the trip below:
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