Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan for New Year with the Thai Girlfriend
Flew into Kansai International Airport today and visited the Golden Pavilion, Kiyomizu (Pure Water) Temple (where the Jishu Shrine is located: Kyoto Jishu Shrine, the Cupid of Japan), the Sanjusangendo Temple (Sanjusangendo Temple), Daisen-In Temple (Daisen-In Temple) and took a walk through the Higashiyama district in the former imperial capital, Kyoto.
The last two temples mentioned above wouldn’t allow us to take pictures.
On the way to the first temple we stopped by a bamboo garden and next to it was a cemetery. I was told that some of these spots hold the cremated remains of entire families. The woman with us told us she knows of one man who had passed away and both his former wife and his 2nd/last wife were with him (when the last wife passed she requested to be placed with him and the ex).
Golden Pavilion
Kiyomizudera Temple
Higashiyama District
The Jishu Shrine/The Cupid of Japan is located at the Kiyomizudera Temple and it is said if you can walk from one stone; with your eyes closed, to the other stone safely your wish will be granted. Seems lots of Japanese girls come here to get their love fortune told for them.
We had a nice lunch at Honke Owariya (Honke Owariya) which has been in business for 547 years.
Tonight we went to see some traditional Japanese show.
We’ll be sightseeing in Kyoto and Nara for a couple days before traveling to Tokyo for New Years. While in Tokyo we might try to visit a temple to watch the Joya No Kane ceremony (Joya no Kane) or visit Tokyo Tower for our New Years Eve celebration. We’ll also try to celebrate Hatsuhinode (Hatsuhinode) January 1st if we can find an area nice enough to view the first sunrise of the new year.
We’ll visit a few places in Tokyo (January 2nd the Imperial Palace Garden: Visit the Palace for the New Year Greetings - The Imperial Household Agency) and travel to Kamakura for some sightseeing.
The places that we will be visiting; this first trip to Japan, will be routine tourist sites and I will try to post a link related to the sites giving the reader some history about each place. However we will try to visit a couple places in Tokyo; recently recommended by Robuzo (a poster here at TD), during our scheduled leisure days that look to be off the regular tourist path and which look/sound much more interesting, than what we have already scheduled.
I’ll also do a short review of the two places we stayed at while in Kyoto and Tokyo.
The procedure for a Thai to get a Visa to Japan can be challenging. Visit this site: Japan Visa for Thai Citizens and follow these 7 procedures: Japan Visa Information
You do not contact the Japanese Embassy itself (there’s a middleman).
