[Travel Log] JPN 2023 - Day 5: Amanohashidate Klook Tour!!!

Day 5: Amanohashidate Klook Tour

26 February 2023, Sunday

It's D-DAY! The Klook Tour to Amanohashidate - the highlight of the trip. I had originally planned the highlight of the trip to be the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, but the moment I saw this tour, I knew this was going to be the one. 

Amanohashidate - one of Japan's three most scenic spots.

I got to know the existence of this place from one of my Japanese teachers (誰から聞こえたこともう忘れましたが。。。😖) and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to visit. 

Considering the early meeting time of 7.15 a.m. for the tour, I had booked the hotel to be close by so that we wouldn't have to rush. However, I didn't really sleep well the night before anyway as I was really afraid that we would oversleep. haha. 

Sunrise from our hotel room at 6.10 a.m.

We were greeted by a local tour guide (Yoshi-san) who said that he actually lives in New Zealand and that he does these tours for 2 months in every year (when he is back in Japan). So the ride to the first destination was going to take 2 hours and most of us took the time to catch-up on sleep. 

At one point during the ride, we actually saw that it was snowing!! 

We reached our first destination after approximately 2 hours from Osaka (Umeda). The tour only allocated half an hour to this place as it was a packed itinerary (or rather the travelling time between the locations were really long so we had to make sure that we were on schedule).

Miyama Thatched Roof Village (Kayabuki no Sato)

Map: Miyamachokita, Nantan, Kyoto 601-0712, Japan

We were told that it snowed the previous day, and hence, we could see the snow-filled village. 😍 I was so amazed walking on these thick snow... Its like walking on shaved ice, your shoes don't really get wet from snow. It only turns into water if it melts. 😍 

Really wished we had a bit more time here to explore a bit more of the village, but so happy to see this. 

A mandatory photo of xiao piglet against the snowy village backdrop. 😆

At 10.10 a.m., we had to move to the next location which was about 90 minutes away.  

Lunch place & Amanohashidate

Map: 437 Monju, Miyazu, Kyoto 626-0001, Japan

Arriving at the lunch place (which was located on the 2nd floor of one of the souvenir shops), we were greeted by the sight of lunch all set up for the whole tour group. 

We had an hour to eat & shop at level 1, and had to meet back at the bus (to drop off the purchases) before heading towards the chair lift point. 

It was so fun, just sitting on the chair lift to the top of the viewpoint. 😄 And check out the view!

Okay, now for the iconic thing to do at Amanohashidate, bend upside down and look at the sight from under your legs! So the reason behind this is that, by doing so, its supposed to look like a dragon soaring through the sky. 😁

Yep, this pose, but this was a make-up shot, because I had a mask hanging off my hands in the original shot (there was no fence in the original shot), I can't see anything on this particular bench. 

At some point, there was a drizzle of tiny snowflakes... 😍😍

Besides the chair lift, there is also the option to take the cable-car up to the viewpoint (the usage of the chair lift has an age limit imposed & its a single seater only - as there are no safety belt whatsoever, you just sit on it like a chair and it goes up, so definitely not recommended for kids that can't sit still).

We had about 50 mins to roam about here before descending back to the ground to move to the final destination. The sun came out as we were about to leave... 💕

About 40 minutes from Amanohashidate, we were at our final destination of this tour, which was to take the Ine Bay Sightseeing Boat to look at the Ine fishing village (or that was what I thought the highlight of the sightseeing boat was)! 

Ine Bay Sightseeing Boat

Map: 11 Hide, Ine, Yoza District, Kyoto 626-0425, Japan

It turns out... the seagulls/black wing eagles were the stars of the show. Before going onboard the boat ride, Yoshi-san recommended that we buy the prawn cracker snack (to feed the birds) at the souvenir shop for 100 yen/packet. Its basically prawn crackers, lol. Then, to avoid getting your fingers bitten off by the black wing eagles, you were supposed to throw it upwards as they come near so they can dive after it. I guess, the wind was really strong that day, because the birds couldn't seem to aim at the crackers very well, hahahhaa. 

Quite terrifying seeing the number of seagulls/eagles flying around the boat, but the view was nice. 

It was then, time to head back to Osaka city. The whole journey back would take another 2.5 hours and at the mid-point of the trip back, we got to do a quick 10 minutes toilet break at a rest stop (we did so too in the first hour of the tour). The toilets were so clean... 👍

Caught the view of the sunset from the bus... 💕

The tour ended at a different end of the Osaka station, which wasn't near our hotel (unlike the pick-up point), so we decided to just grab dinner before we call it a night. 

Found Saboten at Lucua Food Hall B2F... It was like a fast food concept which really amazes me because its branded differently in Singapore (a bit more high-end, restaurant style). 

Next post: [Travel Log] JPN 2023 - Day 6&7: Ikeda & Homebound

Previous post: [Travel Log] JPN 2023 - Day 4: Retail Therapy in Osaka

[Travel Log] JPN 2023 - Day 3: Arashiyama & Kiyomizu Temple

Day 3: Arashiyama & Kiyomizu Temple

24 February 2023, Friday

Hotel Keihan provided breakfast, though the selection wasn't vast. 

After breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Saga-Arashiyama station from Kyoto station via the JR line, which took less than 30 minutes to get to. 

Armed with the rain boots that I got from Shopee, we started our trail to Arashiyama, the bamboo forest that I missed out on during the previous trip. 

A rainy, wet & cold day in Kyoto. 

The main destination was to the bamboo grove, but we passed by Tenryu-ji and decided to do a pit-stop. 

Tenryu-ji Temple

Map: Japan, 〒616-8385 Kyoto, Ukyo Ward, Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho, ６８

After the short stop, we headed on to the Togetsu-kyo Bridge. 

Absolutely clueless as to where the bamboo grove was (because I refused to acknowledge the "Path of Bamboo" sign thinking it was going to lead me back to that fake forest path from the last trip), we headed across the bridge and ended up asking the carpark attendant. 

He looked at us, knowing we were foreigners and by using one word "Bamboo?" and with us nodding our heads away, he pointed us to go back to the other end of the bridge and walk straight down alongside the Kazura river.

And true enough, at the end of the road, we reached the start of a hiking trail. How handy the rain boots have come to be of use!!  

We decided to do a bit of a detour, trekking up to the summit observation deck first. 

Can I just say, how nice it is to hike without sweating at all? And, because its so cold, I don't really see any creepy crawlies around either. 😚

The sight, from the summit: extremely foggy... hahahah

After taking in the views from the top, we were finally at the main attraction of the area... Was I finally going to see what I was supposed to see?? The IG-worthy bamboo grove?? 

And yes... I was! 

It was too hard to take a nice picture of the place, because we were there at noon and it was just filled with tourists like myself... all trying to take nice pictures. hahahah. 

And then, here comes the discovery... that fake bamboo path I was on the previous trip was in fact connected to the real bamboo grove. 😩 what. the. hell. LOL. I could have seen it back there and then if we had went all the way. *inserts facepalm moment*

Nonetheless, I finally fulfilled what I wanted to do the previous time, and it was time for lunch. 

We went back to the riverside and spotted this pretty soba place with a bit of a queue. Being the thin-skin Asian that I was, queuing in line without an idea of how it actually works, while trying to observe how people do it, quite thankful that the customers in front of us were Taiwanese. We asked them and apparently, we had to go up to the service staff to leave a name & no. of pax so they would simply call out when they have a place. 

Arashiyama Yoshimura

Map: Japan, 〒616-8385 Kyoto, Ukyo Ward, Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho, ３

The whole set was just amazing. 

Enroute back to the station, we saw a Miffy bakery & merchandise store. かわいい～～😍

Deciding that we still have time to visit one more iconic temple, we headed to Kiyomizu-Gojo station via the Keihan line. We followed this extremely useful guide I found (link) with picture guidance on how to walk to the temple from the station (and they provided different routes such as via buses to get there).

Before long, we reached the shopping street leading us to the admission entrance and made it before the last entry time (6 pm in February). 

Kiyomizu-dera

Map: 1 Chome-294 Kiyomizu, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0862, Japan

The temple was spectacular considering they did not have to use a single nail in the building structure and yet it withstands the terrain conditions well. So glad we decided to come here. (My sister had visited this temple before a couple of years back, and she didn't mind visiting it again 😁)

We decided to leave before the sun sets as the train station was a distance away & we needed to get dinner as well. 

Most of the stores were already closed for the day, but we passed by this store selling candied strawberries and grapes. It reminds me very much of 冰糖葫芦 and what can be more touristy then to get one of these to eat. 

Back at Kyoto station, lol, we were trying to explore the underground shops and just couldn't figure out how big the area was exactly. Eventually, we saw that there was a ramen street at the 10F of the building and went up to look for it. 

And yes, there was Hataka Ikkousha that SG also has. But the beauty about visiting food brands, that are available internationally, in their local scene is being able to see the differences between the two and what they changed to thrive overseas. 

It was a vending machine ticket, fast-food kind of concept which was very different (to me) compared to the more luxurious look the brand has in SG. Ramen was great nonetheless, I emptied the bowl and yes, even the black fungus (which I too, surprised myself). 

Hataka Ikkousha 

Map: Japan, 〒600-8216 Kyoto, Shimogyo Ward, Higashishiokojicho, 901 内 Kyoto Station Building, 京都拉麺小路 10F

Full and ready to take a walk around, there was this really long luminated walkway that led to an escalator down to the ground. 

And right at the bottom of it, while walking towards the station, there was this unblocked view of the Kyoto Tower. 😍

Next post: [Travel Log] JPN 2023 - Day 4: Retail Therapy in Osaka

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