Japan 2025 Tour: Day 7 Wandering Kyoto

Garden at Kyoto Imperial Palace

 

 

By the numbers

27,855 steps

21.52kms

 

Level of Chaos: White Rabbit who is late

 

Hamburg Steak and Fried Shrimp

I was actually feeling really good after having a sleep, although it felt like I slept in even though I didn’t. I think I am still running on Australia time as they are ahead by one hour. Body seems to be alright with that one so far. I was up early enough as I wanted to have breakfast before the mass horses came down for their food. I had breakfast as a thing for where I am staying this time. It was a mix of everything including bread and rice with several other bits of food. My plan was to head out to Kyoto Gyoen National garden that housed the Kyoto Imperial Palace. There is something that I have noticed while wandering through Japan, I havnt been plagued by flies at all. I don’t know if its just a Japan thing as they get rid of their rubbish, or because of sprays.

Gion

 

I caught the subway there and was actually there early enough that I took a wander through the park even though it was pretty big. It does seem the park has plenty of historic areas like a cherry blossom tree an emperor had to turn back to look at, or a gate that was famous where a coup was quashed. The tour of the Imperial Palace was free, but you could go on a guided tour. The authorities did inspect your bag before you went in and you had to wear a lanyard the entire time you were there. I downloaded the app, but it seemed to have an issue where it was the current location I could use for the audio tour. It was another location, but I did find a stamp. There were areas that you could not wander at the palace as they were probably private as someone is likely living there or not. It was the residence for emperors until 1869 when the capital moved to Tokyo or Edo as it was once called. It was the imperial palace for at least 500 years. There were explanations on signs about some of the buildings like a waiting hall that had painted animals in each room like Herons and Tigers. The palace does warn you of the heat, which is good and when it will be worse. I was happy it was not overly busy not yet anyway as I could imagine the castle would be very crowded as everyone wants to see a castle. I don’t know how much of  a heads up they gave back in time when the Emperor came to visit that they had to build a new carriage house, but it did look pretty good and impressive like the old one that is nearby. It was nice to just relax and wander without having to rush anywhere, there were gardens and while the book says they are strolling gardens, you have to stroll right past as you are now allowed to use it. You could only walk in one direction. At the time it wasn’t too hot as it was cloudy.

Gion on dark

 

After leaving the palace, I had a wander through the other part of the park and passed another royal residence, but I had to pay to see this one and I think it was sold out. There were several areas that are really popular cherry blossom viewing areas in the park and I probably should be happy there were none as it’s a national thing to go and look at them. I headed to the International Manga Museum, which I thought would be interesting. Not only was the museum about Manga, but the building itself used to be an old school that had closed down, so having a museum about books in this building made sense, and you could see some rooms of school memorabilia like the principals office and another one for officials who visited. While there was information about the displays in English much of it was in Japanese. People were sitting there reading the manga as one section was a collection of books from a shop owner who had a library full. I learnt there were board games that had manga stories that were offshoots to the games, another part followed the parallels of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan that included censorship, piracy and their relationships as the world changed, another part had plaster casts of the manga author’s hands with drawings of characters. I was happy to walk around and have a look around the museum and read some of the displays, though they did say that manga is for all ages and not just children as there are a few directed towards adults with many different genres.

 

Once I had my fill of the museum, I ended up back at the hotel to get my washing done and realised I had one clean pair lift after a shower. By the time I was done with the washing, I had to head to Gion a historic area for a show. I thought I would be on time, but I decided to walk part way as I didn’t know which platform I needed to get the train. Since my data had somehow vanished, I couldn’t check, but at least I could tag things on Google maps offline and head towards them. No idea if the issue was because the optus app was being updated when I checked later, but in the early hours of the morning the data appeared. I pointed myself in the right directioin and started walking, trying to get out of the way of cars on narrow roads. It was a nice walk before I jumped on a train at a different station, and had around 10 mins to go before I walked into the theatre where the show was. I knew Gion got crowded, but seemed late afternoon the streets outside the area was busy. Some of the slow ones were people looking at their phones, but I pushed past those. The best part was I had a seat in the third row. They showcased several different aspects of Japanese culture, like tea ceremony, flower arranging and several stage shows including a dance with the apprentices. Once the show finished, I was able to get a look around Gion before it got too dark. Then I went looking for the area that I was to have a Geisha experience the next night as I wanted to eyeball the place or else I might miss it by accident. It was easy to find and I had a look at the food in Gion before deciding it was cheaper to get something at the station instead. It was still muggy, but not burning hot with the sun out. At least I can find my way around, but the crowds all seem to be at Kyoto station and you have to watch out or else you will be trampled.