Japan 2023 ✈ Osaka

We had originally planned to visit Japan in June 2020. Over the last 3 years, we had cancelled and rebooked this trip multiple times as Japan was one of the last few countries to reopen its borders to tourism post-Covid. After waiting for 3 years, we were glad to finally make this trip happen this year! This trip has been 3 years in the making and I must say Japan certainly lived up to our anticipation!





20 Apr 2023 (Thurs): Ichiran Ramen Umeda - Namba

After wrapping up our sightseeing in Kyoto, we headed back to Osaka and decided to have lunch at the same Ichiran where we came on our first day in Japan. Gotta savor another round of Ichiran before we leave Japan. The Disruptive Behavior sign is definitely for the tourists...please do not have bad odors...lol!!

We waited about 10 minutes to get seated and the staff handed us the piece of paper for us to select our preferences while we waited.

As always, Ichiran ramen did not dissappoint. We each ordered an Asahi to toast for this smooth and enjoyable trip. The total cost for our meal was ¥3,540 ($26.50).

We enjoyed Ichiran so much that I even made a video just for Ichiran...hahaha!!

After a satisfying lunch, we took the subway to Namba station to collect our Osaka Metro 1-Day Pass which we bought on Klook for ¥820 ($4.85) per pax. We would be sightseeing around Osaka the next day so this pass would cover all our transportation within Osaka.

There are ticket machines in each metro station but they are mostly cash-only. It was easier to purchase on Klook since it costs the same and we could use our credit card. By the way, the many many signs on the ground at the metro stations show how Japanese follow instructions strictly.

After collecting our metro pass, we walked around Namba and went to Surugaya and Super Potato for game boy's video game shopping. 

Stopped at Family Mart on our way back to buy their famous Famichiki, sandwich, cup noodles, and drinks for dinner in the hotel.

Called it a day earlier as we were both tired and had to start packing.


21 Apr 2023 (Fri): Osaka Castle - Shitennoji - Dotonbori - Ippudo Ramen

Our final day of sightseeeing started later at 10am so we had more time to enjoy 'brunch' in the hotel. Day 5 of the same food options and I'm still enjoying it...haha!

Love how orderly everything is in Japan...perfect place for people with OCD...lol!

Our first stop of the day was not a tourist attraction. The game boy wanted to 'visit' Capcom's headquarters and unsurprisingly, visitors are not allowed. Hubby even tried to ask the security guard if he could go in and look around. The security guard couldn't understand English but was nice enough to take out his phone to use the translation app to converse with hubby...poor thing have to entertain this crazy gaijin...hahaha!

After a quick photo stop at Capcom, we went to our 2nd stop for the day...Osaka Castle. This is one of the main tourist attractions in Osaka so there were quite a lot of tourists and another student group when we arrived at 11.30am.

Luckily the surrounding of the castle was big so it never felt crowded at all, and we were still able to take photos of the castle without too many people in the background.

Spring flowers were blooming around the castle.

And we found this perfect photo spot of the castle...with hardly anyone around! :)

Another photo spot of the castle and the moat.

These kiddos on field trip were so cute holding hands walking together. Spotted this stylish Japanese mom cycling with boots and a Prada bag as we were leaving the castle. Apparently it's very common to see bikes with seats at the back and/or front for kids.

Lunch time for the Japanese 'salarymen'...a reminder of how much I enjoy remote work. The closest metro station,  Tanimachiyonchome Station, was a 20 minute walk from Osaka Castle. 

We took the Tanimachi line to Shitennoji-mae station then walked another 7 minutes to Shitennoji Temple. This temple is not as popular so there weren't any other tourists around. We were already templed-out at this point so this was just a quick 10 min stop.

We then took the metro back to Namba station. While we were in Namba station, we did a 'trial run' to figure out the best route to walk from the metro station to the airport bus stop, focusing on finding the elevator/escalators, as we would have all our luggages with us the next morning, and it wouldn't be fun carrying the luggages up and down the stairs. We were glad we did this 'trial run' first as it made everything much easier the next day.

We then walked to the famous Dotonbori street which was pretty crowded. This is Osaka's culinary epicenter and all the restaurant signs are huge. 

Saw a store selling everything with this 'guy' whom I had no idea who he is until I googled. Apparently this guy is one of the famous Osakans called Kuidaore Taro. Somehow Japanese is so good with packaging their merchandise and gifts that we were enticed to buy a few nicely packaged souvenirs.

Last but not least, the famous Glico Running Man, which somehow became a popular photo stop for any visitor. We thought about coming back to Dotonbori again at night when everything is lit up but the weather got cold at night so that's all for Dotonbori.

Last round of ramen for our last evening in Japan. We decided to try Ippudo, which was a short walk from our hotel. 

We ordered gyoza, fried rice, Shiromaru Classic, and Akamaru Modern for a total of ¥2,408 ($18). Conclusion, we both preferred Ichiran...hands down.

Last round of convenient store run at 7-11....drinks and ice-cream for dessert.

Time to pack up and get ready to leave the next morning. That's a wrap for Osaka!

Japan 2023 ✈ Osaka Day 1
Cup Noodles Museum, Yamazaki Distillery

We had originally planned to visit Japan in June 2020. Over the last 3 years, we had cancelled and rebooked this trip multiple times as Japan was one of the last few countries to reopen its borders to tourism post-Covid. After waiting for 3 years, we were glad to finally make this trip happen this year! This trip has been 3 years in the making and I must say Japan certainly lived up to our anticipation!



17 Apr 2023 (Mon): Cup Noodles Museum - Yamazaki Distillery - Umeda Sky Building

 After a good night's rest, we started our day at 8.45am with breakfast in the hotel on our first day in Japan. The daily free breakfast from 7am-10am was one of the main reasons I chose to stay at a Holiday Inn Express instead of the other IHG hotel options in Osaka.

The buffet options were much better than the ones offered in HiX in the US...salads, fruits, bread and pastries, yoghurt, sausage, scrambled eggs, mapo tofu, grilled fish, rice, stir fried veggies, lotus root, okra, kimchi, pickled dishes, seaweed, miso soup, etc. 

I absolutely enjoyed the oriental breakfast options while hubby opted for the western options as usual. This breakfast was actually brunch for us. =P 

After breakfast, it was time to begin our sightseeing using Japan's convenient rail/subway system. Thankfully, Google Map made it super easy to navigate. Hommachi station was a short 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Even though there are 3 different subway lines (i.e. Midosuji, Chuo, Yotsubashi) that goes through Hommachi station, the Midosuji (red) line was the one we used the most. We took the 9.50am subway from Hommachi to Umeda Station, which was a short 5 min (2 stops) subway ride. 

Umeda station is a big station with several train/subway lines running through it.

We made a quick stop at Umeda station to pick up our 3-day Kansai Thru Pass at the Osaka Metro Commuter pass sales counter in Umeda station. We bought this on Klook's website for $40.35 per person. It was very easy to purchase this on Klook and redeem it at one of the many locations listed. Best of all, we could use credit card to purchase. If we had purchased this pass in Japan, we'd have to use cash. Our plan is to use this pass for our travels on the next 3 days to Nara, Kobe, and Kyoto. My 'cost analysis' showed that it would be cheaper to use this pass than to pay for each train separately. =)

After collecting our pass, we took the 10.20am Hankyu train to Ikeda station. I love the old school train design and the velvet seats. Since we boarded at the first stop, there were plenty of seats for this 20 min ride. We navigated our way around Japan with Google Maps coz it has so much information and was super accurate! 

From Ikeda station, we walked about 5 min (400m) to the Cup Noodles Museum. Entrance to the museum is free and you can purchase tickets for ¥500 if you want to make your own cup noodles, which we didn't. 

We walked around the museum but everything was in Japanese only and honestly there weren't much to see at the museum.

We went to the 2nd floor to watch the noodle-making workshop instead. It was actually more fun to watch how quickly and efficiently the staff cleaned up...lol!

After spending 45 minutes at the museum, we hopped back on the train at 12.10pm to our next stop. Looked like we were the only tourists on the train. When changing train at Juso station, we noticed that not only do everyone stood in line here, they even stood in the 'correct' line for the different trains...wow! It took a minute for us to figure out where to stand but we made sure to do as the Japanese do...haha! 

Arrived Oyamazaki station at 1pm and walked 12 min (1km) through a residential area to our 2nd stop for the day....Suntory Yamazaki Distillery.

Visiting this place was not easy as only visitors with reservations were allowed to enter. Even getting a reservation to visit was like trying to get concert tickets. When they opened the reservation system on March 5 for April's reservation, there were 4000+ people in the queue and by the time I got into the reservation system after waiting for an hour, there were only few spots left for the museum. The Distillery Tour was already fully booked. We were glad to at least get a reservation for the Yamazaki Whisky Museum free tour as the distillery would be closed for visit starting May 2023 till Nov 2023. We were lucky after all.

After a quick check-in at the security gate, we were given a tag for our visit to the museum. Our reservation was for 2pm, but they allowed us to enter earlier at 1.15pm.

If you're wondering why this place is so popular, Yamazaki is where Japanese whisky was born in 1923, and this year is the 100th year since the history of Japanese whisky began. Another reason why this place is so popular is because Suntory is home to award-winning Japanese whiskies - Yamazaki, Hibiki, and Hakushu. 

I am not a whiskey connoisseur but I know Hibikis are one of the most popular Japanese whisky. We couldn't find them in any stores and they weren't sold in here either. 

Yamazaki is the most sought-after Japanese whisky brand on the market.  

After learning about the history of Japanese whisky, we proceeded to the whisky tasting area.

The whisky tasting menu. We opted for the ¥1,100 Yamazaki Brand lineup set (Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve, Yamazaki 12 Years Old, Yamazaki 18 Years Old) and the ¥2,400 Long matured whisky set (Yamazaki 18 Years Old, Hakushu 18 Years Old, Hibiki 21 Years Old). For the more serious whisky fans, the Hibiki 30 Years Old, Yamazaki 25 Years Old, and Hakushu 25 Years Old were also available for tasting at ¥3,700 each.

The staff nicely lined up the whisky bottles for us to take photos. =)

Conclusion from our whisky tasting....Hibiki 21 was the best among the ones we tried.

We wrapped up our tour with a visit to the gift shop to buy souvenirs. Each person can buy one of the Yamazaki Distillery limited gift set for ¥3,468 ($26), which includes a 300ml Suntory Single Malt Whiskey Yamazaki Distillery Limited, a box of chocolate, and a Yamazaki Distillery-exclusive glass, packed in a nice bamboo paper bag. We bought 2 sets of the gift sets and the 180ml Yamazaki whisky and chocolate set for ¥2,477.

After spending about 2 hours at Yamazaki, we headed back to Osaka Umeda station to have early dinner at Ichiran next to Umeda station. There were no lines at 4pm.

Ichiran is one of hubby's favorite asian food so we were happy to be here again.

Such a simple and satisfying meal as always, perfect after whisky tasting...lol! 

Walked 10 minutes from Umeda station to the Umeda Sky Building.

The main reason we came here was for this cool glass tube-like mid-air escalator. We took the elevator up to 38th floor to get to the escalator. There are ticket machines selling tickes to the Floating Garden Observatory one level above, but we didn't go.

Headed back to Umeda station at 6pm to take the subway to Shinsaibashi station. It was rush hour so the train was packed.

We went to the Capcom store but hubby was disappointed with what they had there. We then walked through the covered walkway to Bon Repas whisky store and was disappointed again coz they didn't have any Hibiki available. We also bought Uncle Rikuro's cheesecake and took it back to the hotel. Honestly, I felt this was a bit overrated.

That's a wrap for day 1 in Japan. Next post, we will be heading to Nara to see lots of deers and watch our first ever Japanese baseball game.

Japan 2023 ✈ Journey to Japan

We had originally planned to visit Japan in June 2020. Over the last 3 years, we had cancelled and rebooked this trip multiple times as Japan was one of the last few countries to reopen its borders to tourism post-Covid. After waiting for 3 years, we were glad to finally make this trip happen this year! This trip has been 3 years in the making and I must say Japan certainly lived up to our anticipation!



Trip Planning
This Japan trip was certainly one that took the longest to plan coz we had started planning and booking this trip since October 2019. The best part of our 'original' planned trip was flying on the amazing JAL First Class. We had only flown in economy prior to this and since I had a good amount of Alaska miles, we decided to 'splurge' on a fancy First Class flight on this trip.

We had our First Class flights ticketed for 3 times (June 2020, Dec 2020, May 2022), but had to cancel all of them (thanks Covid). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any First Class availability this time around and even worse, Alaska Airlines devalued the award redemptions for JAL in March 2023, so our hopes of traveling JAL First Class were gone. :( 

We had our rough itinerary planned out previously, so we only had to finalize the flights and accommodation. I used points and miles for our flights and accommodation on this trip. We had to book 2 different return tickets as I was continuing my journey to Malaysia while hubby was returning to the US after the trip. Even though we didn't get to fly First Class, we booked a Business Class flight for hubby on his return trip.

As for our accommodation, we kept it simple and decided to stay in 1 hotel throughout the trip. I was able to book 6 nights at the Holiday Inn Express Osaka Midosuji for only 63,000 IHG points in total using the IHG 4th night free benefit, which was pretty good. 


15-16 Apr 2023 (Sat-Sun): Huntsville - Dallas - Los Angeles - Osaka Kansai

Started our day early and took Uber to the airport at 4am. Once again, this was not a 'pack light' trip as I was contunuing my journey to Malaysia for a month after Japan. Maximized the 50lb weight allowance for the bag I was bringing to Malaysia with gifts. Both luggages also had a carry-on size luggage hidden inside for extra space if needed. 

Hubby's flight reservation was all the way through to Osaka but my flight reservation was split in two with a break in LA. My initial thought was to check in both bags under hubby's name so that I don't have to waste time retrieving mine in LA in case of flight delay. However, I mistaken that all flights to Asia allow 2 check-in baggages. Hubby could only check-in one bag so I had no choice but to retrieve my bag in LA and recheck it.

First 2 legs of our flights from Huntsville-Dallas-LA were on time and uneventful, which was great. My biggest worry about connecting on 2 separate tickets was flight delay on the first 2 flights. Our transit time in LA was 4 hours so we built in some buffer as well. Thankfully, everything went smoothly, definitely a good start for our trip.

Arrived LAX on time at 10.30am. Hubby walked from Terminal 4 to the international terminal via airside connectors, while I quickly headed to baggage claim to retrieve my luggage. I got my luggage at 10.45am (thanks to priority baggage handling with my AA Platinum Pro), then walked 10 minutes to the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

 Everything went smoothly and I made it to the JAL check in counter at 10.55am, with 3.5 hours to spare before our flight at 2.25am. The JAL counter was quite empty and even though I was traveling in economy, I was able to use the JAL First Class check-in counter with my oneworld emerald status. I completed my check-in within 3 minutes...Japanese efficiency at its best! I received my boarding pass with a F Class Lounge sticker (for First Class lounge access) and my check-in luggage was also tagged with First Class (for priority baggage hadling). Gotta love these oneworld emerald benefits! I was surprised that there was no line at all at the TSA pre-check lane, especially for LAX international airport!

After clearing security at 11.15am, I met up with hubby at the Qantas First Lounge on the 5th floor. This lounge can be accessed by oneworld emerald members traveling in any cabin or passengers traveling in oneworld international first class. The JAL staff at check-in informed me that I could access this lounge with my oneworld and provided a map of where the lounge is located. I was also allowed to bring one guest. =) 

The lounge was pretty empty when we were there. It is quite spacious (for US lounge standards), with plenty of seats, including some seats overlooking the airport concourse. There was shower facilities at this lounge but we didn't use it.

Several drink stations around the lounge with self-serve wines and coffee/tea.

Unlike most lounges where the food are served buffet style, the Qantas First Lounge has an a la carte restaurant with table service. They were still serving the breakfast menu when we arrived at 11.15am, so we were able to order from both the breakfast and lunch menu while we were there. The lunch menu started at 12pm.

For breakfast, I ordered the Avocado toast, cappucino and champagne, while hubby ordered granola, bread and Boston lager. For lunch, I ordered the seared Baja bass with herb salad and the signature salt and pepper squid, while hubby ordered the classic beef cheesburger and salad. The food and drinks were great and we spent all our time in the lounge slowly enjoying the food! Felt like we went to a restaurant instead of a lounge...lol!

After spending 2.5 hours 'feasting' in the lounge, we headed over to the gate at 1.55pm. Boarding started on time at 2pm. Even though I had group 1 priority boarding, we intentionally waited to board last. Once again, I was impressed by Japanese efficiency as boarding was completed within 10 minutes!

The flight was about 50-60% full so there was plenty of space for this 12.5 hours flight from LA - Osaka KIX. My seat selection strategy was 'partially successful' as I was hoping to get a row of 4+2 to ourselves. However, a Japanese guy was sitting on the other aisle seat in my row so I asked if he'd switch seat with hubby so that we could have a whole middle row of 4 to ourselves, while he'd have the row of 2 to himself...that's a win win. =) 

The benefit of getting a whole row of 4 to ourselves...I get to make myself comfortable and made own economy 'lie-flat' seat. =P Even though we were bummed that we didn't get to experience JAL First Class on this trip, I was happy with my economy 'lie-flat' seat and saved my miles for another free trip instead.

Another benefit of traveling economy, I could dress more casually/comfortably without having to 'dress nicer' for premium cabins. Btw, JAL's airplane lavatory has a bidet.

2 meals were served on our flight. I chose the hashed beef with steam rice for my first meal, and bacon & asparagus fried rice for my pre-arrival meal.

Thanks to my 'lie flat' seat, I was able to sleep for about 6 hours. Whitney Houston movie marathon on the flight with "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and "The Bodyguard".

Arrived Osaka Kansai ariport at 7.15am, 20 minutes behind schedule. At the time of our trip (April 2023), we were still required to fill out our arrival and vaccination information. We had all our information filled out before arrival and had our QR codes ready, which enabled us to get through immigration within 10 minutes after deplaning, and got our luggages by 7.45pm. Sooo efficient and fast!!

It was about 8pm when we got to the Nankai train station at the airport. It costs ¥1,120 ($8.50) per person for the train and subway from Kansai airport to our hotel. To make it easy to travel around Japan, I added Suica transit card on Apple Pay and reloaded it with credit card before arriving Japan. As such, our Suica cards were ready for use upon arrival and we didn't have to worry about withdrawing cash at the atm to purchase the tickets. The best part about using Apple Pay is the ability to reload using credit card, whereas you can only use cash to reload if you have the physical card.

It took about an hour to get to our hotel...47 min from Kansai airport to Namba station via Nankai line, transferred to the subway at Namba station, 4 min from Namba station to Hommachi station via Midosuji Line, and a 6 min walk to our hotel. We couldn't figure out where the elevator at Hommachi station was so we carried our luggages up the stairs. =.=

Finally made it to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express Osaka City Centre - Midosuji, at 9.15pm. Check-in was pretty quick. We booked 6 nights here for 63,000 IHG points.

Our room (2114) was at the highest floor.

Like many hotels in Japan, the room was not big, but it was equipped with everything we needed. The design of the room was well thought out to optimize the limited space. There was a queen bed, a desk to put our random stuffs, place to hang our clothes, and extra space under the bed for luggages.

The room was equipped with a fridge, air purifier, kettle with complimentary coffee and tea, bottled water, clock by the bed, usb/power plugs above the bed, slippers/shoe horns.

The bathroom had a separate walk-in shower with fancy shower heads. It was so fancy it required instructions to operate...lol! Toto toilet bowl (of course), and I liked the toilet paper holder with space to put our phones lol! There were also 2 sets of pajamas in the bathroom, which is pretty standard for all Japanese hotels. 

We had fun posing with the pajamas. It was comfortable and we wore it every night. =)

It was already 9.45pm by the time we settled in so we decided to walk over to the nearby 7-11 to grab some food for dinner. There were so many food options to choose from...noodles, bento set, rice rolls, sandwiches, salads, etc. We bought some sandwiches, rice rolls, and some drinks for our first dinner in Japan.

Convenient stores in Japan are awesome. They have all sorts of beverages and snacks.

That's a wrap of our 24-hours journey from US to Japan. In the next post, we'll be exploring a few places outside of Osaka city for our day 1 in Japan.

Konnichiwa Japan - Osaka/Kyoto

This was a self-planned trip so I'm gonna proudly say that I was the 'planner' for this entire journey...haha! Took me quite a lot of time working on the entire detailed itinerary but I enjoy doing this kinda crap so I'm happy with my accomplishment...lol! Aight, enough of self-praise (=no praise)...enjoy the photos! =)

21 March 2012 (Wed): Pg - KL - Osaka - Kyoto
Took an overnight flight that we booked on Airasia few months back to Osaka. Honestly, the flight wasn't very comfortable and I didn't get much sleep on board. For long-haul AA flight, I'll try to avoid night flights the next time. Our flight arrived Kansai Airport slightly ahead of schedule and we managed to beat the crowd and get out of the airport fairly quickly using our 'kiasu' skill...lol!  

First things first, we went to the airport travel desk to purchase our 2-day Kansai Thru Pass that allowed us to travel on any non-JR trains and buses around Kansai area (including Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, etc). Transportation is expensive in Japan so this pass was quite worth it for us as our hotel was in Osaka and we planned to travel to Kyoto for 2 days.

Traveling around in Japan is very convenient but it could be quite difficult for people who can't read Japanese. I did a whole lot of homework especially for the best way to travel around and thanks to hyperdia.com, I was able to work out exactly which train, station, time and duration for every place that we wanted to go...kinda insane but it worked out perfect coz we didn't get lost at all!!

Stopped by a shop at the metro station for some gyoza for breakfast...it's great to have something hot to eat when the weather is so chilly!!

Arrived Shin Osaka Sunny Stone hotel...our 2-nights base in Osaka/Kyoto. Hotels in Japan are really small...just enough space to walk to the bed but they are all very clean though. 

Time to head out for some sightseeing after dropping off our luggages at the hotel. Trains make it so convenient to travel anywhere around Japan. My 'homework' comes in handy in  to navigate around the complicated routes. =)

Guess what we had for our first meal in Kyoto??

Oyishi!! 

As if navigating the train route is not challenging enough...we challenged the bus routes...lol!! :p No choice coz Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) was kinda out of the way and the best way to get there was by bus.

Successfully made our way to Kinkakuji! It was actually not that complicated la...I was just exaggerating. :p

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of temples but this temple is one of the famous tourist attractions in Kyoto so I decided to go there to get some nice photos..haha! :p

Of course we all gotta get into the photos...lol!!

Took the train again to go to Arashiyama...we traveled on all sorts of different train lines. One thing we noticed was that Japanese are very quiet in trains and it's actually rude to talk on the phone in the trains. 

Arashiyama district is known for its scenery...but the main reason we came was for the bamboo forest.

Tenryuji Temple...we only took photos from the outside.

Lucky us...we saw some 'real' Geisha along the streets! =) 

After several detours, we finally arrived at the bamboo forest!! It's so pretty!!

I know self praise = no praise but I love this pic of bro that I took...very artistic huh!! :p

Wanted to take some jumpshots with the cool bamboo backdrop behind by bro can never take a good jumpshot of me...I tried almost 20 attempts till my muscle was aching and he still haven't got a perfect one. =.= WeyShin is still the best camera girl...haha!!

The bamboo forest is really pretty...we don't see this in Malaysia so pardon me if I'm a bit 'sam pat'...lol!!

We arrived about a week before the cherry blossom season starts so we were excited just to see some trees blossoming. :p

Sunset along Togetsukyo Bridge with the Oi River & Arashiyama mountains in the background. 

Dinner somewhere around Namba station...more Udon and Soba...woohoo!! 

22 March 2012 (Thurs): Kyoto

Traveled by train from Osaka to Kyoto again the next morning for our second day of sightseeing in Kyoto. 

Our first attraction for the day - Fushimi Inari Shrine...you'll find out why I wanted to visit this place later. :p

Everything around this Shrine is orange...very striking.

There were lotsa students on school trips visiting the temples...good way to educate them to appreciate their own culture. =)

Yup...this was what attracted me to come visit this shrine...haha! If we had more time, I would spend a whole lot of time posing around here...lol!!

Us being crazy fooling around again. :p

Initially I didn't plan to go into Nijo castle but bro wanted to hear 'the floor that makes the bird-chirping sound' so we bought tickets to go in. 

We weren't allowed to take pics in the castle but well at least we got to see some sakuras.

Nishiki Food Market

Udons for lunch again...me likey...haha! 

Next stop...Kiyomizu Dera...another temple on a hill. Had to hike some to reach the temple but there were lotsa shops along the way to distract us. :p

The temple and its surrounding.

Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka slopes...love the feel of walking along this slope.

Gion Geisha district...a trip to Kyoto would not be complete without visiting the Gion district. This area is famous for geisha but it depends on luck to actually see Geishas along the street. We saw a geisha but she was walking so quickly that I didn't manage to get a pic of her.