My Life in the Land of the Morning Calm: Japan - Arashiyama, Kyoto, Mount Fuji

After Hiroshima I took the bullet train to Kyoto. Kyoto was my second favorite place in Japan... well, it might tie for second with Mount Fuji. Kyoto is the cultural center of Japan and is jam-packed with shrines and everything you imagine when you picture stereotypical Japan.

When I first arrived in Kyoto, I checked into my hostel and then immediately hared off to Arashiyama, home of an amazing bamboo forest and one of my "must sees." It was great to see the forest and then walk around the gardens at one of the temples there... I can't even remember the name though. Whoops. Whatever, the garden was great. When I got back to my hostel, I met a French girl staying in my dorm and we went to dinner with two French guys and an American guy, which was a lot of fun. Side story: when I was checking into my hostel that day, an older Dutch guy struck up a conversation which went a little something like this.

Dutch guy: somethingsomethingsomething...

Me: Awesome.

Dutch guy: Ah, so you're a New Zealander then!

Me: No, I'm American.

Dutch guy: Really? But New Zealanders always say awesome. I've been to America. Americans don't say it.

Me: (Politely) Oh really? *thinks to self... who's the American here anyway?*

Too funny. Also while in Tokyo I was mistaken for an English girl whereas my friend Chris, an English guy, was mistaken for an American. Hilarious.

So the next day in Kyoto I went around to see the shrines, then I had some extra time and was all shrined-out, so I decided to hop a JR train bound for Nara, the original capital of Japan. I barely had any time in Nara because it was so late, but I was glad that I took a quick trip there anyway. Then I went back to Kyoto and met up with my roommate and another girl we picked up from our dorm. We got some dinner, then I suggested walking over to the Gion district of Kyoto because it's the geisha area, so we walked around for awhile but didn't find any, which was unsurprising because it was really late by that time.

The next day I headed to Mount Fuji. It took way longer than I had expected and was a fairly traumatic journey. Basically, I didn't book a hostel because the website I used claimed the hostel I wanted was all booked, which I knew couldn't possibly be true because Chris had just stayed there the week before and said it was nearly empty. The other hostels were about $20 more than that one, so I decided I would just show up and see if they had any availability and if not, then I'd go elsewhere. I was feeling confident in that plan, though a little less because the hostel offered a pickup service from the train station, which meant I couldn't find walking directions. This meant that I had to get to the tourist information office by 6:30pm when they closed so I could get them to help me call around for a hostel. Cue my long journey to Mount Fuji. I had to take the bullet train from Kyoto to some place and then this local bus from that place to Lake Kawaguchi. There are five lakes at the base of Mount Fuji, and I was headed to Lake Kawaguchi. You can't actually go up the mountain in the winter because it's too dangerous, not that I'd have time for it anyway.

The bus took absolutely forever, and it was getting extremely ominous. It kept winding up and up into the mountains and the sky was getting darker, it was getting later, it was snowing, and to top it off, I was eventually the only person left on the bus. I kept anxiously checking my watch hoping to make it to the tourist information office. I ended up getting there by 6, they called the hostel, and within 15 minutes they showed up to pick me up, so things ended up working out, but I'll be honest - I was getting freaked out on the ride there because I was worried about getting stuck at the base of Mount Fuji with nowhere to stay. Anyway, it was cool because I met some other foreigners at the hostel. One was a Swiss girl whose first language was French, so we chatted French for awhile, then met up with some English people to watch fireworks at the base of Mount Fuji. Then we went back to the hostel and chatted some more, then the next day the English people and I met up to walk around Lake Kawaguchi (the Swiss girl had already been) and take pictures of Mount Fuji. We were all extremely nervous about visibility since visibility had been horrendous that day. While on the bus I hadn't even been able to find the volcano, which is enormous. This was to be my only shot at seeing it as well since I had to fly out of Tokyo the next day.

Additionally, I had the problem of money. I was dead set against withdrawing any more money, but I was perilously close to going over my budget. I was literally counting my coins when I met the Swiss girl at my hostel. The slow train (which was not operated by Japan Railways and thus not covered by my Rail Pass) was going to 1,100 yen, so I carefully set that aside. $10 is about 800 yen by the way. Everything else would be covered by the JR Pass, so no sweat on transportation. After that money, I had exactly 800 yen to get me through the day. I was nervous and couldn't afford any mistakes (if you'll pardon the pun). I was determined to make it through my Japan trip on my budget.

Lo and behold, clear skies abounded the next day! We had a terrific time walking around the lake photographing ourselves and the volcano, which was a truly spectacular sight. We split up when they decided to take a cable car ride up to a viewing platform, but I literally could not spare the money and thought I'd better head back to the hostel to begin my long trip back to the airport. It was a seriously long journey.

Hostel van to train station

Slow train from Lake Kawaguchi to another station (can't remember the name)

Bullet train to Tokyo

Metro to Tokyo Station

Airport express line to airport

Fly to Seoul

Bus from Seoul to my city

Four metro stops

Local bus from the metro to my apartment

I ate my leftover food from the night before (you guessed it... bread) and breathed a sigh of relief when I got to the Tokyo airport with my 800 yen. This meant I had successfully completed my trip with just enough money to buy some dinner before my flight. Sadly, the cheapest Japanese meal was 1,200 yen, which meant I found myself in the McDonald's line where I purchased a meal for yep, 800 yen! I was the budget master. The budget sensei. Bow down!

Fireworks on Lake Kawaguchi

Arashiyama

Arashiyama bamboo forest

Arashiyama

Golden Pavilion, Kyoto

Gardens at Heian-jingu Shrine, Kyoto

Heian-jingu Shrine, Kyoto

Gardens at Heian-jingu Shrine, Kyoto

Kiyomizudera Temple, Kyoto

Kiyomizudera Temple, Kyoto. At this point I was shrined/templed-out, so I just walked to the top then sacked off actually paying the entrance fee and going in, then walked to the train station and went to Nara.