But I digress. The point of this entry is that there are places that I got to visit for this first time this November, when some of my friends from the office visited. I particularly loved visiting Arashiyama which looked spectacular in Autumn.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Arashiyama
I have been living in Japan for more than a year now and I feel guilty that I don't travel as much as I wanted to. I spend most of my days fretting about the next presentation, or simply whiling time away. I keep telling my self there will be time to visit places I want to see later on, after I have read my readings, finished conducting my research for the thesis, and so on. And I realized, the thesis will be done by July next year, and by then I would be busy preparing for graduation. In no time, I would be busy packing up my stuff as I would be leaving Japan in October. When I think about leaving this country, it pains me to think that I would not be able to walk down the street anytime I want and eat at Ramen Tarou hahaha.
But I digress. The point of this entry is that there are places that I got to visit for this first time this November, when some of my friends from the office visited. I particularly loved visiting Arashiyama which looked spectacular in Autumn.
But I digress. The point of this entry is that there are places that I got to visit for this first time this November, when some of my friends from the office visited. I particularly loved visiting Arashiyama which looked spectacular in Autumn.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Buwis-buhay Night Illumination at Kiyomizudera Temple
In my last post, I said that I would be starting a project here in my blog that probably no one reads haha. So far, I haven't decided on the details of the project because of so many things. Time flies so fast. Real life gets in the way.
This month has been a crazy month - two groups of friends visited me in succession. I am very glad that I got to visit places I have never been to before.
I have been to Kiyomizudera a few times, and I really love the uphill climb in Higashiyama District which is lined with quaint stores offering Japanese omiyage or small gifts. This time was different because we wanted to see the night illumination in Kiyomizudera, said to offer one of the best autumn views in Japan. We went there at around five in the afternoon, and there was already a long queue towards Kiyomizudera. The temple closes at around 4:30 in the afternoon and the night illumination starts at 6:00. There was a store near the entrance of the temple which offers free samples of mochi and other delicacies, as well as free tea so we just stayed there and treated ourselves to what we called the "free buffet".
At around 6 in the evening, people started to enter the temple and we thought that in an hour or so, the line will start to get shorter. It didn't. So we went to the foot of the hill where line ended, only to find out that a lot of people are simply cutting in line and it is "attack mode-unahan" when we buy the tickets. When it was our turn to buy our tickets, we had to push and shove, we were pushed and shoved. Inside the temple, and as we made our way towards the bridge which offers the best view, we had to box other people out, otherwise, we won't be able to get decent pictures at all. It was cold but we were sweating, we couldn't breathe. Siksikan, wagas! But we managed to get some pictures and we had a lot of fun!
This month has been a crazy month - two groups of friends visited me in succession. I am very glad that I got to visit places I have never been to before.
I have been to Kiyomizudera a few times, and I really love the uphill climb in Higashiyama District which is lined with quaint stores offering Japanese omiyage or small gifts. This time was different because we wanted to see the night illumination in Kiyomizudera, said to offer one of the best autumn views in Japan. We went there at around five in the afternoon, and there was already a long queue towards Kiyomizudera. The temple closes at around 4:30 in the afternoon and the night illumination starts at 6:00. There was a store near the entrance of the temple which offers free samples of mochi and other delicacies, as well as free tea so we just stayed there and treated ourselves to what we called the "free buffet".
At around 6 in the evening, people started to enter the temple and we thought that in an hour or so, the line will start to get shorter. It didn't. So we went to the foot of the hill where line ended, only to find out that a lot of people are simply cutting in line and it is "attack mode-unahan" when we buy the tickets. When it was our turn to buy our tickets, we had to push and shove, we were pushed and shoved. Inside the temple, and as we made our way towards the bridge which offers the best view, we had to box other people out, otherwise, we won't be able to get decent pictures at all. It was cold but we were sweating, we couldn't breathe. Siksikan, wagas! But we managed to get some pictures and we had a lot of fun!
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