Part Deux - Kyoto and Osaka
We enjoyed Kyoto immensely and were fortunate to have a free guide on our first day who arranged by one of our Tokyo free guides. As luck would have it there was a major festival parade the day after we arrived and our guide took us from our hotel to a prime viewing spot. We then wandered over to Owariya, a 700-year old noodle restaurant, for lunch. And then to the Golden Pavilion and some famous Zen garden, finally ending up in the Nishiki market area. Alas there are precious few threads on Kyoto dining, so we made a rookie mistake by visiting Genko sushi which was overpriced and the sushi was not even as good as some of the sushi boat places (also too many smokers). Oh well, it's impossible to bat 1.000 every night. The next day we took our only paid guide supplied by Kyoto private guides. This was a bargain @ 2000 yen/hr as we got a personal tour which included some more obscure shrines that were clear across the city. I would highly recommend this guide and service to anyone who is interested - no way we could have navigated the city this quickly on our own, much less learned so much history. We ended the day at the "Silver Temple" and Philosopher's Walk, the latter a bit overrated stone path along a canal that was favored by some Philosophy Prof for his daily constitutional. We ended up at a sushi boat restaurant and finished off something like 9 plates of very serviceable sushi each for <$40. Now that's a deal! The next day we felt comfortable enough to find our own way to some of the nearby shrines and also a local sake brewery (and related museum) that's about 15m by train from the central station. This was a welcome diversion as by that point we were all shrined out (no offense).
The next day we took the local train to Osaka after waiting 10m at the ticket office only to discover there was no Shinkashen
but the limited express was only 30m so no biggie. From Osaka station you can walk directly to the brand new Intercontinental hotel - another fabulous property (even better for free
) but again you can look to the IHG forum for a detailed review. Suffice it to say the property is very convenient and easy to find by following signs from the station to the Grand Front Osaka office complex. We were immediately off to attend a Hanshen Tigers baseball game. For me this was one of the highlights even though baseball is pretty much the same game anywhere but the stadium experience was quite a bit different from the USA. I will miss those Asahi girls when I'm at my next Giants game (and the $6 beers). Practice tip: contrary to what we were told the team is quite popular and the good tickets sell early. So have your hotel concierge pre-order for you so you don't end up in nosebleed seats like we did! We ended the day at a popular Soba restaurant in the Namba neighborhood, which reminded me a bit of Tokyo with the bright lights and crowd of youngsters. Really liked Namba, wish we could have returned another night.
We were pretty toured out by our final day so we took it easy and went shopping for gifts at one of the train station dept. stores, relaxed at the pool, and had the concierge make a reservation at one of the Michelin star sushi restaurants downtown. No doubt this was our best meal of the trip and an experience we will not soon forget.
Slept in the next day (ironically we both finally adjusted to jetlag the day we returned!) and took the airport bus to KIX. The latter is pretty unimpressive and does not compare favorably with NRT, but it has a couple of serviceable restaurants and the lounge was tolerable.
Originally Posted by
NewbieRunner
You should have followed my instructions in
this post in the Japan Do thread.
No offense but Shinjuku is still confusing even with instructions and a map, as it is not easy to pinpoint your current location with phone GPS. Nor does one feel like hiking around after a TPAC flight and NEX. Hence the oft-cited recommendation for first time visitors to take taxi to your hotel when you arrive, and then figure it all out the following day. At $8-9 it's an affordable luxury particularly if you want to avoid schlepping large bags!
Originally Posted by
jpatokal
Private toilets are pretty much standard in any halfway decent ryokan, although I've stayed at minshuku where they're shared as well.
But, yes, the expectation is that you do your evening and morning ablutions at the onsen baths. It's one of the main reasons you're there, after all.
Alas we checked several high end properties and none had private WC/showers which is mandatory from our perspective. And the first thing I do after rolling out of bed is to take a private shower. Ryokan good in theory (the futons would not bother me either) but in practice maybe not for those of us accustomed to certain room features.
Final Installment Next: Impressions and observations.