My 2016 Japan travelogue so far:
Osaka Day 1: Ana Crowne Plaza & Sennichimae Doguyasuji
Osaka Day 2: Osaka Station, Kuromon Market & Dotonbori
Nara Day 3: Todai-ji, Cheeky Deer & Fall Foliage
Osaka + Kyoto Day 4: Nishiki Market & Len Kyoto Kawaramachi
Kyoto Day 5: Kiyomizu-dera, Sannen-zaka & Ninen-zaka (Part 1)
Kyoto Day 5: Kōdai-ji (Part 2)
Kyoto Day 6: Autumn At Beautiful Arashiyama & Kyoto Station
Kyoto Day 7: Fushimi Inari Taisha & Yasaka Shrine
Finally I’ve reached the half way blogging point of my Japan trip. Took me 6 months since my trip back in Nov-Dec last year to reach this mark. LOL Anyway, I’m planning to complete this travelogue ASAP, hopefully before November so that those planning this trip for autumn can get some tips from my Japan posts.
Here’s day 8!
On this day, we’re leaving Kyoto for Fujikawaguchiko. It has been my lifelong dream to see Mount Fuji with my naked eyes and there’s no way I would come to Japan and skip it. There are many places where one can view Mount Fuji. The famous of the lots are Hakone, Kamakura, Lake Kawaguchi, Gotemba, etc. I choose Lake Kawaguchi (Kawaguchiko) which is located at Fujikawaguchiko (town) because I think it has the best overall view of this gigantic mountain. This is based on the images I found in WWW.
Fujikawaguchiko is located at Yamanashi prefecture. To come here from Kyoto, I took shinkansen from Kyoto Station to Mishima Station. And from Mishima Station, I boarded a bus to Kawaguchiko Station. Sounds easy, right? Come now… I’ll describe the journey in detailed.
When I was in Osaka on day 2, I visited the JR ticket office in Osaka Station and bought advance Shinkansen tickets for the Kyoto-Mishima route. I don’t like buying tickets at the last moment due to the probability of tickets selling out and then having to change schedule and everything. It’ll wreck the holiday no doubt. So I got it in advance. Also, if you’re in a group, it’s better to buy in advance so the probability of sitting together is higher.
We woke up at 4.20am on day 8. Had our breakfast (I ate tuna egg sandwich), proceed to give one final check with our luggage and then check out from Len Kyoto. Check out was easy. Just drop the key at the reception (no one was there) and exit via their side door. Then we crossed the road and waited for taxi at the bus stand at around 6.20am. Thankfully, we managed to flag one down in less than 5 minutes.
When I sent an email to Len Kyoto before reserving our rooms, they told us that they can book a taxi for us. But when we requested them to book a taxi for us on day 7, they told us to just wait for one.
Taxi fare from Len Kyoto to Kyoto Station is 830 yen. The fare is exactly as when we took a taxi from Kyoto Station to Len Kyoto on day 4.
The taxi driver asked us where we’re going in Kyoto Station and then dropped us at Hachijo dori side since it’s the nearest to the shinkansen tracks. The journey took 10 minutes.
Enter here for shinkansen (bullet train). This gate is for regular ticket which is your base fare ticket. We don’t have one. We only have one type of ticket which is the shinkansen ticket. So we just showed the operator our tickets and they opened the gate to allow us through.
Continue Reading
