Japan Pilgrimage II Day 1 - Guest Blogged by 浪迹天涯小狗

ok I know I've been owing this for 3,000 years...
*Points finger paw at Mistress*
Guess how many memory of photos she trigger-happily took?
.
.
64gb
.
.

THAT'S SIXTY-FOUR FREAKING GIGABYTES!! Even thou its only about 2,700 photos.. in raw format.. (and reduced to 1,854 eventually.. hit rate only 69% =.=" and not including about 300+ on LX3)
(,,#ﾟДﾟ) SIXTY FREAKING FOUR!!!
10 times more memory than the previous round!
And its giving my eyes glaucoma already...

Haiz...

Lets get on with it.. Day by Day.. since I'll have more problems summarizing 17 days of photos than summarizing photos per day.

WARNING: Image Intensive! (Ok you have been warned..)



21 October 2010 8:32am

TOUCHDOWN!!!~~~~~~


Ok, make it probably 3 min before that when Mistress officially steps foot onto Dreamland.

AGAIN!

Its Mistress's FIRST trip with the other animals, thou the cat wasn't able to join us. We went with Thai Airways since its the cheapest at around SGD 730 round trip all in during that time.

Animals roll call: Roar Roar, Birdy, Ah Gu/Moo Moo (i.e. Mistress), Doggy (ME!!)


Excited excited!~ Boarding at Changi!!~

The other animals were busy shooting to go queue.. and I've resumed my position hanging somewhere on Mistress, sometimes on her sling bag, or her backpack, or her camera. Exhausted my supply of motion sickness pills and puke bags!

ε-(´・｀)


New friends that accompanied me on this trip!
Starting from left: Mio, Mugi, Yui and Azusa

Mio and Mugi are Mistress's possessions, while Yui and Azusa are property of Roar Roar sama.
Heard that they're on a mission to bring their friend (Ritsu) into custody!
Good luck girls!


Transitting at BKK for about 2 hours. Flight delay!
And its close to 12am, the other animals are nearing half dead. Age catching up.. *opps!*


Mistress not sleeping well.. sunrise isnt fascinating oso..


*click click click* Roof oso take..

After crossing the customs, and surprisingly we do not have to fill in forms that states alien registration number, and again, surprisingly faster than others with the color of the other animals' passports (me stowing away with the girls), we went searching for this ticketing counter to exchange for JR Pass so that we can take the 新幹線 to Tokyo station and to Kyoto!


Mugi,"Please stand in line and queue for your turn to exchange your JR passes~"


Freaking long queue that took us 30 min plus.


First meal in Japan for this trip.
800 yen train bento on Narita Express! Cold.
Wasn't bad but Mistress prefers her meals to be warm.. Favorite has got to be the oden compartment with the mushroom and carrot. Mistress is oden lover~


Seems like the girls love photoshooting too!


Roof of Kyoto Station

We reached Kyoto around 2. The 新幹線 was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop and the other animals were nodding off to make up for lost sleep.

Went in search for our hostel, Kyoto Tour Club, trudging the luggages across the pavements and roads.


Kyoto Tower


Kyoto Central Post Office


tomare. stop.

We took a wrong turn and ended up on the next street. So what was supposedly a 9 min walk became more of a 20 min walk till we asked a clinic nurse for directions and disturbed a street more of residents with the luggage wheels working their way across the asphalt.

We were early and couldn't do early check in. So the other animals deposited their huge ass luggages and proceeded off to explore the city!


Slipper for sale


An eatery along the way from the hostel to Kyoto Station that has nice decor on the outside which we never step into.


Gorilla at work


Mistress's favorite junction! For the criss-crossing of cables.


More cables


And MORE!


A cute letterbox just outside Kyoto Central Post Office entrance facing Kyoto Station.


The whole of Japan is on a 龍馬伝 frenzy with Sakamoto Ryoma inspired merchandises modelled after Fukuyama Masaharu invading the retail front.


The other animals were fascinated by this waffle shop in Kyoto Station.
Mistress aint too keen on it.


The platforms of Kyoto Station




Mistress will remember this picture forever.. Cos this is where.. SHE SPOILT HER DIANA MINI!!
*turn turn turn turn turn turn... PIAK!* ∑(O_O；)

Film advance not catching the film sprocks.
Mistress went to the hardware shop with the gorilla attendant later on and managed buy a screwdriver from the nice elderly couple who owns the shop with her limited Japanese. "Hohoho!" *Mistress gloating away*

But still, the Diana Mini remains a dead weight throughout the trip..


Fushimi Inari-taisha

Our first tourist spot for the trip, the Fushimi Inari-taisha which boasts of its thousands of torii gates. Memoirs of Geisha was filmed here and the one near Ueno park is just a branch shrine.




A small shrine along the way.






Emas


Emas in the shape of torii gates


The bells for sounding your wishes.






The start of the torii gates trail.


Split roads


Dates of the donations were carved onto the torii gates, with the donor's name on the other side.


Spectacular!


Eventually we still end up at the same place.. (=_=")


Temizuya


Kitsune Ema




Big torii gates, small torii gates..






Haha. Mistress is bored.. obviously..

Sky's turning dark at around 4pm and we've only covered one small portion of the grounds as per depicted by the map! For fear that we'll be stuck up there in total darkness (which is quite scary..), the bunch of us headed back to the entrance..

Next time.. next time..

A little building for selling of charms.


ALL sorts of charms available.
Nope, Mistress did not get any.. from here that is.


List of donors for the shrine I guess.


Lockers are readily available at most subway stations for a fee. Its very useful for more shoppings! HAHA!


Kyoto Tower at night.

Since it was still early (like 5 or 6pm?), we took a bus to Gion for a walk, hoping to spot Geishas. But well, Mistress is kinda blur to simply walk past the famous backlane without realising!


龍馬伝 gashapons




Delicious looking pans!




The streets of Gion.


Dangos!~
Grazed with whatever seasoning the customer wants and grilled before handing it to the customer.
Nice! Thou salty for our miso flavored one.


The building that is tilted.


Kamo River of Gion.

Headed back to our hostel which the other animals had lugged their huge ass luggages up 3 floors to the allocated room. Room's great, other than the steep flight of stairs which threatens to kill every second and probably the unstable wifi?