Today is the last day in Takayama!i remember that we had to wake up super early and i was super drowsy. like today. was greeted by the hotel staff and soon, we headed back to the train station! oh yeah. i also did not have any appettite to eat...

weather was sunny!

well i gotta say we were very lucky as it has been raining and not to mention today we need to walk for 15mins to the train station without any umbrella.

took some last shots of takayama.....through my hotel window!

i nearly forgot there were 2 windows.

another shot of the hotel once more! that was all, we lugged all the luggage back to the train station. i took picture of some of the streets that we walked past!





and then, we reached the train station. but before we waited for the train, we went to the convenience store, the same Daily Yamazaki and ate our breakfast. had to force the cup noodles into my mouth, didn't feel like eating, so i quickly ate up all of them.


ok after that we wen to the train station.


strange huh the chair. apparently its not painful! but cleaning it would be tough huh.

my train!! as in thats the train that i took.....

During the train ride. took pictures as usual!



then, we took a transfer train over to Kyoto from Nagoya....




ok this was when we reached the Kyoto station, Kyoto was soo city like, very different from what my dad's colleagues said. its like opposite of traditional?

thats the Shinaksen train station....

then there is the normal kinda train station of which i did not take picture of.
anyway, i saw this sign that shows the criminal and is height, so you know the lifesize image on how he looks like..


finding the ryokan was tough. ryokan means traditional japanese kinda hotel. we walked like mad as dad kept reading the map wrongly, resulting in us walking too much and having to detour everytime.


anyway we finally made it to the ryokan it was soo much nearer than we thought. everyone was like so tired out from the travelling already.

apparently we asked for a three men bedroom, but the person said we had to take 5 men bedroom and mum was reluctant due to the high costs. he then later proposed to us to have 2 double bedrooms.

later on, he dropped the 4 person bedroom and i was like WTF is wrong with this person.

then, he proposed to us that we can find another hotel too. i was so keen in whacking him then.

after a long time of discussion and calculations, we finally chose the two double bedrooms that was definitely big enough for the whole family.

this is the view from the inside of my room! shared the room with my brother, just as always.

first impression i had of Kyoto people was that the people are unfriendly and proud. the ryokan was rather clean and comfy though. but what the use of having such good facilities when the service sucks?

PS found this on the wall.....

the third point has already been half slashed off man! geez can spend comportably.... that means that we can spend money comfortably? or spend time comportably.... haiz. gotta be more specific. heard that other tourists broke the table just by sitting on it.


later after settling down and not wanting to move our lazy asses, we decided to go for our dinner? or was it lunch. think it should be lunch ba. found a yoshinoya, ate there and ordered a big bowl of beef rice.



Mmm....love the food man! its so much better than the Yoshinoya here in Singapore. geez the service in Japan is so much better than Singapore too. if only singapore's yoshinoya served such good food....

the beef as usual, cooked to perfection! as in not too long till it becomes real hard and not too soft till its raw.

anyway we carried on the walk around the city centre where all the buzz was, it was super crowded and it was far, approximately 11 bus stop?
this is somewhere we alighted.... it was crowded, noisy, congested, worse than Orchard Road.

sry for the super blur picture, just took this at random, this shows how congested the roads are in the main shopping district!

we decided to shop along this row of shops, this is actually the alleyway in between buildings, just that they renovated it and added shops! this is a very common sight in the shopping district...

thats mum looking at all the small merchandises, its like those that are in the gachapon machine? just that they open them up and sell them individually, all nicely packed up per toy. mum always likes these stuffs.....

dad loves these stuffs! he like blew up 400 bucks on one pair of jeans! muhaha morse than me and my fetish for models!

guess what i spotted.....CHOCOLATE!!! SUPER YUMMY CHOCOLATE!!! *daydreams....


okok after seeing the chocolate, we headed back to hotel.... on the way back, i made a shocking discovery.... my dad wanted us to eat dinner!! AHHH!!! i was like full?

so we went to yoshinoya again and what'ya expect. i ate the same thing again.

thats the yoshinoya stall....

the menu~~!

and the food that arrived mind-blowingly fast. ok this what happened. i pressed da bell, so *ding dong actually its more of a *ding or was it a *dong? O.o forgot. anyway the waitress took my order via PDA and i whipped out my psp. i haven even on the psp and the food was coming!

The dad said NOT FILLING ENOUGH! i was like WTH!!!! eating like a pig..... so we went to the nearby supermarket.


cool huh. they have electronic price tags!

anyway back at the ryokan, i had a good spa, then bathed. next thing my mum knew, i was stuck, eyes glued to the computer screen. they had one there for ya.


a while later, actually a long while later, i went upstairs to my room and took picture of my new wristband!

ok it writes 'Jesus'. the reason why my parents straight away said a yes to this was not because they were super optimistic of my religion but was more of they couldnt stand it when every morning i whip out the black Zebra marker and start tattooing my had with the word 'jesus' surrounded by a fish. the tattoo is temporary and it covered my underhalf of the wrist. so that means everytime i hold onto a rod in a bus or train, ppl can see.

thats how we refill our water into the kettle....

see see see the hot water boiler actually uses gas!! so its like a stove. in a plastic container? O.o

anyway so far my impression of Kyoto is busy, noisy, smelly, metropolitan. the people: unfriendly. didnt have a good time there, not on my first day

Labels: 21 days, eighth day, Holiday 2008, Japan, Kyoto, takayama