Japan Trip 2017 : Part 6 (Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Shrine)

11:59:00 PM

Hey guys!

Okay so we are going on with the Japan Trip and in this post we actually moved to Kyoto already. Although 2017 felt like it was just yesterday and it fled at the speed of light, but this trip (which IS a year ago) feels like eons ago and i really can't remember that much about the details FML. Everything jumbled together in my tired mind, but i am going to try my best to re-tell the story, if not for anyone to read, for me to keep on remembering for years to come.

At the moment i am feeling a bit sad, i also can't remember but is January always like this? Everything is toned down, gloomy. It doesn't help that Surabaya keeps on raining non stop. I enjoy the cool, sweater weather, and i still love rain very very much - but when it's happening almost everyday for hours on end... It's bound to make people (especially the moody ones like me) feels a bit down. Everything is so slow, including business-and even though i am still super busy in the blogging/influncer life (so busy that i am currently down with multiple sickness. From a pretty bad bout of allergic reaction, followed by a nasty tummy infection and now, sore throat and chills - all within 3 days!), i just feel a bit down. I guess i am also very hormonal *LOL*.

So seriously, i need another adventure. I need to feel alive. That means i need a purpose, a goal. And for me... Well, that means another place, another country to conquer. I hope we will secure our tickets for our next trip soon, that'd definitely make me feel better!

Anyway, enough ramblings already, let's begin the actual post!

We get to Fushimi Inari Taisha very late and by the time we get there, the sun was already setting T.T. When we reached the endless torii, it was almost pitch dark and this is the best pic i could get T.T very dark and blurry but the others are worse :(

Like i mentioned earlier, i really can't remember the timeline of our stay-and this might not be important for the readers, but it's really driving me crazy grrrr.

If my memories serves me right, we actuallly arrived in Kyoto from Osaka in the afternoon and i immediately fell in LOVEEEE with Kyoto. I am not a big city girl (eh, Surabaya is a big city, but it's very homey and the people are very laid back. We're very different from Jakarta people and i guess that's the characteristic of cities that i love, i like big, modern but not super metropolitan cities. Tokyo and Osaka are fine, but i LOVE Tokyo. In South Korea i love Busan but i have no interest in Seoul), i prefer quieter, friendlier cities and Kyoto is definitely that! Its buildings are also significantly different looking to the ones in Tokyo and Osaka, there's a strong European feels to it and i love love that!

Seriously, i am not exaggerating. When we arrived, we immediately went to our hostel (which i am pretty sure is called Piece Hostel *now i am sure because there's actually the name written in my photos below that i just realized hahahaha*, it's one of the high end style hostel so don't expect it to be cheap haha. We stayed in two bunk bedded rooms and it's pretty nice) to check in. The weather was cold but but warm enough for me to sit outside without my jacket and i felt so content (i do remember this feeling so strongly, i often feel this way when i travel in winter ahahaha). I just sat outside, drinking coffee and soaked in the environment... Until CL suddenly came out and disrupt my short opportunity for photo shoot!

So we decided to capture the moment

LOL. Summed up our relationship perfectly

Since i found a few (random) pics we took in Piece Hostel, lemme talk a bit about the place.

The dining room. It's the most active dining room in any hostel we've stayed in so far, this is taken during the day so it was very quiet and empty-but in the evening or morning, it'd be bustling with activities. We often have to share (the long) tables with strangers and that's probably very exciting if we were younger *LOL*

I can't remember if this was taken during breakfast or just during the day... I'm guessing breakfast because there's that boiled egg.

Potato Salad. And those are (plus bread, i think) all that's available breakfasts, the norm, in Japanese hostels. You can always cook your own food in the communal kitchen tho

You also have to wash your own dishes after using them. This was defo taken after breakfast and you can see how busy the place was!

LOL! That's KC brushing his teeth in the communal sink, there are rows of them in each floor so you never have to really queue up or anything

Piece Hostel is quite nice, the rooms are cozy and clean. Everything is pretty good except for the fact that the toilet is located pretty far from our rooms and it's not heated! So... I had to shiver and run like a crazy person in and out of the bathroom, and i have to pee constantly! They quite a large number of shower rooms but it's located in the basement, so it's a bit of a hassle because you need to lug all of your bathing stuffs there. That's probably my only gripe about staying in a hostel.... Everything else is not a problem.

After we checked in and left our luggage, we explored the neighborhood. It feels a bit like an artisan alley and there are a lot of cute little cafe and stores (we did a bit of shopping at a charming little honey store very close to our hostel) littering the street. There are also museums, sadly we had no time to visit them tho.

We did visited a Tin Tin store which is located in the second floor of a very vintage looking building (the first floor held an eerie Japanese doll store)

I honestly didn't know that Tin Tin has his own stores

Kids, please don't copy their behaviors *LOL*

Just Because hahaha

Now, this is where the timeline started to blur in my brain.... Did we go to Fushimi Inari on the same day? Or was it the next day? I'm pretty sure it's the same day tho because... Well, because we wouldn't arrive so late in the day if we went another day, rite?

Selfie at Fushimi Inari Taisha

You can see how it's already getting dark

Like i said many many times throughout my posts, kiasu Chinese and temples water...

Down the alley that way leads to many many street food stalls, some with handsome Japanese guys as the keeper *teehee*

Since Fushimi Inari regards kitsune (foxes) as messengers, other than darumas, there are a LOT of kitsune souvenirs. I have a special attachment to vixens because that's my nickname in uni (which i didn't know if i should be flattered or insulted by), i bought a kawaii kitsune winter hat. I have no idea where that hat is now @_@

There were a lot of ladies wearing kimonos (mostly tourists, ofc) there, we also rented kimonos but we wore them to another temple the next day

As you can see, it's still very busy although it was getting really late

I really love looking at these prayers papers, like... You know you're in Japan when you see it :))

HRO (I honestly can't even remember the initials i gave him already) made us a bit embarrassed when he stopped a few girls in a kimono and asked them to take photos with him :))))

The only family photo we managed to get in Fushimi Inari and Little O looked like an unkempt thug *sigh*

The famous torii, there were endless of them really!

It was getting really really dark, and the further in we went, the quieter it gets

It also gets super woodsy and since it's so dark there's nothing much to see anymore so we decided to head back

I think we were talking about how eerie the place was after dark and apparently it's pretty well known for supernatural related stories... I wasn't sure i remember that correct so i googled it and yeah, there seem to be quite a lot of creepy stories circulating that takes place in this shrine (i guess that can be said in many shrine or or other spiritual places too tho)

I think... this is the Kodama lake? Even more scary stories evolving this location btw hahahha

As it was getting late, we head back to the entrance... Ended up snacking a few things from the food stalls outside (ofc) and... Can't remember what we had for dinner tho. That's basically it of our day in Kyoto, but before i wrap up this blog post, i have just two more photos that are not really related to this post :p.

This is taken... I think it was in Osaka. So we went to this mall twice (yes, it's nearby the Osaka station. I am pretty sure that's correct) for food, and the second time we were there (i feel like i already told this story.... But i can't find it in previous post so maybe i told it to my friends in real life and not in this blog yet), we kinda split up. I followed CL downstairs and i left Little O with hunny and KC... only that they also thought that Little O came with me. When we were reunited, only minutes away, we immediately realized that he was not with either of us. Imagine how panicked i was (FYI, when i panic, i don't really go drama or whatever, most of the time i would get really quiet and shut down). I ran upstairs and searched the whole floor where we just had dinner at. Fortunately not long after, we got a call from KC that told us that Little O was actually with HRO -____-. He didn't tell anyone that he went with HRO to the toy section, hence the panic!

KC sent this photo :

The kidnapper

LOL. That's one incident that i am not going to forget for sure!

And remember in the previous post i told ya about us recording the mannequin challenge in Osaka? Well.

We also did this -____-

I seriously have no idea what's wrong with us, but all i know that most of our time together, we spent laughing together. And isn't it what's the perfect trip is like? Despite all the falling sick, losing all kinds of expensive belonging shit.

Well, that's it for now. I'm wearing Kimono in the next post and i felt feminine AF :p.

#Pink