Day 8 ~ Back in Nagoya (Toyota Museum and Sakae)

 Today is our last full day in Japan.

Coming from Nagoya, we made a 3 day-side trip to Kyoto.  For our last day we made our way back to Nagoya as it is closer to Chubu Centrair International Airport, our departure airport back to Manila.

We left our Kyoto Hotel, "Cross Hotel Kyoto" early and took the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Nagayo (booked via Smart -Ex website). 

Check this link for Tips on discounted Shinkansen tickets ~ Nagoya-Kyoto-Nagoya via Shinkansen.

We arrived at 9am in Nagoya and decided to leave our luggage at our Nagoya hotel, "Ibis Styles Nagoya" before starting today's agenda.

But first, lunch.  Lunch was at the Restaurant Brick Age, connected to the Toyota Commemorative Museum building. We ordered the Chef's exclusive.

Welcome to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, the birthplace of Toyota Group. 

Here are some interesting facts about the Toyota company, one of the world's well known automobile brands:

• Toyota was originally known as Toyoda, which is the family name of the founder "Sakichi Toyoda".
• The company which started operations in the 1920s was into textiles. 
• Their first vehicle was made in 1937 and was meant for war purposes. It was only in 1947 that they started production of vehicles for civilians.

From Toyota Commemorative Museum, we made our way to Sakae since I wanted to see the Nagoya TV Tower and Oasis 21 (a three-dimensional park with glass roof that looks like a space craft). 

Our last night in Nagoya and look at what we found ~ Mister Donuts!   Hubby has a liking to the "pon de ring" that is bit hard to find in Manila.  So far, I have only seen it in Megamall and it is always sold out.

Hey that smile is priceless! Best way to end our Nagoya-Kyoto vacation!  

 

Planning a trip to Kyoto-Nagoya? Check the links below on tips and suggested itinerary:

Day 1 and 2 ~ Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 ~ Nagoya City Tour

Day 4 ~ Inuyama Day Tour

Day 5 ~ Off to Kyoto (Part 1)

Day 5 ~ Kiyomizu dera

Day 6 ~ Fushi Inari and Toei Studio Theme park

Day 7 ~ Arashiyama

BONUS: Samurai Wannabees in Kyoto

  

Our Samurai Kenbu Experience

This is a suggested experience for those who can't get enough of Japan's Samurai culture.   

I found this website online and figured my boys will love the experience of Samurais in training.  

Click here for the link to their website:  Samurai Kenbu website or Facebook page

I booked a 90-minutes, Sword and Kenbu experience which included:

• A crash course on the samurai and kenbu traditions
• Choice of a Samurai costume to put on 
• A practice session on the basic handling of a katana (the ones we used are for show only and not the real thing so basically safer than the real thing, but still deadly) 
• Certificate of participation

My boys expectedly loved the experience.  This activity is highly recommended for families with older children.  It gives participants a better appreciation of the Samurai culture and traditions.  

My boys, all so serious...They are killing the look!

Photo-ops with our Master Sword

Heavy sword lifting and choreography fighting stands, left us hungry.  Dinner was at Matsuya in Kyoto Sanjo. 

Day 7 ~ Arashiyama

Arashiyama is one of Kyoto's most visited attractions.  

We took Bus No. 63 from Kawaramachi Sanjo bus stop (located just outside of our Kyoto hotel) and alighted at Kokedera Suzumusidera bus stop. 

As expected, crowds of tourists and locals were already flocking the streets of Arashiyama.  We decided to head fast to the Bamboo Groove before the crowd starts pouring in some more.

The Bamboo Groove (aka., Sagano Bamboo forest) gives out a dreamy vibe, but the volume of visitors ruins the moment.  I would love to go back, with less tourists in sight to simply enjoy the moment.   

Despite the crowd, still all that green is such a pleasure to our eyes!

From the Bamboo Groove we made way to Tenryu-Ji Temple which was built in the 1300s.  The temple's status was elevated to a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.  

The temple looks out to a garden and a pond.  

We had lunch at one of the restaurants lining the main street of Arashiyama before heading to the Monkey Park to see some Japanese Macaques.   

Togetsu-kyo Bridge located in the center of Arashiyama.  It is a wooden bridge with 400 years of history behind it.  It crosses the Katsura River. 

We crossed the bridge and started our ascend to the Monkey Park.

Note: 

The entrance to the Monkey Park is near the bridge, but the ascend takes about 30-minutes and requires a bit of stamina and will power.  The way up is not for the faint of heart and I would not recommend for senior adults as the steps are steep and there are slippery portions without many railings to hold onto. 

Can you guess, which of my boys enjoyed this experience the most?

The workout going up was worth it.  Though I don't think I would want to walk up again anytime soon.

We went back to base (at the Cross Hotel in Kyoto) to relax and refresh a bit before heading out again to watch a theatre show, "GEAR".   It is a non-verbal show, so there were no issues not knowing how to speak Japanese.  The Gear theater is about 3 mins walk from our hotel.

We had dinner first, before heading to the Gear Theater.

For more of the show, check out Gear's website by clicking this link: Gear

After the show, we grabbed sweets, before heading back to our hotel.

This ends Day 7 of our Nagoya-Kyoto adventure.

Planning a trip to Kyoto-Nagoya? Check our Day 1 to 6  itinerary, links below:

Day 1 and 2 ~ Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 ~ Nagoya City Tour

Day 4 ~ Inuyama Day Tour

Day 5 ~ Off to Kyoto (Part 1)

Day 5 ~ Kiyomizu dera

Day 6 ~ Fushi Inari and Toei Studio Theme park

Day 6 ~ Fushi Inari & Toie Studio, Kyoto Japan

Today's itinerary is a quick trip to Fushi Inari and playing Samurais at Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

We were hoping for an early day's start.  The plan was to reach Fushi Inari early to beat the crowd. Well, that did not happen though. It was already so crowded when we got there, it wasn't really fun anymore.  

At Fushi Inari Shrine ~ there were so many people an ascend is unlikely. We managed to steal a few shots but decided to proceed to our next agenda soon after.

Toei Kyoto Studio Park is trip to Japan's Edo Era.  We have visited an Edo Period theme park during 2016 Nikko visit and my boys all had a blast!  So, I am pretty hyped for our today's agenda.

Here is the link to my blog on Edo Wonderland, if you are also interest in ~ Edo Wonderland Nikko.

Edo is the former name of Tokyo and the seat of power from 1603 to 1868.  To us Edo is the old mystical Japan ~ the world of Ninjas, Geishas and Samurai. 

Hubby and I went crazy over the variety of costumes choices and with an Edo town as a backdrop.  We were like children let loosed in Disneyland, but in character!

Honestly, this is the most fun we have had so far in Japan.  If you are planning to dress up in tradition Japanese attire, we highly recommend Toei Studio.

There were plenty of other things to do at Toie Studio.  While there try to catch the Ninja/Samurai Show and see the impressive collection of life-sized anime superheroes at Super Sentai x Kamen Rider Gallery.  There is something for everyone.

Ninja/Samurai Show

Super Sentai x Kamen Rider Gallery

Check the Toei Studio website here for theme park details: Toei Studio Themepark.

TIPS: 

• The park is easy to reach.  We took Bus No. 63 from Kawaramachi Sanjo bus stop (located just outside of our Kyoto hotel) and alighted at Uzumasa Eigamura Mae bus stop.  It is about a 40 mins ride by bus at Y230 each.     

• Drop by their souvenir shops. There are so many "kawaii" trinkets and even Kyoto sweets sold at competitive prices compared to those in Nagoya. Buy Yatsuhashi (sweets made of a sweet bean paste sandwiched in soft dough shaped into a triangle; they come in all sorts of flavors, such as green tea, chocolate, strawberry, banana, etc.).   Our personal favorite of course is the matcha favored ones.

• All the walking around the park will leave you hungry.  There are plenty of themed restaurants inside the park.  For lunch we opted for Chanbara Restaurant located at the Padios.

A quick stop at Kawaramachi Shopping Center

This is a gem, found many of this in Japan (this one located at Kawaramachi Shopping Center) ~ change your local bills into Yen.  

It is so easy to use and with English translation too.   We tried it on loose USD bills, rates comparable to ATM withdrawals and over the counter exchange transactions.

Planning a trip to Kyoto-Nagoya? Check our Day 1 to 5 itinerary, links below:

Day 1 and 2 ~ Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 ~ Nagoya City Tour

Day 4 ~ Inuyama Day Tour

Day 5 ~ Off to Kyoto (Part 1)

Day 5 ~ Kiyomizu dera

Day 5 ~ (Part 2) A Buddhist Temple and Matcha Overload

Off to our first destination in Kyoto, the Kiyomizu dera.

Kiyomizu dera is a Buddhist temple, known for its wooden stage overlooking a hillside. It offers panoramic view of beautiful Kyoto especially during clear weather.

It was not cherry blossom season when we visited, I bet the view would have been more spectacular.

There are plenty of kimono shops in the area, but there were too many people and we thought it would be difficult to get nice pictures with plenty of tourists as background.

There were plenty of traditional sweet shops, coffee and green tea houses along Shimizuzaka, San’nei saka and Ninenzaka. We ended in visiting some of them on our way back.  Note though, that the volume of tourist (local and international) was just overwhelming.

  

I think they call this "revenge travel".  

And that's a lot of people mingling about, bye-bye Covid! 

One of highlights of our trip to Japan... matcha binging. The trick here is to skip breakfast and do kilometers of walking... 

Traffic was terrible and so we ended up burning some of the calories we've consumed by just walking back to the hotel.  It was a leisurely 2km walk.  

We ended at the Kawaramachi Shopping Street, before finally heading back to the hotel for our much needed recharge.

If you missed the 1st half of our Day 1 in Kyoto, follow the link below

  Day 5 ~ Off to Kyoto

Please check also our Day 1 to Day 4 touring Nagoya Japan

Day 1 and 2 ~ Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 ~ Nagoya City Tour

Day 4 ~ Inuyama Day Tour

DAY 5 ~ OFF TO KYOTO

Kyoto, I would say is where you should go if you want to experience the "real" traditional Japan.

We took an early Shinkansen from Nagoya to Kyoto (Booked via Smart -Ex website). We wanted to reach Kyoto early to maximize our vacation.

   

Tip:  You can save a bit of cash by booking at least 2 weeks in advance and choose the Kodama trains (which offers discounted tickets by as much as Y500/pax on ordinary seats and Y2000/pax on green seats).  The Kodama trains have more stops, compared to the other trains, "Hikari and Nozomi (but only by about 20 minutes Nagoya-Kyoto route)".

Riding the Kodama Train 

 

From Kyoto Station, we used the Karasuma Line, alighted at Oike Station then transferred to Tozai Line going to Sanjo Keihan Station.  Cross Hotel our home in Kyoto is about 400 meters walk from the station.  It was a bit of walking, but this hotel is very convenient when taking the bus (which we will be using for the majority of our Kyoto adventure).   

This stream is just outside our hotel...

We love Cross Hotel Kyoto.  It is very near the Nishi Market for some serious shopping, Potoncho alley lined with restaurants and the beautiful Kamo river.

The peaceful Kamo River, you would want to jump in and wade through its clean-clean water. 

At Cross Hotel Kyoto's lobby-lounge, enjoying complimentary coffee while we rest our tired feet from the day's walk.

More of Kamo River... I can spend hours here just chillaxing and watching the birds while sipping some freshly brewed coffee.

 

 Part 1 of our Day 1 in Kyoto ends here.

Follow Part 2 ~ as we head to Kiyomizu-dera

and all things matcha (drinks, snacks and desserts).

If you missed our Day 1-4, check the links below:

Day 1 and 2 ~ Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 ~ Nagoya City Tour

Day 4 ~ Inuyama Day Tour

DAY 4 ~ INUYAMA

Have you heard of Inuyama?  

This city is very near Nagoya (a little under 35kms) is easily accessible via the Nagoya Meitetsu Train and thus a perfect for a quick day trip away from the busyness of the city.  

A DIY is not difficult to arrange ~ Meitetsu offers Special Ticket Discounts to Inuyama.  Meitetsu Nagayo Railroad webpage, even includes recommended itineraries and model courses.   

Check the link here: Meitetsu Special Ticket Discount.

We bought our special discount ticket from Meitetsu Nagoya Station Central Gate Ticket Window, one day before our scheduled trip.

We opted for the Inuyama Castle Town and Meiji Mura combo, which included:

>Hop-on hop-off Meitetsu train One-day ticket 

> Hop-on hop-off bus ticket between Inuyama station and Museum Meiji-mura 

> Museum Meiji-mura admission 

> Inuyama castle admission 

> Meitetsu discount coupons (usable in Inuyama Castle Town/Meiji Mura museum for discounts on food and souvenirs)

We left Nagoya City at 730am and arrived at Inuyama Station around 830am.  We stopped for breakfast at the Lotteria at the Inuyama Station.  It is like Japan's McDonald's.

Inuyama Castle (one of the last original castles in Japan, unscathed by the war or any natural disasters) and an open-air architectural theme park/museum called Meiji Mura.  

Inuyama Castle is about 1 km leisurely walk from the station.   And it was a good thing that we packed energy before beginning our ascend to the castle.

We passed by the Sankoinari Shrine on our way to the castle.  It is a mini version of Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine (more on that in my Kyoto blog).  It is less touristy here, which very good for thanking photos. 

The Inuyama Castle is said to be the oldest existing castle tower in Japan.  

It was a steep climb up to the top, but the view was all worth it. The tower overlooks the Kiso River. 

Watch this video link of the Inuyama Castle view from the balcony

Strolled a bit around the Inuyama Castle Town.  

And stopped by for sweets before heading to our next stop Meiji-mura. 

Meiji-mura is an open-air architectural museum. It is one of the largest theme parks in Japan at 100 hectares (Yes, we did a lot of walking!)

The museum showcases historic buildings from Japan's Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa periods.  The museum allows guests to experience life during the Meiji period (1868-1912). They have shops where you can rent Meiji period kimonos.  

It is amazing what they have done here at Meiji Mura.  There are so many historic buildings. We were really in awe, they managed to save so many. 

They currently have 67 buildings at Meiji Mura, 10 of which are designated "important cultural assets".  

Our mode of transport inside the Meiji Mura - bus (that circles the park).

We had a worthwhile time at Inuyama. If you have the luxury of time, I recommend at a day each at the Inuyama Town Castle, then another day at Meiji Mura for better appreciation.

We left Inuyama at around 4pm and arrived at Nagoya Station at around 530pm.  

Tonight's dinner is at Maruya Honten Meiekiten for some authentic charcoal grilled eel rice (another of Nagoya's pride cuisine).

Good night, Nagoya!   We are temporarily leaving Nagoya City, for the 2nd leg of our Japan holiday.  We are off to Kyoto tomorrow.

If you missed our Day 1, 2 and please clink the links below:

Day 1 & 2 - Nagoya, Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Day 3 - Nagoya City