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

  

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

Hotel Review: Osaka's Airport Hotel - Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport

It was an early morning flight out of Kansai to Manila for us; And the worrier Mama in me (too scared to be late for our flight), made me decide to book our last night in Osaka at the Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport. 

This hotel is a full service hotel, connected to Kansai Airport Terminal I.  It is near impossible to miss your flight from here (And if you are a sound sleeper, you can make use of a wake-up call just to make sure).  From Kansai Terminal I building take the lift to the 2nd floor and take Exit D or E.

Hotel Nikko will just be in front of you...

My boys kidding around (lol)

And directed to the hotel lobby on the ground floor.

Check in was easy.  

It took me only a minute or so and was immediately handed out our room keys.

Our room for our last night in Osaka is a Super Triple Room about 29sqm in size.

It fits three semi-double sized bed and comes with an air-humidifier and flat-screen TV.  There is also a complimentary WiFi, but I prefer using the one we rented via Klook, which was a lot faster than the hotel's.

Bathroom amenities were very good too...

The sachet facial wash and cleanser made their way to my hand carry bag.

Most of the available channels were in Japanese though, but that was fine since we were only there for the night and will be leaving early the next morning.  Besides, we were too exhausted from all the walking we did in Osaka (80+kms according to my eldest who was monitoring our walks) to even bother watch something on TV.

Look what's on TV... "Pokémon".

(Note: My eldest did a bit of Pokémon hunting in Osaka and was fairly happy with his catches).

After check-in, we toured the airport's department stores/outlets for last minute "budol" shopping.  However, I still ended buying most of my take home stuffs from inside the restricted area (after airport check-in).  I have compared prices and it most items sell cheaper inside.

Dinner was at  KYK Tonkatsu which was one of the best Tonkatsu I have tasted.   

Food is really so good, it deserves a separate write-up and a wonderful way to end our tour of Osaka's tasteful cuisine.

Breakfast which was part of our hotel package was at the Brasserie.   It was nice that breakfast was spread as early as 5am, giving us ample time to prepare for our 9am flight.

Breakfast was buffet-style and consists of Japanese and Western dishes using domestically produced ingredients.  Food is wonderful.  I love that everything is fresh and nicely prepared. 

We had awesome stay at Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport and could only wish for at least another day's stay. 

We will definitely miss Japan.
 
For booking inquiries, visit Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport website:
HOTEL NIKKO KANSAI AIRPORT


For travel tips, please check and follow our Osaka
and Tokyo adventure: 

>>>OSAKA JAPAN - SAYING HELLO TO TAKOYAKI
>>>TOKYO JAPAN - HELLO JAPAN