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 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 ~ Hotel Keihan Universal City

Hotel Keihan Universal City is one of the 6 Official Hotels of Universal Studio Japan (USJ).

We have decided to stay here for a night on the day of our USJ visit. I figured we would be too tired after touring the park and staying at a nearby hotel would be convenient.

I booked Hotel Keihan Universal City via Agoda, I scored a good deal as there was an ongoing promo at time of my booking.

We love staying at Official Theme Park hotels, the nearness and convenience is worth the extra bucks.  Hotel Keihan Universal City is located at the Universal Studio Walk and is literally just a few steps away USJ's main gate.  


(See here our USJ escapade: UNIVERSAL STUDIO JAPAN)


Hotel Keihan is a Hollywood-Cinema themed hotel. 

The check-in counter resembled a movie ticketing box (cool!).

The check-in was fast and easy, we were in-and-out the hotel lobby in 5 minutes (We just dropped our luggage and headed to USJ). 

We left our luggage here.

When we got back from our day frolicking at USJ, we only needed to claim our room keys. Our luggage were already sent up to our room.

Even the hotel's carpet screams movies night ...

We reserved a Standard Quadruple Room. 
They've set up 4 single beds for us, which made the 35sqm room a bit crowded.  It was fine though as we loved the extra bed space after hours walking and running about in the park. 

There was a 37 inches Plasma TV showing Universal Movies.

I love Japanese toilets (so hi-tech!)

For added comfort they also provided us with pajamas and slippers.

Breakfast was at the World World Buffet the following morning.  There were a lot a guests at that time and some had to be re-directed to a makeshift dinning area (us included). 

We had an option to wait for a better sitting area, but since our time is more important,  we were fine at the make-shift area.  They were serving the same menu anyway so that should be fine.

Food was good, but nothing special, although I had repeat servings of their pastries.
I would recommend checking other dining options at the Universal City Walk (just outside the hotel).

If you are looking for a hotel with easy access to USJ, then incude Hotel Keihan in your list:

Perfect location, clean hotel and efficient personnel.

For additional information about Hotel Keihan Universal City, please check out their webpage

HOTEL KEIHAN UNIVERSAL CITY  

Address: 6-2-78, Shimaya, Konohana-ku, 554-8585 Osaka - Japan

Phone: 81-6-6465-0321 Fax 81-6-6465-0987         

Email: info-city@hotelkeihan.co.jp

DAY 6 ~ Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

Kaiyukan is one of Japan’s most spectacular aquariums, world-renowned for its innovative presentation of aquatic animals in large tanks recreated natural environment, such as:

• Japan Forest
• Aleutian Island
• Monterey Bay
• Gulf of Panama
• Ecuador Rain Forest
• Antartica
• Tasman Sea
• Great barrier reef
• Pacific Ocean
• Seto Inland Sea
• Coast of Chile
• Cook Straight
• Icy, snow-clad Antarctica.

Easiest way from USJ going to Kaiyukan is via the shuttle ferry Captain Line. The Captain Line dock at the Universal City Port is about 5 minutes walk from USJ.  Travel time from the Universal City Port to Kaiyukan would take another 10 minutes. 

Mandatory pictorial with Kaiyukan's Giant Ferris Wheel

The long line of tourists queuing for Kaiyukan Entrance Tickets... so glad we bought ours at Captain Line boarding gates.

My youngest went wild talking photos and videos of the aquatic animals inside the park.  He was amazed to see different extrinsic animals. This place is on top of my family's list in Osaka.

Here are some of the videos we took at Kaiyukan:

TIP: If you are coming from USJ, get the "Kaiyukan and Captain Line Economical Package" and save about Y300 on ticket prices.  Also the ticket lines at the Kaiyukan gets pretty long and you would be happy to skip the ticket box queue.

For more information about Kaiyukan Osaka Aquarium please visit their website at

>>>>KAIYUKAN - OSAKA AQUARIUM

Kindly follow the link below for more Osaka Japan travel tips

>>>>> Osaka Japan 2017