Kansai- Kyoto

I had made adjustment of our original plan as the railway museum was closed on Wednesday. We were forced to switch our plan and headed to Kiyomizu-dera and railway museum on D1. We had heated our breakfast and left the apartment early. We took a small hike and reached the temple by 10:30am. It was a tiresome hike and we had tried out some macha food and drink on the way down. It was a tiresome hike as the weather was hot during our climb. We headed back to Kyoto station and have our lunch at Toyoutei hoten. Outlet of one of the oldest western food joint in Kansai area which had opened since 1897; Toyoutei was famous for its curry and hamburger steak. Both are my favorite and we had a good meal before we headed to the railway museum.  

The railway museum was fascinating; there were so many engines being exhibited. There was this simulator room but we had to give it a pass as everything was in Japanese. It was not a usual tourist spot for foreigner, most of the visitor there was locals….

We headed back to the Kyoto station and had a tour around the shopping lot. We had a late dinner at one of the rotational sushi outlet around the station. The day ended after scouting around at the BIG CAMERA shop nearby. Xian was disappointed as we did find a load of Amiibo in the shop like we did last year.

As usual we picked up a load of foods from the local convenient store for breakfast tomorrow. We bought rice, sweat sour pork, fried noodle and much more…Canned coffee was one of my favorite and Xian was keen to try them out on this trip; I ended up buying quite a few on our way back.

We pushed out early as usual after our microwaved breakfast in the apartment. I had picked railway as our mean of transport and It was a wrong move; long walk from the train station to the entrance of the Nijo Castle. It was a must see for me as we had missed the Osaka castle during our last trip. It was like walking into a movie scene during our walk in the castle.
We had some snack at the canteen and later proceeded back to Kyoto station for some takeaway food at the supermarket before we headed to Kyoto museum.

Kyoto museum was a boring one but we were able see lots of common staff that was originated from china. Our dinner was pre-booked months before our trip. I had ever wanted to eat some good Japanese beef during our trip and I found this Yakiniku shop around Kyoto station. They had a website and I was able to pre-booked it online.

The Wagyu was off limit to Taiwan for a long time due to mad cow disease. Later its import permit was reinstated and 1/5 of Wagyu export was exported to Taiwan. An expansive dinner but the taste was beyond described.

We retreated back to our apartment early and prepared our trip back to Osaka for the USJ trip.

Typhoon Cimaron had speeded up since our arrival and I was pretty sure that it would pass Kansai the night before our USJ trip and I was confident that our return flight would not be cancelled. However the most worrying part was not the wind but the rain. Raining after typhoon was the most irritating part as it might be more destructive than the typhoon itself. We might still have the chance of being stranded in the hotel because of the rain.

The 2 days Kyoto tour was a smooth one, we had used train, bus and our legs to wander around. We had been to special place and broaden our view. The next part of our journey was filled with uncertainty initially and I thank the great one of letting us to travel so far.