We spent a very quiet night at Zofukuin temple and woke up to join the morning pray around 7am. We could observe our hosts when running their pray.
At 7:30am the monks invited us to join the breakfast. It was again a very traditional - vegetarian-only meal with rice, tofu, green beans and miso soup.
Bon appetit!
Not bad but just a bit unusual for a breakfast!
After that we headed to the second most-famous attraction in East Koya-san, Okunoin cemetery, which is the largest and probably the most beautiful cemetery in Japan. Lit by thousands of lanterns, Oku-no-in is the mausoleum of the monk that founded the complex. According to tradition, the lights have been burning constantly since his death more than 1,000 years ago. If you go to Koya-san, this is an absolute must-do. This is probably the most beautiful and peaceful cemetery I ever seen! Note that the pathway is quite long and you can easily spend 2-3h there!
Towards mid-day we collected our luggage and took a bus from central Koyasan to the cable car station, then took the funicular to Gokurakubashi (5min, price included into the Kansai Thru Pass), took a train to Osaka (Namba Station) and then another one to Kyoto. This took us a good 3-4 hours to get to Kyoto in total, with a lunch break in one of the ramen place inside Namba Station. We got to Kyoto (Sanjo Station via Nankai line) around 5-6pm and checked-in in our hotel - our luggage transferred from Osaka were waiting for us already (this service is so convenient!). It was the final day (day 3) of our Kansai Thru Pass (also highly recommend if you wish to travel within Kansai - no need to use any JR pass on those regional trips...).
We stayed at Hotel Resol Kyoto Kawaramachi Sanjo - for 4 nights in total. This hotel was an excellent location, located in Dowtown Kyoto, between Sanjo station (Nankai line) and the big commercial street Kawaramachi-dori. This was a very short walk to the famous Ponto-cho (the famous little street with all the restaurants). The hotel itself was very modern and minimalist (so very small rooms - like everywhere almost in Japan!) but clean and functional. So we were happy about our choice!
View from the bridge Shijo-Ohashi (back of the Ponto-cho street)
We decided to explore the surroundings and went for a walk on Shijo-dori (towards the East part of it) up to the start of the park Maruyama-koen (big gate at the entrance). This is a very commercial street with a lot of nice little boutiques. Great if you have a few gifts to buy!
We also had our first walk through the famous Ponto-Cho (see above) which is very typical and gets full of tourists around dinner time.
Then, for our first night in Kyoto, we went for a traditional sushi restaurant called Kinbe (〒604-8034 Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi), very close to Kawaramachi-dori street. This was not cheap but all customers were sitting around the circular counter and could observe the very serious and traditional preparation of the fresh sushis. It was excellent and very typical and they serve you your sushis directly on the wood board on the counter.
After dinner, we decided to walk "blindly" through the streets and we randomly discovered this slightly hidden (as in the first or second floor) super fun Mario bar called "cool all-you-can-eat snack Bar A-55." (258-23 Yamazakicho | 2f, Nakagyo) - this is one of the perpendicular street to Kawaramachi-dori street on the way to the little canal. For around 7-8 pounds for an hour, you get a free alcohol drink (it could be a basic cocktail of your choice), free unlimited access to the Japanese candies and ice-cream bar (see below) and last but not least the chance to play Mario Kart or other sorts of Mario-suite games in all the Nintendo consoles (from the old classic nintendo from the early 90s to the super nintendo, Game Cube and Wii). They even have a private room to welcome private events! Toilet is covered of 'Where's Wally?' posters. It was a lot of fun!
Unlimited (Japanese) candies and ice-cream!
After a last tour by night across Ponto-Cho, we headed back to the hotel.
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