Fushimi Inari Taisha is a short walk from Inari Station, which itself is just a five-minute train ride from Kyoto Station.Started our day really early in the morning to avoid the crowd,we arrived as early as 8am at Fushimi Inari Taisha. The best times to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha is either first thing in the morning or late in the evening. One big downside to visiting in the morning is that you will miss the sunset over Kyoto.
The hiking trail starts with two dense rows of torii gates which at the end will lead to the same place. The first part of the trail is always very busy with tourists as that's where everyone tends to take pictures. We hiked up further to snap beautiful pictures without the crowd.
Famous for its thousands of bright-red vermilion torii gates, Fushimi Inari Taisha is the most important spiritual ground dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. The bright-red pigment, originally made from cinnabar or mercury sulfide, has been used since ancient times as a wood preservative was thought to ward off supernatural powers. The long tunnel is the main attraction here as it is super bright with the greenish background of the forest. And it's free admission! Who doesn't like free things..
We decided to have Japanese food for our lunch and Nishiki Market was the perfect choice. Nishiki Market is located at Teramachi Street where locals come to shop for clothes, accessories and house decorations. Cheap souvenir are here too. At least cheaper that other places in Kyoto. Nishiki Market is part of the street where more than 400 years old, Nishiki Market is one of the oldest and most popular food markets in Japan. The market has more than 100 stalls, selling delicious Japanese delicacies. Most sellers offer samples. From pickles, fruits to nuts and fish skewers, everything is simply delicious! Also known as “Kyoto’s kitchen”, Nishiki Market offers a wide variety of seafood, spices, vegetables, tofu, and cooked food. And we found white strawberry! OMG the taste was so good, the best strawberry on earth I guess. Other than the fish skewers, we had a superb takoyaki at the market too. Some of the stalls even display the Halal sign so that at least we were doubt free to try the street food.
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| Modern way of paying Takoyaki |
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| The entrance |
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| Super soft matcha ice cream |
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| One with the signage |
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| The legendary white strawberry of Kyoto |
Final agenda of the day was a visit to Nara Deer Park. What a scary park..The bowing deer were everywhere..tailing us for food even at the souvenir store, they will wait for you. For the animal lovers, of course this is enjoyable but not for me and Hafiey. We rather spend our time sitting on the concrete map table..unreachable by the scary deer.
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| My mini me |
Day 5 - The Majestic Mt Fuji
Saying good bye to Kyoto after we had a heavy breakfast at the homestay (of course nasi lemak!), we arrived at Shin Fuji station after 2 hours journey. We rented Sylphy and Serena to roam around Fuji and Kawaguchiko, the eastern side of Shizuoka Prefecture.
Our next lodging for 2 days was at Kawaguchiko Country Cottage Ban. This villa boasts spectacular panoramas of the enormous Mt Fuji and gorgeous Lake Kawaguchi from throughout the building. We could literally spend a few good hours just enjoying the majestic beauty of Mount Fuji from the balcony. The cottages are clean, spacious to accommodate all of us and fully equipped with kitchenette, laundry machine and extra futons/mattresses.
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| View from the balcony |
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| Beautifully build from pine wood |
We skipped the cable car as it was about to close. The children were quite disappointed as they thought it will be the same experience riding luge in New Zealand. Hahah
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| Riding the Pleasure Boat with Mt Fuji view at the back |
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| Cherry Blossom in Kawaguchiko |
Day 5 - Gotemba Premium Outlet-Tokyo
Saying goodbye to the beautiful cottage, we headed to Gotemba Premium Outlet for some shopping and left the town. The size of the outlet is maybe 7 times Johor Premium Outlet and we really need to plan what to buy or else we will not be able to arrive Tokyo by mid night.
We bought Dyson from the outlet and my husband carry that big long thingy in Deuter backpack throughout the journey from Shin Fuji to our next lodging in Tokyo nearby Mita Station and from Mita Station to the airport on our last day here...Haha..such a strong backpack indeed! Husband supposed to be strong rite..no need to give review ;)
Day 6 - Disneyland Day
The most awaited moment! We bought the ticket via klook. Left the accommodation very early in the morning to maximize our time at Disneyland. Nothing extra ordinary to brag about the accommodation anyway. Just normal apartment in the busy city. It is nearby Mita station in the google map but in reality the nearby exit doesnt provide lift or escalator. So its quite hassle for us with the bags, strollers and kids. Exit with lift and escalator was quite a walk from the apartment.
OK back to Disneyland! We were mesmerized with everything inside the theme park. Everything looks magical and the crowd was bearable. An extremely clean theme park and everything was well organized. Kudos Tokyo Disneyland! The only downside that I can think of is the talking machine for the characters were not talking in English. So yeah Starwars, Mike Wozowsky, Mickey Mouse sounded different as compared to the one in TV! Hahaha
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| Queuing time! |
Unlike the usual theme park where we can buy express lane ticket, Tokyo Disneyland doesn't offer such but they have a more fair traits that is called FastPass. A FastPass is similar to a reservation ticket which issued on the day of use for free at machines placed in front of attractions. With this ticket, we can get on rides with a much shorter wait. With FastPass, we have to arrive at the designated attraction during the time written on your ticket and we can enter the attraction without long wait. Sounds simple but it was quite challenging to meet the time printed on the ticket as every attraction will consume much time especially for queuing. And not all attractions offer FastPass. We had super long queue at the Mickey Mouse house!
Owh the park is extremely big that we need to rent a stroller for my 8 years old Kimi. Definitely more than 20,000 steps for just walking inside the park.
What to eat at Disneyland? You are allowed to re-enter the park in case you need to find food outside the park. To maximize our time inside the park, we ordered from Halal JAHA Bento delivery food and eat just outside the park. The bento comes with self heating element too!
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| Delivery menu |
We stayed in the park until night to enjoy the most impressive night parade ever in our life. We were at awe with all the Disney characters musical marching. So beautiful that all the leg pain gone for a while :D
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| Toy Story |
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| Cinderella |
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| Alice & The Cheshire Cat |
To be continued...
