Day 1 - Kyoto and I packed the wrong clothes
Thursday, 9 May 2024 22:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekStraight out of the airport and I headed to Kyoto. It was nice timing too. A word of advise for people going to Japan: this time, in Osaka Kansai International Airport (KIX) if you do the Visit Japan online immigration form/customs form declaration, then you can breeze past customs (sorry, immigration was still shit). While queuing at the immigration, I got annoyed at the lady in front of me (mainland Chinese) as she was crossing lines and coming back. When someone else dropped their boarding pass and fell near her, she took the boarding pass and wanted to keep it. I said "it's that lady's" in Mandarin, and she was in awe. Then she asked me what passport I had and I said Austria. And she was more in awe that I spoke Mandarin. Then she wanted to take a photo of the covers of her China passport and my Austrian passport. Figured it wouldn't hurt so let her do it. Anyway, once we got through... there's a new line for customs. If you just fill in the paper forms, then you have to queue a long long line to pass customs. I did the Visit Japan thing (generated a QR code) and I just had to check in on a computer terminal then I breezed out.
Just in time with 2 minutes to spare to get on the Limousine Bus direct to Kyoto. Yay. Got to my hotel and although check in time is normally 17.00 (and it was 15.00 when I got there), they said my room was clean already and I can check in early. Yay.
The yays though, stop here. I wanted to see wisteria, and after some research found out this temple had, but by the time I was there, the wisterias were gone. Oops!
I also underestimated the weather and only packed a vest type jacket but it's cold here, more so at night. (And a friend had complained about how hot Tokyo was last week, so I thought it'd be hot here too). Can't help it, I had to get to Uniqlo or somewhere to get a jacket. At Uniqlo, I almost got a hoodie, but after I looked well at the tag, it was an AIRSIM hoodie. Uniqlo's airsim technology is........ cool to touch and fresh. I'd freeze in that LOL. So I got a parka... I know this as a windbreaker. Just looked up what a parka is, and it says it's fur lined? This one I got definitely not fur lined.
Went hunting for dinner and decided to go to a fancy-shmansy looking sushi belt. It's all.... automatic!
My plan was to walk to a particular restaurant to make a reservation for the next day breakfast (breakfast is by reservation only). I checked on the website before and it said nothing... Well... The restaurant's regular day off is Tuesday, but this week, they had Wednesday off too, so I couldn't book. Then I saw a sign at the door and it says reservation has to be done by phone with a Japan number (WTF?) So i had to call the following day.
Feeling quite defeated, I wanted a pick-me-up and what better than to the Pokémon Center!
Ah. I want those plushies. But don't worry. I didn't.
After this, I made my way back to the hotel. I saw a Donki along the way near the hotel, so I went back to the hotel first to drop off my stuff and went out again to Donki.
The hotel stated themselves, the room is very small, so go down to the common room for reading and socializing. The room isn't really so small. Can easily sleep 2 but luggage definitely not enough, luggage just good for 1 piece.
Just in time with 2 minutes to spare to get on the Limousine Bus direct to Kyoto. Yay. Got to my hotel and although check in time is normally 17.00 (and it was 15.00 when I got there), they said my room was clean already and I can check in early. Yay.
The yays though, stop here. I wanted to see wisteria, and after some research found out this temple had, but by the time I was there, the wisterias were gone. Oops!
I also underestimated the weather and only packed a vest type jacket but it's cold here, more so at night. (And a friend had complained about how hot Tokyo was last week, so I thought it'd be hot here too). Can't help it, I had to get to Uniqlo or somewhere to get a jacket. At Uniqlo, I almost got a hoodie, but after I looked well at the tag, it was an AIRSIM hoodie. Uniqlo's airsim technology is........ cool to touch and fresh. I'd freeze in that LOL. So I got a parka... I know this as a windbreaker. Just looked up what a parka is, and it says it's fur lined? This one I got definitely not fur lined.
Went hunting for dinner and decided to go to a fancy-shmansy looking sushi belt. It's all.... automatic!
My plan was to walk to a particular restaurant to make a reservation for the next day breakfast (breakfast is by reservation only). I checked on the website before and it said nothing... Well... The restaurant's regular day off is Tuesday, but this week, they had Wednesday off too, so I couldn't book. Then I saw a sign at the door and it says reservation has to be done by phone with a Japan number (WTF?) So i had to call the following day.
Feeling quite defeated, I wanted a pick-me-up and what better than to the Pokémon Center!
Ah. I want those plushies. But don't worry. I didn't.
After this, I made my way back to the hotel. I saw a Donki along the way near the hotel, so I went back to the hotel first to drop off my stuff and went out again to Donki.
The hotel stated themselves, the room is very small, so go down to the common room for reading and socializing. The room isn't really so small. Can easily sleep 2 but luggage definitely not enough, luggage just good for 1 piece.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-09 14:26 (UTC)Only the hood is sometimes lined with fur or fake fur (more common these days).