Osaka-Kyoto Day 2: Hop-on Hop Off Heritage Tour

On day 2, we took the K’Loop – the tourist loop bus exploring Kyoto’s popular tourist destinations and heritage sites and visited the beautiful temples. The bus departed from Kyoto Station, Hachijyo Gate (South Main) at 9am. There is also an 8:30 and 9:30 am schedule. Check this link for the bus schedules and their stops.

From our airbnb room near Shichijo station, we walked for about 15-20 mins to Kyoto station, a good start of our day.

From Kyoto station, we looked for the K’Loop bus stop and hopped on the 9am schedule for our first stop, the Toji Temple.

Toji Temple is one of Kyoto’s many UNESCO World Heritage sites. There is a 500 yen admission fee to the temple but we didn’t go inside  The outside halls and surrounding were already a feast to our eyes…plus, we don’t want to miss our bus for our next stop (kurimaw move para sa mga nagtitipid).

We spent time taking pictures at the parking area!

After like how many years, we walked towards the temple building and explore the area.

We lost track of time and were running to our bus stop the next moment. Good thing we didn’t miss it so we were on our way to Nijo Castle just right on schedule. #achieve!

From the next bus stop, we were greeted by this gorgeous in white gate structure of the Nijo-jo compound.

Nijo-jo Castle is another UNESCO heritage site in Kyoto. It was built in the early 1600’s as the residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of Edo Period – according to my Japan travel guide. ❤ ❤ ❤

We spent a good few hours exploring the castle grounds. The castle is open from 8:45 to 5pm but only admits visitors until 4pm. Admission fee is 600 Yen.

We went for lunch at a small ramen house near Nijo castle and we’re off to Kinkakuji a little after 1pm.

Kinkaku-ji Temple is a Zen temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion and is the most beautiful temple sites I have seen so far. It’s probably the most famous as well because it was swarming with lots of tourists during our visit. I couldn’t even use my selfie skill to get a good picture of my self with the temple.

A few walks from the temple are some souvenir shops were I was told by one of the vendors to stop taking pictures of his goodies or charms and crystals ba yon, hehehe! *peace kuya***

So there, its obvious I didn’t have much pictures indeed – or I will just not post it here even I had snatched a few shots *peace ulit!***

We took our time in Kinkaku-ji and missed our bus to Ginkakuji and Heian Shrine. So we hopped on another bus going to Kyoto Imperial Palace instead. After our, pakikibaka with the bus and train though, we didn’t make it to the palace halls as it was already closed by the time we arrived…but of course, nothing can stop us because outside the palace grounds were beautiful colorful trees we cannot get enough of. We rested in the benches outside and took pictures instead.

from the Kyoto Imperial Palace, we went to Gion area to see Yasaka shrine but the traffic was so bad and our taxi meter was getting pricier by the minute that we got off and walked instead, hahaha!, We just passed by Yasaka shrine and walked a few hundred meters to Chion-in Temple to catch our K’loop bus going back to Kyoto station.

Day 2 – Itinerary

I would just like to share a very helpful link in this entire trip =)

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2158.html