kyoto Japan Walking Night Tour

Long walk from hotel to meet our English speaking tour guide of the Gion District at night. On the way to meet our guide, we stopped and shopped and bought a few souvenirs in the historic district of Gion.

 

Marlon took us to the Nishiki Market before finding our way to the walking tour.  Nishiki Market was a narrow covered street about 5 blocks longs.  The shopping street was lined with one hundred shops and restaurants. This place is known as "Kyoto's Kitchen".  We didn't find much we wanted to eat.  In fact we lost our appetite.

We are early for our tour so Mary and I got some ice cream and sat and ate it before the Gion Night Tour.  They made the ice cream to order with their special machine.  They took a pod from the freezer and placed it in the machine.  Pushed a button and out came ice cream you ordered (soft serve cones).  An ice cream keurig!

  Unique flavors....... black vanilla, black vanilla bean, soy and black sesame.  Mary and I really enjoyed the ice cream. 

We were to meet our tour guide here at this river.  We are all excited about the night time tour of Gion District.

 

Our tour guide has arrived :-) 

Yasaka Shrine was built to honor Susanoo-no-Mikoto, a Japanese god who defeated an eight-headed serpent and saved the citizens of Kyoto from many disasters

Yasaka Main Hall

The view looking out from the entrance to the Yasaka Shrine was absolutely breath taking.  Totally am loving this night tour of Kyoto.

View of Gion District from Shrine
Our guide took us to a store that had souvenirs and a float that is carried in the Gion Matusuri.The Festival Floats of Gion Matsuri has many beautiful floats.  All of them are decorated with beautiful tapestries from Nishijin and from all over the world.

We also visited a store where they made various candies. 

The founding of the Minamiza Theater goes all the way back to the beginning of the Edo Period (1596-1615). It is said that Izumo no Okuni performed 'kabuki odori' ('kabuki dances') in Kyoto in 1603.  The dry bed of the Kamo River developed as a 'Theater town' filled with the bustle and excitement of the people. The Minamiza Theater started around this time, and has stood at this place for over 400 years always remaining at the center of entertainment, including kabuki.

Gion area Geisha District 

This is the old part of Kyoto.  They are not so loud and flamboyant as in Tokyo.  The shops had small signs, no bright neon.  They speak a little more quietly.

We had an amazing tour guide that knew his history of Kyoto and spoke perfect English.

 

The streets were lined with old wooden buildings that have been there for hundreds of years.

  Born in 1572, Izumo no Okuni  is the originator of kabuki theater. She was miko at the Grand Shrine of Izumo who began performing this new style of dancing, singing and acting at the dry riverbeds of Kyoto. Kabuki is now mostly performed by men.

We were tired from all the walking and decided we were going to get a taxi to get us back to our hotel.  I can't believe it but we actually were able to communicate enough and was taken directly to our hotel.

The Kyoto Tower is located by our hotel its a beautiful site especially at night.

Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Tower is an observation tower located in Kyoto, Japan. The steel tower is the tallest structure in Kyoto with its observation deck at 100 meters and its spire at 131 meters. The 800-ton tower stands atop a 9-story building, which houses a 3-star hotel and several stores. The entire complex stands opposite Kyōto Station

Kyoto Arrival- Mount Fuji-Bullet Train-Gion District

Jr Train Station to get 3 bullet train tickets to Kyoto.  We are all so excited to start another adventure.

Here comes the  Shinkansen for our connecting trains to Tokyo.  20 min to find the next train, we found the correct train with 5 minutes left.   Boarded bullet train heading to Kyoto.  The train ride will be 2 hours long.

 

 On the train, a lady was pushing a cart filled with snacks.  We each purchased some Star Chips and water.

I didn't realize why the products had a picture of Fuji on them, until we looked out the window and what to our surprise would appear?  Mount Fuji!!  We were all awestruck with the sight.

Mount Fuji was so beautiful!!

 

We have reached our hotel after walking around the block when, it was just across the street.  Such fun dragging our luggage all that way to end up where we started. 

We have arrived at our hotel and it is beautiful. We checked in and left our luggage until we can get into our room at 3pm.  The current time is 12:00.

After checking in we walked around the area to find where we were meeting a travel guide for our bus tour the next morning.

Back to the hotel to finish checking in and get our room keys.  We must wait till 3 pm exactly.  Not a second early.   Mary suggested we get drinks while we wait.  They put us in a private room, we don’t know why?  Maybe they thought we would get loud?  

 Our luggage was already in the room so all we had to do was go check out our room before heading to the location for our Gion Night Tour. 

Marlon & Mary ringing the bell for good luck