Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
Jackson and Abigail's 10 Fun Facts. Today, all about Kyoto!
61. Kyoto was the capital of Japan after Nara, up until 1868. It is known as the thousand year capital.
62. Kyoto was chosen as the capital for its safety. It is too far inland for typhoons, not prone to earthquakes and surrounded by mountains on three sides.
63. Kyoto means capital.
64. There are over 2,000 historic temples in Kyoto.
65. There are 17 world heritage properties in Kyoto.
66. Kyoto is home to a castle and three palaces.
67. There are more than 30 universities and colleges, including the number 2 university in Japan: Kyoto University.
68. Kyoto was the largest city in Japan for many centuries and with half a million residents by the 16th century, one of the largest in the world.
69. Over 50 million tourists visit Kyoto each year.
70. The current population of Kyoto is just under 1.5 million people.
Another grey and rainy day greeted us this morning from the comfort of our curtained bunk beds. Each bed has its own curtains so you have complete privacy and darkness no matter what your roommates are doing.
It was decided today would be a museum day with many great options to chooose from. We all voted for the Kyoto Railway Museum as our first preference. We had to take a couple of buses to get there. Our tour guide (Dad) had a few navigational issues this morning resulting in a slight delay in determining the correct second bus to reach our destination. (Remember Mum and Dad still rely on old fashioned maps when we are travelling as we have no local phone or Internet access outside of WiFi). A delay in the rain is always fun!! We eventually worked it out and met a couple of families from the UK who were also heading to the same museum. We were all very disappointed to learn that the Kyoto Railway Museum was closed on Wednesday, as was the Manga (cartoon) Museum. The Kyoto Aquarium wasn't far away so we continued on walking in the rain to it. Thankfully, we had borrowed umbrellas from our guest house.
The Kyoto Aquarium is relatively small compared to some of Japan's larger and more famous aquariums. Our Hong Kong host said that on the plus side, the crowds are smaller, and they have a dolphin and seal show. We were impressed by all of the exhibits, the feeding information sessions and the seal and dolphin show. The staff have personal names for every single animal in the aquarium that they feed by hand. When feeding the penguins, the two staff feeding them were calling out their names to the other two staff who were recording how many fish each penguin ate.
(This in itself was quite the performance).
For the large main tank, the staff member first explained what he was going to do and what the reactions of each of the sea animals would be (or not be, if the sea creature wasn't hungry). He then donned his wetsuit and scuba gear and entered the tank to feed the fish and rays. We have to add that this explanation was all in Japanese. Despite not having used his Japanese for 22 years Dad's ability to speak and read Japanese was handy (Although sometimes he just sends Mum to ask any questions/requests in English as he thinks she will get a better response.) We digress, back to the aquarium, we were next impressed with the team presenting the seal show as they were in wetsuits and went in the water with the seals for some of the show. It was all very personal.
We did panic slightly when we were ready to depart the aquarium as our umbrellas had disappeared. Rather than carry our umbrellas around the aquarium, we decided to bag them in the umbrella bags provided and group them together against the wall at the back of the stroller parking area as some other people had done.
Dad had questioned whether we should do this, but as others were we did. When we discovered that the umbrellas were gone, Dad went back inside and said they had disappeared. The staff member asked us to describe them and then went out back and retrieved them. She then proceeded to scold Dad on leaving our umbrellas in the strolling parking area!!! Despite our reprimand, we highly recommend the Kyoto Aquarium. Abigail declared that every single part of the aquarium was her favourite!
It was raining only lightly when we left the aquarium, so Mum and Dad said we could experience more of Kyoto by walking back to Kyoto Station. We weaved our way through the side streets. Many of the old houses had some very nice cars in their driveway. We figured it was an affluent part of town.
The rain continued into the night. We still decided to head to Nijo Castle's Night Cherry Blossom Illumination. Even in the light rain, this is a spectacular event at this world heritage site. Every evening that the cherry blossoms are in bloom, they illuminate the 400 odd cherry blossom trees (of which there are 50 varieties) at the castle. In addition, they had 3D projection mapping shows. The projection mapping on the castle gate and walls was marvellous and had us spellbound. Photos really can't portray the beauty of the castle and illuminated gardens at night.
We all enjoyed our Japanese curry house dinner that night too!
2025-05-22