Osaka and Kyoto

12-Day Southeast Asia Cruise on Diamond Princess December 7~19, 2018

Day 3 - Osaka, Japan (9:00 AM~10:00 PM)

We have a long day in port today. That's good for us because we planned taking the long drive to Kyoto and Nara from the port of Osaka hiring a private driver for the day. Eight other cruisecritic members will join the four of us on this adventure that SC had arranged. Having been here two weeks ago mainly doing Osaka downtown, I did not mind going off to Kyoto and Nara on this trip.

With a later in port time, we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the main dining room.

Breakfast menu in the main dining room which is the same everyday.

My order of Frittata Con Funghi, an open-face omelette with mushrooms.

It was OK.

Ship sailing into Osaka port.

There, the Tempozan Pier of Osaka. Seems like there's a ferris wheel at every port that we have traveled lately.

We went out to the port gate together to meet our driver but waited anxiously for over 30 minutes because he was no where to be found. He finally showed up and said he was there since 9:30. Oh well, we have looked everywhere and there was no sight of him or the van. Apparently there was a communication gap between the tour agency and the driver who got the phone numbers of the guests mixed up. Fortunately, we did not lose too much time. He ended up being a very good driver and flexible in working with our schedule.

A big van for twelve passengers.

Saga Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

Arriving at the Arasiyame area of Kyoto.

It was very busy on the Togetsu-kyo Bridge as people were crowding the temples on the other side of the river.

Very colorful maple leaves near the Katsura River.

We stopped here for a bathroom break.

The public toilet is across from this Saga Arashiyama Museum.

A restaurant nearby with traditional architecture.

This must be the downtown area of Saga Arashiyama. 

Passing by the train station of Arasiyama...

to the Bamboo Grove.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

After the Bamboo Grove, we were taken to the top destination in Kyoto-the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. We have been here before and this time around I found it disappointing because the main temple was under reconstruction and covered with scaffolding making it much less attractive. I did not even want to get inside the temple with such unappealing sight. 

The busy street leading up to the temple, Sannenzaka Ninenzaka. 

There were many tourists dressed up in rental kimonos having their photos taken at this scenic spot.

Main entrance to the temple. A hike up.

Main temple under reconstruction.

A good view of the city.

Pretty bright orange-red building.

Coming back down to the main street (Matsubara Dori) where we found a restaurant that was able to serve us a quick lunch of udon. We were in a hurry to get back at our gathering time.

I believe this small restaurant on the 2nd floor of a souvenir shop is called Oshido.

Nothing special but something hot for a wintry day for 740 yen.

Fortunately, we made it back on time.

Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine

We drove a little south in town to the Fushimi area where we could see that people were everywhere even out on the streets near the temple. Our driver knew his way around and found a good parking space for us to take a short walk to the temple.

I took this photo just so I know where to turn to find our van at this street corner.

There is also a busy street with many vendors selling local foods and souvenirs before reaching the temple gate.

This is a Shinto shrine for Inari, the God of Rice famous for the thousands of torii gates. 

Foxes are believed as Inari's messengers so there are quite a few statues of foxes across the shrine grounds.

Entrance to the torii gates trail. We did not want to take the hike and that was where we stopped just for a couple of photos.

Senbon Torii

Each of these torii was donated by Japanese business because Inari is also patron of business.

The main gate Okumiya

Kaguraden

The Haiden

Gonden

Tying of prayer requests

By the time we got out of the shrine and back to our van it was getting late in the day and everybody agreed that we should not take the long drive to Nara to see the deer. Some wanted to get back to the ship in time for the Hannukka celebration. Others wanted to go to Osaka Castle so we left Kyoto and headed back to Osaka.

Osaka Castle

I have been to Osaka Castle a few times and dreaded the walk up so I decided not to take the hike up to the castle. With several people in our group with mobility issues,  none of us wanted the hike so we just found a spot where we were able to take some good photos of the castle from below.

The place was getting quiet at this hour. Our drive dropped us off at a side entrance for the easy walk.

The castle is finally done with all the reconstruction work and looking very pretty high up.

We would have to walk all the way to that bridge to get up to the top.

With some members of our cc group.

Majestic view of the Castle. It looked so much better without all the scaffolding.

Dotonbori

Festival of Lights at downtown Osaka. Festively decorated.

It's always busy in Dotonbori especially on a Sunday evening.

The most photographed sign board, the Dotonbori Glico Sign.

Tombori River Walk

Just had to get some cheese tarts from Pablo again. This time the line was even longer.

We spent about an hour here at Dotonbori and Shansaibashi area, barely enough time to scratch the surface of this popular area. Then we were back at port before 7:30, way before our final boarding time. Dinner was at Horizon Court for some buffet food this evening since it was open-seating in the main dining room. We had a good long day seeing a lot of sights in Osaka and Kyoto. We will have two sea days before reaching Keelung port in Taiwan.

"Come to me , all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11: 28