Sunday 31 January 2016

Nijo Castle, Kyoto

I had a free Sunday in December, so I decided to go to Kyoto on my own.

Sometimes, it's just nice to go to places by yourself so you can wander around, not worry about time, and get lost a little.

I love Kyoto's streets, even the side-streets. Ordinary residential streets in Japan are still so interesting, ahaha. I love that even in super 'touristy' places like Kyoto, you can walk to the next street and be in a really residential area.

Anyway, the first place I went to was Nijo Castle. Nijo is pretty easy to walk to from Karasuma Station, but you can also get one of the many tourist buses that run around Kyoto. You can go anywhere in the city for 230 yen, but the buses are usually full of people.

Nijo castle's architecture was awesome and the garden was so pretty and peaceful. I went around lunchtime and it wasn't as crazy full of tourists as some of the other places in Kyoto. The inside was lovely too, with really gorgeous paintings on the wall. Photography wasn't allowed though. Inside the castle also smelt really great, kind of like a library. You'll just have to trust me ok?

Some of the trees were wrapped up against the cold, and apparently this was one of the 'beautiful views of Nijo'. I've never seen trees being wrapped up before, so I thought that was pretty interesting.

It was prime Momiji (maple leaves) season, so the trees were looking great. The Gingko trees (the yellow ones) were really pretty too.