Journey of Life

Sagano Scenic Railway The last two days of this trip ended with Sagano day trip. We opted to skip the Kinkakuji and Ryoanji Temple. It takes around 20 minutes to reach Saga Arashiyama station using Sanin Main Line from the city of Kyoto. Once we arrived at the Saga Arashiyama, there was another station, Saga Torokko Station, outfitted with nostalgic trains featuring wooden benches. The 25 minutes ride took us towards the Arashiyama station given us a pleasant view of the scenery through the forested ravine and rough river.

We started the 9th day with a Nara day trip. Embarked Kintetsu Limited Express at Kyoto Station, we headed to the Kintetsunara Station to meet Yoshiko Hatcho. She was our guide for that day, called Naramachi Walk. We met her in front of the Tourist Information Center. Luckily, only 5 people, the Helen's couple from Melbourne including us, joined this tour. Considered it as private tours, Mrs Yoshiko will guide us through the old-town of Nara. We also booked a private lunch at one of the local resident. We had splendid meal served with generosity. I recommend you to this link if you guys plan to visit Nara.

Some parts of the castle were  under renovation It was a fine day on the 2nd day while we were in Kyoto. We actually planned to visit the Kyoto Imperial Palace on the day, however, we were not able to book for a guided palace tour prior to arrival in Japan. There were only two English-speaking session, at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm that was fully booked. So we end-up to visit Nijo Castle, which we skipped on the day we arrived in Kyoto. We took Karasuma Line to Karasumaoike station and change to Tozai Line towards Nijo-jo. ICOCA card was used throughout our stay in Kyoto. While we were enjoying our morning brisk walk, it starts drizzling.

The iconic symbol of USJ. We didn't plan to visit USJ on the days we were in Osaka as we planned to do it on a weekday. So, we thought to visit USJ when we stayed in Kyoto, but we had to travel about an hour from Kyoto station. We had to change trains twice to get to the Universal City station. Starting early in the morning, we had to crowd in the train. While managed to reach the Universal City before 8 am, though the USJ scheduled to be opened at 9:30 am. We took the opportunity to wander around the city. We've been to Universal Studio Singapore few years back. But certainly each park would have their own uniqueness. Of course, the Harry Potter was the highlight of the day....

This is the Takamatsu Station integrated with the mall On the third day in Takamatsu, we both presented our technical papers. Then, in the afternoon we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, about 2 hour journey, using the JR rail pass. Another 2 days left for the rail pass usage, as we planned to use it for the day of Takamatsu-Kyoto and for the Universal Studio Osaka trip, wait for our next post!

The ferry to Shodoshima Island was really cozy. We didn't plan any sightseeing trip because I was thinking just to visit attractions around Takamatsu city, but we had a short trip to Shodoshima Island. From the Takamatsu port, we bought one way ferry ticket to Tonosho port that cost us ¥1050 and ¥530, for adult and child, respectively for a 70 minute journey. There were two things that synonymous to this island, famous as the setting of the twenty-four eyes Japanese film and the first place in Japan that successfully grows olive. We visited both attractions apart from the other recommended sites

We supposed to attend the SNPD conference for 2.5 days, yet no one is willing to sit and hear all of the papers presented :-P. So, I chosen papers presented that most relate to my works and interests. After breakfast, we just wander around the Sunport Hall. Breakfast for the champions!