Although I haven't spent much of my time there recently, and even with my bias, I consider York to be an extremely wonderful city, and one that everyone should visit - no matter where you are in the world.
This might be the Yorkshire in me speaking, but I honestly consider it to be amongst the best cities in the country, and to have been born and brought up there I feel very lucky.
My home town consistently ranks very highly among polls of 'The Best UK Cities' alongside places like Bath, Bristol and Cardiff, and it seems like each season of the year it is visited by thousands upon thousands of tourists who descend upon York because of its fantastic history, beautiful sights and also superb surroundings areas.
Whenever my family comes over from the USA in the summer, I enjoy spending a day or two being a tourist myself, following the path of the city walls, walking by the river or taking to the North Yorkshire Moors for a day out. I feel like even if I wasn't from there, York would hold a significant place in my heart because it is just generally a nice place to be, and I'm sure that a large proportion of people who are from there, or who have visited would generally tend to agree.
By the time I come to the end of my travels through Asia, I estimate that I will have visited almost FORTY different cities, and I'd consider that to be quite a good achievement in the four month time period in which I've been away.
Not all of them have rated equally with me, and there are certainly some that I'd like to visit again more urgently than others, but I'd like to think that the variety of different places I have been will allow me to look back fondly on what I've achieved whenever I return to England.
I feel like there are definitely a few candidates in amongst the nearly half century of places that can displace selections on my current Mt. Rushmore of favourite cities (Seoul, New York, Paris and Bridgetown in case you were interested) and I hope to be able to offer at least a little bit of advice to people who are considering travelling to any of the countries that I've visited on my travels.
Being a tourist in certain places I feel like you might get an entirely different experience to someone else who is visiting depending on where you go. Cities which are descended upon by millions of tourists each year such as Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai do their best to cater for tourists with plenty of maps, signposts and information centres at every turn that you make, where as in some of the places I've visited, I've had to at least do a little bit of research in order to find the sights I've wanted to visit.
The cities with better services for tourists are obviously the ones which are visited more frequently, and it would be interesting to see if somewhere like Luang Prabang which has a developing tourism scene has much more to cater for visitors in three to five years.
When I get the opportunity to look back at my photos and go over some of the places that I've visited, even now I can often forget what wonderful things I've seen, and it's going to be a great experience when I eventually get all of my photos printed to be able to share them with people and re-live memories that I've had.
As I've only had the opportunity to visit one or two cities in each country, I have usually gone for the most logical option, and it would be interesting to consider what I'd do if I were to return to Asia again, but discounted visiting anywhere that I'd already been. In some countries I think the decision would be easier than others, and it certainly would have changed the dynamics of my visit if I'd have chosen to take in more 'off-the-beaten-path' options than I perhaps have done.
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Obviously without having been here before, and probably not done as much research as I could have, I am often stepping into the unknown when I visit each new Japanese city, but I feel like my experiences on this trip so far - not just in this country, but everywhere - have been pretty much positive when that's happened.
I didn't venture very far outside of the central Kyoto area yesterday, but I feel like there are plenty of opportunities to explore in my time here, and last night I figured out a plan of how to take in as much as possible for the rest of my stay.
Kyoto is one of the many cities in Japan where the past and the present are directly opposed to one another.
This was the capital of the country for over a century before Tokyo became its modern equivalent, and despite being known for its beautiful scenery most of what I saw yesterday and on my way into the city by train was a large urban sprawl.
I mentioned in my previous post that Kyoto is quite spread out with four main areas - one at each compass point, and then the centre which provides good access to each of the northern, southern, eastern and western areas.
After spending quite a lot of time collating information last night I'd decided that today I was going to head to an area of the city which is called Arashiyama which is to the west of where I am staying.
Backed by hills and beautiful surroundings it is in direct contrast with that I arrived to yesterday, and having spent some time there today I can equate it to my visit to Kamakura when I took the train from Tokyo during my stay there.
In similar fashion I had to get on board the train today to get to Arashiyama and needless to say it was pretty confusing to work out what kind of ticket I needed to buy.
Thankfully there was a map which had the main stations in Kyoto written in English so I was able to find my destination on there and use the machine to buy a ticket.
I spent a bit of time in Kyoto Station yesterday, admiring the size of it and also getting an opportunity to spend some time on the beautiful roof garden. Inside it is just as complex as it was to find my way up to the top of the department store, and it took a while to find the actual platform I was looking for.
For some reason the train I boarded reminded me of the ones I used to ride as a child to get to Harrogate or Scarborough, and rather than the express feeling of each one I rode in Tokyo, it definitely came across that this was more of a 'local' ride, which I guess it was.
I walked to the end of the platform to grab myself a seat noticing that there were quite a few other foreigners on the train who were probably making the same journey as me.
Before coming here I never really considered that the train would play a massive factor in the way in which I traversed each city in Japan, but from looking at the rest of my route it's going to be something I'll have to get used to as I think it's probably the quickest and most efficient way around.
It took me about twenty minutes on the train to get to Arashiyama, and when I got there I was regretting the fact that I'd worn trousers as despite the grey skies it was still pretty humid.
I scoured the station for a map of some kind, and when I got out of the exit there was a tourist information centre with maps in English which I managed to grab hold of.
Even though I make out that I don't really spend that much time considering my route or my time in each destination very carefully, I am actually quite a meticulous planner. Like when I went to Kamakura I was planning on visiting quite a few sights, and I feel like I can do this best when I have a route and I know where I need to go place after place. In these types of locations there's usually so much to do that you can end up missing things out or having to back track horrendously unless you work out what you need to do, or where you need to go.
With the map I'd picked up at the station and with the information I'd written down in my room last night, I figured out how to go about my route and set off to the main street in Arashiyama following a large group of people who were heading the same way.
Much like Kyoto, the area I was visiting today was pretty spread out, and like in Kamakura I had to prioritise where to go, and tell myself that there was no possible way that I could see everything that was on the map.
I needed to grab some lunch first so I stopped at a convenience store and walked down the main road whilst I ate my lunch before then circling back around to where I needed to start.
One of the things I enjoyed the most in Kamakura was time time that I spent in a bamboo garden at one of the many temples I'd visited, and today I was starting off in similar fashion as there was a bamboo walk which acted as one of the main ways to get to some of the sights.
It was quite a popular place, and some people had even hired the men with bicycles (I should really discover the name for them) to take them through the area itself.
At first the bamboo was quite sparsely spread around, but as the path waved left and right I got to the main corridor of the bamboo which was a lot thicker and pretty much everywhere you looked:
There was a little T-Junction which I went to the right of in order to walk to a small little shrine area where people were able to pray and write messages on wood carvings, the types of things I've seen a couple of times on this journey, but which still are good to watch people's routines and rituals:
I walked back on myself a little bit as the path after the shrine led me in the opposite direction than the one I needed to go in, and from there I walked through perhaps the most densely populated part of the bamboo walk. Even though the sun wasn't out, walking between the thick bamboo was refreshing, and the best moments were when the wind would blow slightly and the bamboo themselves would begin rustling and swinging against one another:
From here I took a right turn which took me north in the direction of a couple of temples. I'd seen pictures and read descriptions of a couple of them, and decided to visit one called Nisonin Temple first of all:
It cost me Y500 to get in, and in broken English the man working at the front desk said that because the temple itself was closed and that I wouldn't be able to take pictures in there, he'd give me a postcard of the main features instead which I thought was very kind. In other countries he probably wouldn't have said anything and let me figure it out for myself, but once again I have to praise Japanese people from their friendliness and caring towards foreigners.
Nisonin is an ancient temple which had an extremely long path full of greenery running up to some steps which then took you up towards the temple itself:
It was a shame the temple itself was closed as I can imagine that it would probably look pretty beautiful in there if it were open. The path from the top of the stairs led me to the main grounds which could be explored in various different ways. I took a few different paths and wondered around what looked to be a cemetery which had many different kinds of gravestones there:
I got up as high as I could using the path towards another little temple and then some stairs which took me up to a point where I could see a view out over the city through the trees:
Once I'd spent some time up here exploring I had to go back towards the bamboo path and then head in the opposite direction towards Arashiyama Park which was a lovely open space with a couple of different places where you could get an excellent view out over the river and also the trees which seemed to span as far as you could see in every direction:
I bet this view looks absolutely amazing in the autumn and feel like the different colours of the trees as they change would be something that see.
Arashiyama Park itself was quite nice and peaceful and there was something called the Zhou Enlai Monument which was enscribed with a famous Japanese poem which I walked past on my way down towards the river:
When I was eating my lunch earlier I'd walked as far as I could in the direction of the river and I'd seen that there were boats going along there at that point, and also when I'd looked out from the observation points:
The river itself seemed to be exceptionally peaceful and I can imagine it was a lovely ride a long there for the people who'd paid for a ride:
I walked along the river as far as I could go, past a couple of restaurants and a traditional tea house, and then got to Tagetsukyo Bridge which is a total of 150m long and takes you from one side of the river to the other:
From the bridge you got a fantastic view of the river itself....
I took a walk across the river to take some pictures and then saw the signs pointed towards another temple which I hadn't marked down on my list, but appeared to be free to walk around.
I walked along what was an extremely cool path, and the breeze was welcome having spent most of the day walking around in the humidity of my surroundings.
I got to Horinji Temple, but it looked as though it was about to close which was a shame because there was an exceptional lookout point that I certainly would have liked to go on if I'd have had the opportunity.
I managed to take pictures of the outside of the temple, and also a structure next to it which seemed to be going through some repairs at the moment:
On my way back towards the station I sat by the river for a bit, enjoying watching the water come across a man-made waterfall.
It was incredible how quick how time had passed today, but I guess I'd spent a lot of it soaking in the greenery of my surroundings and not realising that it was getting towards 6pm.
As I headed back to the station it started to rain, softly at first, and then much more heavily, at which point I decided I'd made an extremely wise decision to call it a night when I did!
Getting back to Kyoto the train was pretty crammed, and for some reason the journey seemed to take a lot longer, although I guess I could have been at one which stopped at more stations than on the way there.
Heading back to my hotel the Kyoto Tower caught my eye again, and I decided to go in the little souvenir shop which was underneath to see what they sold.
When I came out it had started raining again, but once I got within about ten minutes of my hotel it had stopped which I was very grateful about considering I had to dispose of my umbrella in Taiwan!
It had been a day filled with fresh air, and one very much in contrast to where I'd spent the majority of time in the last couple of days.
I enjoy being out in nature, and whenever I get the opportunity it's something I seek to try and do. On this trip it hasn't always been easy, but I've found that even the most built up of cities like Manila or Jakarta has at least had one are away from the hum of the city where you can be and feel totally relaxed.
Peter Gabriel
Down to Earth (2008)
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