I had a couple of back to back day trips planned for the next two days. Kyoto wasn’t super high on my list – it was a take it or leave it situation. However since it didn’t cost me anything extra on my JR pass, plus it was only a 35 minute ride on the bullet train, I figured it didn’t hurt to go and check out the fall colours.

Unfortunately it started raining pretty steadily once I got to Kyoto. I hadn’t made up my mind yet on where I wanted to visit, but I ended up heading over to Arashiyama. It was a direct route on the JR trains and I’d been there many times before, so it was a safe choice for a rainy day.

I’d been to Kyoto twice in the fall – once during my school trip and the other when I met Sherly for a day trip. I remember Sherly and I had wanted to buy tickets to ride the Sagano Romantic Train, which is a 25-minute route that takes you from Saga Torokko Station to Kameoka Torokko Station, but it was fully sold out that day. I decided I would try buying tickets this time and I was lucky they still had tickets for later that afternoon. 

As I had around two hours to kill, I braved the rain and headed over to the Togetsukyo Bridge to browse the shops by the river. Despite the rain and it being a Monday morning, there was still an insane amount of tourists crowding the streets in Kyoto. I gave up going inside the shops, but I did walk through the entire stretch of the bamboo forest. 

When I left the bamboo forest I got a bit disoriented. I ended up heading over to the Arashiyama Torokko Station instead of the Saga Torokko Station (literally all the station names sound the same), then I had to hightail back to catch my train. Technically I could have just boarded at the second stop, but I wanted to get on at the correct station. As for the train ride itself? It was highly disappointing lol. I think I was a week out from peak fall colours, so with the rain it just made for a wet, cold and miserable ride. And because I had return tickets I had endure the ride for a second time. =S

I had enough of Kyoto by the time I got back to JR Saga Arashiyama Station. It was way past lunch, so I headed over to Kyoto Station to see if there was anything good to eat. Kyoto is famous for its tofu, so I waited about 30 minutes at a restaurant that had a tofu lunch set. Then I browsed through some shops before taking the train back to Nagoya. 

To be honest Kyoto was a bit of a dud for me this time, perhaps because of the rain. The sheer number of tourists is also insane (yes I know I’m not helping with that), so I will opt to avoid it in the future. I’m thankful I’ve seen most of the highlights, so I won’t feel as bad passing it up for other spots when I head back next time.

Even though I had a long day already, for dinner that evening I headed over to my former host family’s home. Hiroko-san always remembers how much I love shabu shabu, so she specially prepared it for me, along with chiraishi sushi. I’m super spoiled as always. Heading back I was so exhausted that I fully passed out on the subway ride. It was amazing I managed to wake up right before my stop. Overall it wasn’t an entirely wasted day, but I definitely had higher hopes for my day trip to USJ the following day.