A day trip in Kyoto – when the organization becomes Japanese

Some time ago I was on a trip in the surroundings of Osaka and enjoyed a Saturday of free time in Kyoto. Our Japanese colleagues had it all planned out and had rented a minivan with a driver/tour guide. That is apparently a fairly common way of touring around places in Japan.
I am more inclined to get my guide book and plan my trip myself but since we were invited to take part in the tour, we did not say no. Not to mention it was in the end of January and the over heated mini van proved to be very comfortable and very welcome. It was just bad for my belly….no chance to walk or exercise, just the laziness of sitting and being driven around.

Get together and day plan
We met the bus driver at the exit of the super modern Kyoto station and he took us from there to a couple of temples spread around Kyoto. The day was all planned out: 3 temples and a lunch!
What was really cool about having the bus was that I got to visit this “out of way” temple – the golden temple. And I am not sure if it was by accident or part of the plan but we arrived there when the sun was setting …this gave wonderful lighting, blinding light to the temple.

Meet the locals
The evening was also planned out: we were all invited to a little restaurant in the suburbs of Kobe. I was thinking “cool I will get to see a new city” but not really….we got off at a local tobu train stop, and took the taxi straight to the restaurant. So much for the sightseeing. The real treat was in the restaurant. It did not look like anything super special but our colleague told us “I take all of my visitors here” (intriguing). It turned out to a teppenyaki restaurant (cooking on a heated stone) and the chef put on a show (the food was great too)…


Hanging out with the locals, that is such a great way to discover hidden pleasures!

- Nico