Well I think I have found one of my favourite cities in Japan. Uji is a town just outside of Kyoto which is famous mainly for its tea. It also is famous for being the place where tales of Genji was based which is a classic Japanese novel. It is also home to one of the UNESCO World Hermitage sites being Byodo-in temple.
We took 3 trains to get across to Uji and it was really quick and efficient. When we arrived we walked across this giant bridge and were greeted with these beautiful views of Uji River. The river was also surrounded by Willows and maple trees that were just beautiful.
At the end of the bridge was the statue for the Tales of Genji it was written at the start of the 11th century, it is generally considered the world’s first novels. The statue here is to honour the town where most of the writing was done after.
The street leading to Byodo-in temple is full of tiny shops and places selling green tea and green tea products. There were some pretty cool things there and we had a quick browse noting that we should come back for lunch.
Finally we arrived at Byod-in Temple. This is a UNESCO world heritage site which is also featured on the 10 yen coin. It is also the home to the Pokemon Ho-oh. It was such a beautiful temple. They also had a museum of all the parts that make up the temple. I also picked up a new temple book for my Goushin or shrine stamps! Yay! I will beat Duy now.
It was then back to the main street for Matcha Noodles Ramen. Which was amazing. We decided to finish off with Matcha Ice cream. The guy who served us here was so nice and friendly. He even came out to take some photos. We then headed for a walk down the beautiful river. We saw the fishing cormorants. Lots of bridges and beautiful relaxing river. This place is just so beautiful.
Finished with Uji we dropped Tim at the station and headed across to a different suburb name Fushimi. Fushimi is known as the old Sake brewing area. We wandered down to the banks where we took the cutest little boat cruise ever. We sailed through green tree lined avenues with old sake breweries sticking out between them So pretty.
The cruise gives you a small break at these huge waterways. We had 20 minutes to get out and have a look. It was beautiful however it started raining and the cruise guy came running after us with umbrellas. He laughed when we put all the pink umbrellas up and giggled “Kawaii” at us. Japanese people are so nice.
The rain had really hit by now so we took a wet cruise ride back and headed into the Sake Museum. We had a look around, learnt how sake is make and tasted some delicious sake. We got free sake bottles with our admission ticket which is cool. By the time we emerged the pouring rain had stopped so we headed back to the hotel to catch up with the others who had arrived.
After 6 we met Lobada and when he was organised we went out for dinner. We then headed to Fushimi Inari for some night photos. Its so pretty there. It had been a long day and we had lost Lobada so we came back to the hotel to recharge for tomorrow. I am glad everyone is here safely.
