[JP; 2016] Solo Series | DAY 4 - Kyoto

DAY 4

Kyoto Station > ShinKyogoku Shopping Street 京まちなか新京極 > Teramachi Shopping Street 寺町通 > BokuYado ゲストハウス樸宿

1. Kyoto Station > ShinKyogoku Shopping Street 京まちなか新京極 > Teramachi Shopping Street 寺町通

Unsure where to go after coming back from Arashiyama, so I googled and found ShinKyogoku Shopping Arcade.

I took the subway from Kyoto Station to Shijo 四条 Station.

After a 10mins walk upon exiting from the subway station, I finally found ShinKyogoku Shopping Street!

ShinKyogoku Shopping Street 京まちなか新京極, http://www.shinkyogoku.or.jp/

And I shopped for clothes, as I did not bring enough clothes to this Japan trip. I find their shopping not that expensive, still reasonable enough.

Feeling hungry and realising that most of the shops were starting to close for the day... I headed over to the other street, which is parallel with ShinKyogoku Street, Teramachi Shopping Street.

Teramachi Shopping Street is less crowded compared to ShinKyogoku Street. I just popped into a local eatery which looks like it will serve very localised Japanese food.

Menu was in Japanese, but the old lady serving me is able to catch some simple English keywords. Nevertheless, I applied the skills I learnt from my Primary School oral, picture description time. And I manage to order something really amazing!

I found their side dishes really good. The salmon was fresh too. The best out of everything is the chicken-egg powder that I have to sprinkle on my rice, it was heavenly. (if I could speak in Japanese I will definitely ask where to buy the chicken-egg powder)

I have to apologise as I have no idea the name of the shop, but they have a similar set displayed outside of their shop, so if you spot something similar, 99% is the right shop.

2. Teramachi Shopping Street 寺町通 > BokuYado ゲストハウス樸宿

By the time I finished my dinner, there wasn't much for me to shop. And trying to blend in and have a feel of this cultural city, I decided to walk to my hostel. Which google told me it will be a 25-30mins walk.

Kyoto's night was really very peaceful. I enjoyed the stroll back to the hostel, despite my phone's battery had died and I was walking blindly without any help. I manage to reach safely without getting lost which was really a great achievement for me.

Anyway, as mentioned in the previous post, I booked BokuYado ゲストハウス樸宿 for my stay in Kyoto.

BokuYado ゲストハウス樸宿, bokuyado-kyoto.com2,800yen/night (Booked through email)

The pretty exterior I took in the morning! It was a very traditional Japanese house.

Review:
This hostel is owned by a Taiwanese, so they have no problem speaking in Mandarin. Simple English was fine too. The Taiwanese helper (she's doing work exchange aka "room & board") was really friendly, her character was so alike one of my Taiwanese friend thus we hit off quite well.

I heard they also post their rooms on airbnb and agoda. But after surveying with the other guests, booking from email is the cheapest mode.

Personally, I love the design and atmosphere in the hostel. The female dorm is on the 2nd level, rather spacious if you have considerate room mates. No much an issue with the hostel and its facilities. Would consider again staying with them if I am coming over to Kyoto.

Probably those private rooms near the entrance may be slightly noisy at night when everyone starts to return back. Plus only 2 shower rooms for the whole hostel village (if it is on full house around 20 guests), so would be slightly hard to grab a shower at night. Because of the shower room, I made a couple of friends at the living room when everyone was waiting for the shower. It was really enjoyable chatting with them and unknowingly we chatted until I can't lift up my eye lids, I dont even remember what time I went to bed that night, probably 1am or so.

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