Japan 05/26 – Hiruzen Kogen + Kyoto
Day 14
Another few hours to the east, via a bridge
and a Sandshrew, is
Hiruzen Kogen
Like the other Kogen, this park lives in the shadow of a mountain.
Unlike the other, it only has one coaster.
A medium sized jet jaunt, named after the park itself, #1 Hiruzen Coaster.
Very standard layout for one of these, drop and turn,
Questionable airtime hills.
And a long helix, with hot tyre friction brakes to finish.
Jumped on the ferris wheel for a vantage point.
Then headed out. Nice place to kill a couple of hours as always.
Our next destination was Tottori, a city on the northern coast famed for having sand dunes.
There they are.
There is a chairlift contraption down to the popular bit, over some cacti. Unfortunately it closed very inconveniently early for a tourist attraction.
Oh well, here’s another Sandshrew to bookend the day.
Day 15
Had the most extreme drive of my career on what Google deemed to be the ‘main road to Kyoto’ the following morning. It contained one of those moments where the technology says 20 miles to go, that will take 2 hours. You think that just can’t be right. And then it is.
Very glad of the cubular car anyway, the route was scarily narrow and isolated with unprotected sheer drops in many places, quite the adventure.
Kyoto
First impressions upon arriving within the city limits weren’t great. The mountain road spat us out on a public road next to a shrine that was absolutely swarming with foreign tourists staring in bewilderment at a car on a road.
This trend continued all through the streets surrounding our first destination. Parked up and took an uncomfortably sweaty walk amongst the masses to see some water.
A bridge of course.
And some bamboo. This bamboo forest is deemed a major attraction, but as I remarked in relative distaste upon arrival, we’d seen many, many bamboo forests at the side of the road on our journeys already. The fact that we’d spent the past 2 weeks not surrounded by billions of tourists however made for a very jarring contrast. I’m thinking Kyoto has a problem.
Kinkakuji
This attraction was a bit better, with a simple paywall at the door and a one way walking system to maintain some order amongst the chaos.
Golden pavilion is gold alright.
Ginkakuji
This place was the same,
and quieter still.
Silver pavilion is definitely not silver though.
Has a decent vantage point, though the camera did it little justice with the positioning of the sun. Morning is probably better.
Matcha
Green.
Gion
Finished up with a gentle stroll around the district most famous these days for hating foreign tourists. And rightly so.
That was enough Kyoto for one day, potentially a lifetime. I’ve put it off for years, but it’s probably a lot nicer when the crowds have dispersed, whenever that may be.
Back to coasters I guess.