Kyoto & Osaka

Oddly enough, one of the top things I was looking forward to about Japan was staying in a capsule hotel. I'm not really sure why, but I've wanted to do it for a few years now. So as we were looking for places to stay in Kyoto, where almost all hotels were full or incredibly expensive, we took the chance to book our capsule experience! Luckily, since getting other hotels proved to be such a challenge, we had to book 2 nights!

We stayed at 9hr Kyoto, where guys and girls floors are separated. As you enter the hotel, you take your shoes off and put on these cheap slipper things, which just gets the weird awesomeness started. After getting checked in, Lain and I split and headed to our floors. The floor has maybe 20 or 30 capsules in a row, one on top of the other. They must be making a killing. It was kind of dark, very clean, and super futuristic. It kind of made me think we're in the hunger games, in the part while they are training.

The capsules are very simplistic, but way more spacious than I thought they'd be. Definitely long enough to fit me comfortably. The only problem is that I was so excited to be in one that it made it harder to sleep! We've never stayed in something as cool as this! I wonder why they don't exist in the US!

Our first full day was spent over by the bamboo forest, which was fun. It was really busy because all around the leaves were changing color and the mountains looked really cool. We rented bikes and rode around for hours and hours. It was a lot of fun, but not the easiest thing in the world since there were people everywhere! But the bamboo forest was definitely worth seeing, even if it was packed!

We found these awesome sour gummies at a convenient store, we bought all the packets. Every time we would fine it, we would buy more. It was just too good. 

The next day we went to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and hiked up and down Mt. Inari, through all the torri gates, which are these orange colored gate things. It was a lot of fun, such a picturesque place. The bottom of the trail was packed but as we got higher and higher there were less and less people.

We then left for Osaka and walked around a shopping area called Dotonbori, which again was packed full of people. It was great though, lots of lights and a great atmosphere!

We were starving and didn't want to eat at another McDonald's. It was rather difficult to find a restaurant that accepted card, majority of the shops only took cash. We came across a small gyro stand and Alastair grabbed one chicken gyro. Starving, Lain took a bite. Soon one bite turned into the whole thing, so we ran back to the stand to grab two more. It was so good! We chatted with the owners and they told us the shop has only been open for 4 months and they've been successful enough that they'll open another stand on Kyoto very soon.