Japan 2024: Nijo-jo Castle & Shinsen-en Garden Kyoto
20th June 2024 at 7:09 pm
Dear Chibi,
Lots of sightseeing in the beautiful city of Kyoto <3
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We had to visit at least one castle this trip, and we end up checking out Nijo-jo Castle. It was surrounded by stone walls and moats.
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Karamon Gate, entrance to the main palace.
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Ninomaru Palace, the residence and office of the shogun. As we wandered around inside we couldn’t help but feel like we were inside a TV drama set XD.
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Outside of the Ninomaru Palace is a large, traditional Japanese garden with a big pond. The garden is so well landscaped and maintained. All the free open space meant lots of space for P-chan to explore.
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Next up we visited a nearby Buddhist temple “Shinsen-en Garden” which was within walking distance from the castle. It’s apparently the oldest existing garden in Kyoto :O
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Away from the crowds, we enjoyed a quiet evening admiring the views and interacting with the resident ducks and feeding the carps.
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..and pigeons.
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Wandering around in search for food, we end up passing a children’s playground, which is very rare to see! So of course we made a stop so P-chan can have a play. These playgrounds look exactly like how they’re depicted in anime XD
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P-chan enjoying a fuji apple. Fresh fruit is pretty expensive in Japan so we rarely bought any on the trip. Seriously, we saw a small bag of grapes selling for 6600 yen?? O_O There was also a sign next to it saying “Good price” XD
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We end up finding delicious okonomiyaki for dinner. mmm! So good!!
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