Japan Day 3 - Cycling in Kyoto

One of the must-do activities recommended by many guides is to cycle around Kyoto (however Lonely Planet made no mention about this). I rented a bicycle (750￥/day) from my hostel and I took off in hope to find the Imperial Palace which was near Downtown Kyoto.

The map I had was more for sightseeing so many of the roadnames were conveniently left out, and only the main roads were given. I thought I was going the right direction till I realised the river was on my left - I tried to locate my position on the map but I couldn't (road names only listed for the major ones). One thing for sure was that based on where I was heading, the river had to be on my right. So I crossed over and headed back..which was a wise choice. If I had went further up I would have ended up on the freeway to Nara (another town).

By the time I got back to my hostel where I started off, I was perspiring and it was nearing noon. Decided to take a break and bought an onigiri from the supermart nearby. After that, I continued on my search for the Imperial Palace by travelling down the right direction..

Kyoto's city is planned like a grid, pretty much like how Manhattan is but in Kyoto at every junction of the main roads, it will have a name of the 2 main roads together. For e.g. Karasuma-dori and Gojo-dori, the junction will be called Karasumagojo. It was easy to navigate around the city, but I didn't realise the Imperial Palace was in fact the north of the city centre and I was coming from the south! I had to get down my bike and pushed my way through 3 streets of packed human traffic, resisting urges to abandon initial plans and start shopping in one of the many underground and overground arcades.

Once I got through the congested area, the massive Imperial grounds juxtoposed the modern skyscrapers making it recognisable even though I had no idea where I was heading (just keep swimmin'). I was tired and very relieved as I sped towards my destination with the last ounce of pedal power I had left. Grossly underestimated how big Kyoto has been. Map readers should always read the scale! I thought it was all listed in KM but I was wrong..it was in Miles. Ugh.

Sat on one of the many abundant stone benches around the park, watching a baseball practice and retirees learning to play tennis. The place was so beautiful (and it still smells of the light floral scent I've been talking about) I stayed on for about 1.5 hours.

Finally I was getting tired as I didn't get enough sleep the night before, waking up to kill a persistent mozzie who gave me 4 loving kisses on my face. Pedaled back to the hostel and caught a short nap. By then the sun was setting and I promptly got dinner settled and headed back. My body is aching even though my feet is spared from the walking today. Lots of slopes which meant extra hardwork on the legs.

It is my last night in Kyoto and tomorrow I'm leaving for Mt Fuji. Need to recover tonight and tomorrow, so I will (hopefully) be ready for the real long hikes at the next stop.

I like Kyoto. I will be back again but hopefully next time I won't spend so much time trying to find my way around.

Full set of pictures in Kyoto here