Exploring Kyoto & Trying Japanese PURIKURA Machines!!

You have to press. Ah. Osaka today and heading to Kyoto. We're just about to jump back on the Shinkansen, the bullet train. And it's just about a 15 minute journey to Kyoto. I just found out, which I didn't realise, you have to get the ticket each time you want to use this. So you have the rail pass, then you also need to queue up and get an extra ticket for the Shinkansen. It's included in the price, you just need to go and do it. Here we are. We're on the Shinkansen now and it's about 25 miles to Kyoto, I think. But that journey only takes 10-15 minutes. So though we're on here, we're going to jump off straight away. We're getting the extreme speed. I think that means we're here. Welcome to Kyoto. Let's do this. Next up, we're getting the bus to our hotel. It's only about 9am, so we can't check in yet. But we're going to go dump our bags, so then we can walk around Kyoto today. Should be pretty simple, it's only about 10 minutes on the bus. So we just figured out you can get a one day bus pass for 600, which is about £4. No idea if that's the best way, but that was the first option that presented itself, so that's what we're doing. For Kyoto, there's only like two train lines, I think. So it seems like the best way is either to cycle, walk or grab a bus. We decided to go for the bus option because we have all the luggage. And then we'll figure out what else we're doing tomorrow. But for today, we are exploring by bus. This is the problem when you travel with two big backpacks. This is us. Okay, a little problem. We got to our hotel, but it's self-check-in and we can't actually check in until 4pm. Which means we can't leave our bags here like most hotels in the world. So instead we need to go find somewhere to drop our bags and then come back here after 4pm. So fortunately, the nearest station has a locker. We should be able to, yeah. Think it'll fit? Something to be aware of if you're doing the self-check-in places. You cannot leave your bags early, so you have to, well, you need to figure out what to do. There are luggage lockers, but they're both being used, the big ones. So back to Kyoto station. I remember vlogging here about an hour and a half ago. Literally just done full circle back to the station. What a waste of time. Oh well, all part of it. Now we're going to go dump our bags finally at the office and get on with the rest of the day. Through this craft beer place. Alright, well that's done. On with the Kyoto vlog. First stop is the Higashihongonji temple. Higashihongonji. Because it was right next to the office. So, yeah, this is cool. It's really big. And actually, there's not that many people here. If I stand in the middle now, you'd expect this to be full of tourists, but look. It's pretty empty. Right, I can show you this bit. But it says no photos inside, so I can only show you this far. One of the great things about Japan so far, vending machines everywhere. I just can't figure out which is which. This could be orange. That's tea, I think. That's cherry. We're going for that one. That seems like an orange juice. Got it? Got it. Don't make fun of me. Making a geisha impression. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to be a geisha with sunscreen. Is it done? Yeah, sure. I'm still white. A little bit, yeah, around here. Okay, so to save time, we have our bus pass. And here it is. Okay, thank you. We've just arrived to the Imperial Palace Gardens. You can't actually go in the Imperial Palace, that's still blocked off. But you can go all around the gardens and explore. We're just sort of, like, finding places to go today. No real agenda. Tomorrow is when we're doing the Fushimi Shrine, the bamboo forest. But today we're just walking around and seeing what we can see in the centre. Got our bags. God, it's windy. Oh, maybe I was wrong. Maybe we can. We just got in, and we were told there's a free English-guided tour. So we just joined a horde of people. All right, we decided to leave the tour group. It was, like, it wasn't interesting. So we've walked off, and we can see it without a hundred people. I don't know if you guys can see. There's a real crane over here trying out. I don't have my other lens, but... Sorry, guys. I'm trying to find my dad, but I can't pick him out. Dad? Oh, there you are. All right, well, time to go. Interesting enough to see, but we didn't want to spend too long here. We are now, instead, very hungry. So we're going to go find somewhere for food. The good thing about Japan is there's food everywhere. So we're going to come out of the Imperial Palace and find the first stop for food. Probably amazing food. That's an interesting tree. What a great tree. Good segue. We're in this place because we're starving. Oh, my God. That looks really good. How are you feeling, Ed? Some good food. Actually, I'm really loving the food here. That was a good lunch. Now we're going to head down to the Gion area. We're jumping back on the bus and going about four or five blocks down the street. Gion This is the Gion area. And from what I've been told, it's just about walking around and seeing it and discovering it for yourself. Everything looks so black, brown and white. It's all so fashionable here. It looks really old, all the old set and wood. But everything's the same colour palette. We just came for coffee. And I'm definitely going for this one. Rainbow Mountain blend. Rainbow Mountain coffee. Taste the rainbow. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. This is the real heart of the Gion centre now. And this is Hanam Koji Street. I think I'm saying that right. I think it's fairly famous. It looks really, really scenic. Kind of like a toy town. Everything looks very well kept. Wooden and again, brown, white and cream everywhere. But it's real also. Kind of tourist central. Just walking around this area for the past two hours. I've instantly felt like I could stay in Kyoto for longer. I could happily be here for a couple of weeks or a month or whatever. Just living and working. Seems like a really chilled, cool city. Shopping street. Check it out, we found an owl cafe. We're not going in right now. But you can go in and just hang out with owls. Are you ready? Let's do it. Let's be some anime. We just found a Kori Karawa place. We have to take stickers. Let's just do it. Let's do it. Three or more players. Yes. That one? Okay. Whatever. Okay, that one's it. Alright, let's go. I have no idea. I don't. I like this thing. Ichiba. Now we go do the rabbit one. What's the rabbit one? I don't know. I don't know what this means. Now we have to do that pose. That one. Yeah. This one and this one. Yes. Now we move to the decoration booth. Oh my god. We've got to go to the decoration booth. It's this, right? Hello. Okay, we found it. Start with eyes and brightness. So what kind of eyes do we want? We now have 160 seconds to decorate them. I don't know. We get such tiny stickers. Oh my god. Yeah, all of that came out to that. Yeah, I can't believe that. And they're all stickers. Wow, they are so tiny. I really hope you can see that properly. That's what 400 yen, about 2 pound 50, gets you in a photo booth. It's actually really fun. And I heard that this is something to do when you're in Japan. And now we have a nice souvenir. It's called Kurikawa. Definitely try it. It's like Snapchat, but in real life. And back where we started, at the Hagashi Hongashi. Now we just need to collect our bags after this morning's car-fuffle. And then head back to our hotel. Got them. Boom. So I had to come back to the hospital in Japan. Right, so didn't do an outro yesterday because I spent all evening in a Japanese hospital. But you would have seen that in another video already. Good news is, it's all sorted now. My leg. Hopefully that's the end of that saga. On to the next video.