On our 2nd day of our Spring holiday, we went to Kyoto for a 1-Day sightseeing as well as to meet up with a friend whom I haven't seen in over 2 years!  Kyoto is definitely not a 1-Day touring city.  You'll need at least 2 days and a good pair of walking boots.  I also highly recommend getting the bus travel pass although our concierge didn't recommend it.  However, after walking for a day, you DO NOT want to walk back to the hotel/ train station/ wherever.

Arriving in Kyoto, the scenery is very different from Osaka. Older, more quaint and subdued.

We were greeted at the station by the statue of the supposed founder of Kabuki theatre, who was a woman.  Highly ironic that women were banned from Kabuki during the Edo period and only men were allowed on stage.

Across from the station and statue was the kabuki theatre where you can pay a hefty ticket fee to watch a 3-hour kabuki play.  Would love to be able to do that one day but alas, my pocket is empty and my time is filled.

The first tourist spot that we headed to was the Yasakasa Shrine, which is one of the 3 temple routes to the mountain (I forgot the name) and is also one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto.

I just love how there are so many old buildings in Japan that may not necessarily be used but they still stand and the juxtaposition against modern cars is just great!

Wishes, anyone?

Companies or individuals can donate various sums of money to the shrine and if you hit certain amounts, you can have your company name or name written on lanterns/ lamps/ tori-gate etc.

Pathway to the mountain

(Above) Why is there 1 special name written in blue??
(Below)  F-1? Well...not the Grand Prix.  It's just the name of a Pachinko parlour in Kyoto.

Got a bad lot? Tie it and leave it on temple grounds

God of binding fate?

After visiting the shrine, we headed off to Kiyomizu-dera, which is a temple that I had visited in 2005 but never went in. This time round, I simply HAD to go in.  I highly recommend taking the walk from Yasakasa to Kiyomizu-dera because there are a lot of things to do and see (plus eat) on the way.

Old and narrow streets of Kyoto

This woman dyed her poodle's hair hot pink!!

The last time I came to Kyoto, I didn't manage to see any maiko (geisha trainees) but I finally managed to catch some!!

Maikos at a photoshoot

On our way, we passed by the first pagoda in Japan.  Again, something that you wouldn't see by taking the bus or train. So it's worth the walk up the hill/mountain...depending on how tired you are.

The view at the crossroads towards Kiyomizu-dera

What do you do when you're tired and at a pseudo pit stop towards Kiyomizu-dera?  Why, you eat of course!  We started off with a Tofu Manju (JPY200) which comes with a cup of hot green tea if you sit down to eat.

The filling was really subtle but yet quite yummy.  It's not the usual tofu but the whey of the tofu that has been cooked with other savoury stuff.  It's also eaten in some traditional Japanese breakfasts with rice.

That's me enjoying my manju

When we walked further up the slope, there was a Croquette specialty shop and the special was their Monaka croquette.

As you can see, it is a normal beef croquette sandwiched between 2 wafers and a special cream sauce and cooked black beans.  When closed, it resembled a dessert but it's really a savoury food party that bursts into your mouth.  The beans are slightly sweet and this mixes with the savoury croquette and all is tied together with the creaminess of the sauce. 

We also ordered a normal beef croquette which was simply delicious eaten hot.  I don't know why but the croquettes that are sold in Isetan, Singapore, do not hit the same spot as these babies.  Alas, I only took a photo of the 1st character of the shop (as seen in the photo below)...so happy hunting.  Would it help if I mentioned that they ONLY sell croquette? *sheepish smile*

 
Walking even further uphill, we reached the major crossroads where the buses were offloading tourists and Japanese high school students on tour.  Just in time for lunch.  I spotted a noodle specialty shop that's on the 2nd floor and that's where we went to savour soba.

Name of the shop = Menkuroudo

My cold duck soba set

Siew mai's ten don soba set, which was the special of the day

I shall leave you with the photos of the food for this part as on my actual trip, this was where we took a well deserved rest before heading off, walking around the half of Kyoto.

I've always avoided F1 because it's crowded, noisy and I simply don't really bother much about racing.  I'd rather be the one racing than watch cars do laps in front of me while I wear ear plugs.  Anyway, I decided to go to this year's F1 race simply because I wanted to watch Maroon 5 perform. :) Thanks to my friend, who is a marshal, I managed to score a pair of tickets to Sat's race/ performances! Thank you H!! :)

 The view from the Bay Grandstand...also known as The Float @ Marina.  My first time on this floating stage so I just had to sit there and soak in the view.

 

Great graffiti art at the Bay Grandstand! I wasn't expecting this but I really like the carnivalesque flavour of the whole afternoon/ evening so far.

 View from the Bay Grandstand aka The Float @ Marina. This is my first time here so I decided to sit and just soak in the view before the race began.

 

We went to MOF at Marina Square for dinner and I thought I'd try their Japanese Pasta so the above is Salmon and baby scallop spaghetti in a teriyaki based sauce.  Verdict - don't bother.  Go to Yomenya Goemon or Pasta de Waraku for better Japanese-style spaghetti and at almost the same price of $15.90.  What a rip off.

 After dinner, we headed to the Esplanade Outdoor theatre and people were already seated at 7pm, waiting for The Pretenders to perform at 8pm!!  Instead of waiting, bro and I decided to just walk around the track and see what other sort of entertainment there was.

 There were several large screens dotted around the track and during this period, we caught a clip of Max Loong checking out the various F1 merchandise.

 You probably can't see it too clearly in this photo but I thought that it was rather cute that there were laser light 'shows' of F1 cars driving up the Marina Bay Sands.  Bro thought it was tacky.  Ah well.

 The glorious track all lit up! Everyone was starting to go to their seats and watch the drivers go through their qualifying rounds.

 While waiting, Samba girls were there to entertain the crowd as they danced and roved around.

 Vrroooom......After 15 minutes, I was bored to tears but Gor was sleeping thanks to his jet lag so we didn't move off till about 9.45pm so that we could start getting a good spot in the Padang stage area.

 On our way, we met dancing hippies on stilts.  There were 2 of these dancers and a DJ too.  It was quite cute.

 Love the gorgeous flower lights that hung on the trees lighting one's way to the Padang entertainment and food area.  Really apt since we are approaching the Mid-Autumn festival.  Nope, there were not any stalls selling mooncakes.  They only had a lot of burgers, hot wings and alcohol.

 Check out the crowd!! Mind you, this is only HALF of the Padang area and soon, we'll be skipping and hopping our way further front ;)  THIS is what I really came for...

 MAROOON 5!!!!!!

 Awww...he's so cute and he can really sing! He definitely moves better than Jagger and man...what an entertainer!!!

 The energy from the crowd was great and everyone sang along to all the songs which I think really pleased the guys as Adam kept smiling.

Maroon 5...please come back to Singapore for a full length 3 hour concert!! I will definitely buy a ticket and scream my heart out while singing along.  :D More concerts please!!!

Now that I've seen the actual cars doing their rounds, I think from next year onwards, I'll go to F1 just for the concerts.  Haha...and only if I have free tix! Ladidadida