The Backpack Adventures

Located in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, in Kyoto Prefecture, Umekoji Park is a large park in the heart of Japan's historic city.  Umekoji Park Umekoji Park History Opened in 1995, Umekoji Park provides locals and tourists with a place to relax and explore for free. Well, unless they would buy from the nearby stores and Vendo machines or go inside the museum or aquarium inside the park.  Things to see in Umekoji Park One of the trolleys on display in the park Kyoto Aquarium Checking out some souvenirs at Kyoto Aquarium The path going to Inochi-no-Mori (Living Forest) You read that right, there is a museum and an aquarium in Umekoji Park...These are the Kyoto Railway Museum , located at the southwestern end of the park, and the Kyoto Aquarium on the northeastern end of the park. I would love to tell you more about these places but I'd probably reserve it in a different article.  Ella with one of the "monuments" in Umekoji Park Umekoji

Located in 1 Kujo-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture, Toji or Toji Temple  ( 東寺 ) is one of the 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites of Kyoto City.  Toji ( 東寺 ) Toji History Toji was founded in 796, two years after the capital was moved from Nara to Heian-kyo (old name of Kyoto). The temple was one of the two guardian temples that were built on the main entrances of the Imperial Capital. To-ji , which means " East Temple ", was the guardian temple of the East while its sister temple Sai-ji , which means " West Temple " was the guardian temple of the West. This temple stood alongside the Rashomon which is the gate to the Heian capital. Sadly, Sai-ji burnt down in 990, rebuilt, and was ravaged by fire again in 1233. It was never rebuilt after.  The Toji Kondo as seen from the Nandaimon (gate) I got to visit Toji during the Kobi-ichi (flea market) Check out the items you might want to bring home. Toji was formerly known as Kyo-o-gokaku-ji or

Day 5 May 21, 2018 Kyoto Adventure (Day 2) We woke up to yet another beautiful day here in Japan . The weather is great, perfect for our planned activities for today.  To familiarize ourselves with the place where we will live for another three days, our plan for today is to have a walking tour around Kyoto Station which is quite near our place. I told my wife that she should be prepared to walk the whole day and I'm happy that she agreed. (Well that's one less problem for me). The Kyoto City Bus Passenger Station < On a side note, my wife has been planning to meet up with Gil, her long-time Filipino friend who happened to have settled in Kyoto City after marrying a Japanese. However, it was a challenge for us to coordinate our moves with her as we did not avail of any pocket WIFIs or roaming numbers for our mobile devices. Regardless, we'd get to meet Gil as the story progresses... > Well, well, well... Look at what we have here! We left our Air Bn