[Japan] Kimono Rental in Kyoto

Kimono by Kyoto Kimono Rental Sakura 

Still talking about my last trip to Japan, this time I gonna write about kimono rental in Kyoto. If you've read my previous post about sakura hunting, you'd see that Aurelia and my family wore kimono while taking picture with sakura. Kimono is a Japanese traditional clothes. This "clothes" has colorful pattern and it looks beautiful to be worn, especially when you're at traditional places in Japan. For this reason, I'd say Kyoto a perfect place where you can wear kimono for a whole day.

To be honest, I always want to try this kimono experience while strolling in Kyoto. However, the first time I visited Kyoto was in winter and I couldn't stand the cold weather without wearing my complete winter outfit at that time. It made us cancelled our plan to rent kimono. The second time I visited Kyoto (which is the last March), I couldn't do that again because this time there's Winston, and I need to keep running and "catch" him because he is a very active toddler. But my family and Aurelia had a chance to rent kimono, and exploring Kyoto in this traditional outfit.

Where to rent kimono in Kyoto?
The answer is : everywhere! You can find many places to rent kimono in Kyoto, especially when you're at tourist area such as Gion. However, I suggest you to book online through their official website or maybe other "travel agent" such as Klook. If you book it online in advance, you'll get a cheaper price than on the spot. Actually, our first plan was also book it online. But we saw the weather forecast that gonna be rain on that day. We thought it was too risky to book it online and pay in advance. We don't know how's the weather gonna be. We were afraid if it's rainning all the day, and the kimono will become such a "waste".

At the last day in Kyoto, I saw the forecast and it's written the rain is only gonna be in the morning. So I decided to find a place to rent kimono around the hotel where we stayed (Grids Kyoto Shijo Kawaramachi). After a search, I found Kyoto Kimono Rental Sakura which has a lot of good reviews. Well, it was the place that we chose, and I gonna write a complete yet honest review about this place.

It was March 21 which is a National holiday in Japan. Some rental places open late at 10AM. But Kyoto Kimono Rental Sakura still open at 9AM. We arrived there at 9AM, and there's only 1 helper. She said it's because of the holiday so she just work alone. This situation made her work longer. Usually it only takes about 1 hour. But this time she need 2 hours to dress up everyone in our group.

About the price, there are 2 options available. First, you only rent it for a while, and take pictures at the studio. As I remember, it costs around ¥1500 - ¥2000. But if you want to rent it for a whole day, you can choose the second option which costs ¥5000. If you choose this option, you can wear the kimono to everywhere, as long as you return it at 6PM.

Actually, ¥5000 is too expensive for kimono rental price. Before we arrived in Japan, I've tried to book it online and it only cost ¥2800 for each person. However, they have a special offer if you help them to write a review on google maps and make a video. If you write review of their rental place at google maps, you'll get ¥500 discount for each person. And if you want to be recorded to give a review of this rental place, you'll get more discount which is ¥1000. It's such a good deal..

Despite the expensive rental price, this place has a very good service. Even though the staff just worked alone, but she was really helpful . She could make all the process done very fast, starts from choosing the right kimono, until made a hairdo. If you stay at Kawaramachi area, you can go to this place to rent kimono. However, if you stay at other places, you don't need to go far only to rent kimono in here. You can find kimono rental places everywhere in Kyoto, and perhaps you also can get cheaper price there.

[Japan] Where to find sakura in early spring in Kyoto, and what to wear?

Everybody knows the beauty of cherry blossoms, and it's like everybody's dream to see this amazing flower in full bloom. As a person who loves pretty things, I also dream to witness this beautiful flowers at its season. However, since I have routines that can't be missed, it's really hard for me to travel to another country at spring season, which is not a holiday season for me. Finally, this year I got a chance to have a holiday at spring season, to the country which very popular for its sakura. Japan, here I come....

Actually, it wasn't a holiday time for us. Aurelia just had a couple days of mid term break, so we only have 1 week for this trip. We've been to some cities in Japan before, and we decided to visit Kansai area to see this sakura. Enjoy the beauty of cherry blossoms, with traditional houses and temple as a background, Kyoto is a perfect place to get this ambience. Therefore, I stayed in Kyoto for 3 nights to hunt this pink flowers.

Happy me to found this place

First day, we were visiting Arashiyama because I found a picture on instagram, showed a picture of temple with a full bloom sakura tree in front of it. After searching about this place, I found out its name is Seiryoji Temple. Being located only 500m away from the famous Sagano Bamboo Forest, it was easy to reach this place by feet. However, we arrived too late at Arashiyama, and it's too crowded at that moment. This situation changed our mood so we cancelled our visit to Seiryoji Temple.

Source : Instagram @lotus.m.lotus

I was desperately to find other places in Kyoto which has full bloom sakura. Finally, I found a place with rows of cherry blossoms. Not just 1 tree but there's a lot! It was located at local neighbourhood, and almost nobody knows. It's totally a hidden gems in Kyoto, and I was so lucky to found this place. Keep ready guys, I'll tell you the details about this place, so it could be an option for you to catch sakura in early spring next year.

Sakura at local neighbourhood in Kyoto

淀水路

The words above, it was the name of this place. You can just simply copy paste to Google Maps, to find the exact location of this place. There's no English name, it's a real local place and I'm pretty sure you'll not think to visit this place unless for see sakura. It was located at the south of Kyoto, precisely at Fushimi Ward. Thanks for the great public transportation in Japan, we could easily reach this place in 30 minutes by a single train ride from Gion Shijo station (Keihan Main Line ¥310).

This train us took us directly to Yodo station. Once I stepped out from the station, I saw sakura trees at the small park, right in front of the station. It was really beautiful and I was so happy could find this place. Actually, this place was enough for me who was just expecting for a few of sakura trees at early spring. But the place that I was going to visit, much more wonderful than this. So we kept continue our "sakura hunting" to the main destination.

a small park with some sakura trees in front of Yodo station, Kyoto

We're walking for around 1km from the station. The distance actually wasn't really far. However, since it's a local place and there's nothing to see at the streetside, we felt it's quite far. Luckily the weather was really great at that time, so we could enjoy every seconds of this trip. Once we arrived at this place, we felt it's worth it to walked this far. We saw rows of sakura tree in full bloom, just like in the picture. They're grown along the river bank, and this scenery was something that I'd expect from spring in Kyoto.

Aurelia and Winston enjoy the scenery of cherry blossoms

While I was walking through the path, I spotted rapeseed flowers which usually grow together with sakura. It has a bright yellow color which create a stunning contrast to be together with the pink flowers. It's a jackpot for me to see these beautiful flowers in early spring (it was 21 March). Besides, this place also very quite so we could enjoy the beauty of nature calmly and took pictures without crowds.

Sakura and rapeseed flowers is the best combination

Aurelia in her kimono

Travel Outfit

Wearing a good outfit is really important, especially when you want to have a good pictures at this sakura season. Therefore, here's a little tips for your outfit. Do not wear an outfit with soft color or pink, and other color in pink gradient. The picture of yourself will not "out" in those colors. To have a contrast color, it will be better if you wear an outfit with a "bold" color. This color will show you as a "main character" and not blend with the pink atmosphere around you. This time, I wore a blue patterned blouse from Zara, and I also used an accesory - which is a silk scarf from Hermes. This bright color silk scarf makes the pictures become more colorful.

Zara Blue Patterned Blouse and Hermes Double Sangle Scaf in Aqua, Turquoise, Corail

About the scarf, so it's my very first Hermes silk scarf. Hermes scarf has been on my wishlist for a few months, and finally I got it when I was in Sydney ($700) last January. At that time I had no knowledge about this scarf. Unlike my knowledge about Hermes bag, I really didn't know what type should I buy. I just trust the Shop Assistant (SA) at the Hermes store, which helped me to choose the scarf that suit on me. After tried some scarfs from their newest collection, at the end I chose "Double Sangle Scarf 90", from the Spring Summer 2019 collection. This pattern was designed by Joachim Metz, and it has 10 colors option. However, I fell in love with this color which has a combination between aqua, turquoise, and corail. It has a beautiful color combination and perfect to be worn in many ways and different outfit colors. Even though it was designed just for an accesory, but Hermes silk scarf also can be used to cover my neck area and make it warm. It might not as warm as a winter shawl, but it's more than enough to be used at spring weather. Buy this Hermes scarf here.

Anyway, if you like to take pictures with sakura in Japanese style, you can choose kimono as your outfit like Aurelia did. I'll write more about kimono rental in Kyoto, at the next post. See ya ~~

[Japan] Exploring Arashiyama , a quite yet beautiful neighbourhood in Kyoto

Three times I've been to Japan, but I never get bored with this country. Delicious food, beautiful sights, and also the scenery that always looks amazing in every season. I have visited some cities in Japan, but there's 1 city has stole my heart, it's Kyoto. My first visit to Kyoto was in winter 2015, and it's just as a daytrip from Osaka. At that time I chose to stay longer at bigger city such as Osaka and Tokyo, because I thought big city is more interesting. But I was wrong. Kyoto is a very beautiful city, and 1 day obviously not enough to explore this city.

Travel with kids at Arashiyama, Kyoto

First time I read about Kyoto, I thought it's just a "boring" city with many temples to be visited. Until I was arrived in Kyoto, I realized why peoples love Kyoto and always said that Kyoto is the most beautiful city in Japan. Kyoto has an unique ambience. Even though there were many peoples at some tourist spots, but somehow I still felt it's not as crowded as other tourist places. When I was exploring Kyoto, it always feel calm, especially at Arashiyama.

Scenic bridge at Katsura river, Arashiyama

Arashiyama is a famous neighbourhood in Kyoto. This area has a popular attraction and it's a mandatory to visit this place when in Kyoto. That attraction called Sagano Bamboo Forest. Beside a bamboo forest, another reasons that make people love this place is because of its quite ambience, that really hard to get in big city life. For those reasons, Arashiyama become my favorite place in Japan, and I won't miss this place every time I visit Kyoto. Two times I visited Kyoto, two times I explored Arashiyama. At this post, I'll write about whole experiences when I was exploring this beautiful area, both in winter and spring.

How to go to Arashiyama?
Before I write more about this trip, let me explain about how to go to Arashiyama. Even though Arashiyama located at Kyoto, but it's very easy to go to this place from Osaka. All you need is just take a train Hankyu Line (¥400) from Umeda Station (Osaka Station). With 1 transfer (at Katsura Station), you'll arrived at Arashiyama Station in 1 hour.

If you depart from Kyoto city centre, you can take Hankyu Line (¥220) as well from Kawaramachi Station, and it only takes 20 minutes to reach Arashiyama station. However, there's another option to do this trip. Besides train, you also can take randen (tram) which brought you from Shijo Omiya station to Arashiyama station without transfer. It has the same fare with train. However, randen is slower and it also has a very small space which quite uncomfortable especially if you're traveling with baby (and stroller).

Other thing that you have to note is randen and train has different stops in Arashiyama. They both have the same name (Arashiyama station), but they're located at different place. Arashiyama station for randen located closer with bamboo forest, while the station for train located at the other side of Katsura river and you need to walk around 1km to reach bamboo forest. However, this walking "trip" was really enjoyable. To be honest, I prefer to take a train and walk for 1km because the ambience and the view was really amazing. Crossing Katsura river by the bridge and enjoy the scenery of river and mountain, you only can get this in Arashiyama.

Best things to do in Arashiyama : sit and enjoy the scenery

Winter 2015
As I told you before, at this time I was visiting Kyoto as a daytrip from Osaka. Since Arashiyama located further than other attractions that we wanted to visit, so we chose Arashiyama as the first destination. We departed at 6AM from Osaka by train, and arrived at 7AM at Arashiyama station. First impression when I stepped outside from the train, was this place really quite. I even didn't see other peoples at the train, it's just my group. Maybe it's too early for other peoples, but that's a good thing for us. Finally we could walk without bumped with other peoples. However, this situation made us felt colder. It was 8 degrees Celcius, and my hands both were freezing. Luckily I wore a very warm - furry winter jacket from H&M. It was a special collection from H&M A/W Studio 2015, and it was perfectly cover my body from a very cold wind.

Autumn leaves at the end of December at Arashiyama, Kyoto 

We started to walk by following the path, and I was really enjoy this place. It was at the end of December, but I still could spot some autumn leaves. It was really beautiful - how lucky I was. FYI, Arashiyama well known for its autumn scenery, when all the trees started to change become orange and brown. I thought I wouldn't see this tree since it's already winter.

As we kept following the path, finally we arrived at Katsura river. If you just see this river from the picture, you might think there's nothing here. That's what I was thinking at the first time, but it was changed when I was there. It was really quiet and there's no one at the river side. We sat at the bench which available, and enjoyed the natural atmosphere that calmed my mind. It was peaceful, no crowd, all we heard was just the sound of running water and birds chirping. It was the best moment to start that day.

After crossing the bridge, we found different situation. We started to see rows of restaurant and food stall selling food, snack, and souvenir. Since it was early in the morning, still there's no crowd at all. We could hop from 1 store to another, and bought every kind of snacks because it's so delicious. This "snacks shopping" wasn't stopped until we arrived at our destination, Sagano Bamboo Forest.

At this forest, we started to see other tourists and even it started to crowd. We kept walking through the path until we found a quieter place and we could snap a good picture. If you want to have different experience, you can take a rickshaw ride which starts from the river side and going through bamboo forest. There are different prices for this ride, based on how long you want to ride it.

Sagano Bamboo Forest

That's all what I did at my first visit to Arashiyama. It was a very short time but we really enjoyed every second of it. After this visit, we saw a video and picture of this place when it's spring, when the weather was quite warmer than in winter. It was really beautiful. There are many peoples ride a small boat at Katsura river, and enjoy the scenery of cherry blossoms around them. Therefore, we decided to visit this place again at spring, to get a different experience.

Spring 2019
Second visit to Arashiyama, we knew exactly what we gonna do and we just went to that place directly because we had limited time. Even though this time we stayed in Kyoto, but we had other places to be visited, and we're having a very short time holiday. We started this trip by taking a train from Kawaramachi station and stopped at Arashiyama station, like our 1st trip. No other reasons, I just love this route where I could walk and enjoy the scenery and ambience of Katsura river. However I realized there are some changes in this area.

Second visit to Arashiyama, this time also with my parents

Well it's not a big changes, and I still felt the same atmosphere like it was. 4 years ago, at this river side, it was really empty. There's nothing, just some benchs by the river. But now, there are some traditional Japanese restaurants and also food stalls selling hot dish such as pork bun, which perfectly to be eaten at the cold weather. Yes, the weather in Kyoto at spring season is still cold, but not as cold as in winter. Perhaps it's because we came after lunch time, and it was also a sunny day. Thought it's gonna be very cold, I wore a winter jacket with fur (again), from a collaboration between H&M and Moschino. It's a very thick jacket so when I started too feel warm, I took it off.

Back to the travel journey. At that time, I wasn't expecting for any appearance of cherry blossoms at Arashiyama, even though I know Arashiyama is very beautiful when it surrounded with full bloom sakura. We were there at mid of March (precisely at 19 March), and it's too early. However, when we're going to cross the bridge, we spotted a tree with pink flowers that started to bloom. It's not the famous cherry blossom, it's called plum blossoms (ume) which has a deep pink color. Plum blossom blooms earlier than cherry blossoms, that's why you can find them when it's early spring time. If you want to see more of this flowers, you can visit Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto.

A plum blossom tree before cross the bridge at Katsura river, Arashiyama - Kyoto

After crossing the bridge, we saw a very different situation of Arashiyama like we visited before. A long queue seen in front of Arabica Coffee, crowds of people filled the pedestrian street, not quite at all. However, the stores and restaurants still have the same traditional look, and it's something that I missed from Arashiyama. Looking at this crowd, we cancelled our plan to visit bamboo forest. Actually we wanted to back again to that forest to take picture with Winston - the last time we were there, Winston wasn't born yet. However Winston was sleeping at that time and the crowd changed our mood.

Cancelled our visit to bamboo forest, didn't mean we left Arashiyama immediately. We still strolling through this street, and bought some food that we never had before. It was a soft serve ice cream with sakura & green tea flavour, which only available at the spring season. It was tasty, and like other Japanese sweets, the ice cream wasn't too sweet and it's good. Besides ice cream, we also bought a cup of "yuba soup". Literally, yuba is a beancurd. However, if you think it's the same beancurd like the other, you're wrong!! This beancurd was really really soft, and you can easily eat it without chew it too much. As an information, Kyoto well known for its tofu dish, and now I understand why people love it.

Yuba soup (¥300)

Enough with snacking time, we went back to the city. But this time, we decided to take randen. The station for randen was very easy to spot, and it's a very short walk from bamboo forest. But it was very crowded so if you want to get a seat at this 40 minutes journey, you should hop into the tram at first. If you want to have more comfortable ride you also can take a train from Saga Arashiyama station, which also located not far from bamboo forest.

Randen -> from Arashiyama to Kyoto city