[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 ~~

[Hokkaido] Day 3 - Part 1 : Sapporo City Center & Lunch at Nijo Market

Back to Sapporo again!! After a day trip to Otaru, we'd spent our 3rd day of this Hokkaido trip by strolling around Sapporo city center, seafood lunch at Nijo Market, and visiting the popular Shiroi Koibito Park. Since it’s gonna be a long day, so I divided into 2 parts. Let’s start from the first one, Sapporo city center and Nijo Market.

Sapporo Clock Tower 

After had a good breakfast at the hotel, we went to Sapporo Clock Tower by taking a train to Odori Station. Sapporo Clock Tower is a landmark of Sapporo, which can’t be missed when you’re in Sapporo. It’s located at Odori Park, where you can found a beautiful Christmas Market on December.

The real "Christmas Tree" at Odori Park

We visited this tower at 10AM in the morning, and as you can see on the photos, it’s still quiet. I didn’t know whether it’s too early or Sapporo is not as crowded as Tokyo. But i realized when we’re strolling at the street of Sapporo and Otaru, we didn’t meet a lot of people. Unless when we’re at indoor places such as Daimaru and other shopping mall at Sapporo Station. Maybe it's because of the weather which really cold (around -1 degrees) at winter season. So people chose to stay at indoor place which warmer instead at outside.

empty pedestrian street in Sapporo

Family picture in front of Sapporo Clock Tower in winter

As we visited Sapporo to enjoy the snowy weather, we used this chance to play with snow around Sapporo Clock Tower. We let Aurelia and Winston sat down, and play with those fluffy snow. They were so happy could see and touch the snow. It's a great experience for us to explore this snowy city.

Enough with the play time, we're walking through Odori Park to reach our next destination, Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade. Expecting a Christmas Market along Odori Park, all I saw just empty snowy land, with some used decorations. I just realized that we've missed the Christmas Market. I didn't know that it's gonna be ended at 25 December. But this snowy season, still gave use the Christmas vibes and it's so wonderful.

Pink theme tram in Sapporo

Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade is just like Shinsaibashi Suji in Osaka. It's a long road with rows of store, restaurant, and game arcade. I thought it's gonna be crowded like at Shinsaibashi Suji, but it's not. We could walk freely without jostling and it's a good thing. However, this empty space made us felt more chilly until our hand numb. Luckily, I found a takoyaki shop at the end of the street. A delicious hot octopus ball was really help to warm up our tummy.

Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade

Takoyaki at Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade

After had a shopping time (mostly winter gear because the weather was unpredictable really cold), we went to Nijo Market for having a lunch time. Sapporo known for its fresh seafood and a visit to Sapporo won't be complete without having a seafood dishes. There are several seafood restaurants, but I prefer to going local by eat the fresh seafood at Nijo Market. I haven't do some research about which food stall serves the best dish. So I just walked randomly and find a place with indoor table seating because we started to freezing.

Nijo Market entrance from Soseikawa Park

During at Nijo Market, we saw every stores sell fresh seafood, starts from oyster, scallop, and many kind of crab. Snow crab, king crab, and hair crab, you can choose whatever you like and you also can bargain while pay. That's also an advantage to eat seafood at the market. Because as we know, crab dish is very expensive. Besides seafood, I also saw many Yubari melon and dried mackerel hanging outside the store, which I just know it's called saba. It's also a tasty dish. I knew it because the hotel where I stayed (Ibis Styles Sapporo), served it everyday on breakfast.

Hokkaido food map. But now you can find all of these food at Nijo Market

I kept walking while looking for a good place to having lunch. Finally we arrive at the end of Nijo Market, and I saw there's a sign that they have (indoor) restaurant for dine in just accross the street. I checked them out and they have empty seats. So we went to that place directly because we're really starving. Unfortunately this place only has Japanese name. But if you want to go to this place, you might try to find Nijokani Market on Google Maps. They have the same owner and this restaurant located right across Nijokani Market.

King Crab at Nijokani Market

A set of crab soup with rice

While at Nijokani Market, I saw people eat grilled crab and also crab soup. But when I looked at the menu at the restaurant, they serve crab tempura as main dishes which looks more appetizing than boiled or grilled. Beside as an ala carte, they also serve crab tempura as a topping of donburi. There are 2 kind of donburi, with snow crab or king crab (which has bigger size). I ordered 2 of them and they both delicious. The crispy crab tempura was served over the rice, and topped with a sweet sauce which make it taste better. It was the first time for me to eat crab in this way and I love it. Must try when you're in Hokkaido.

Crab tempura menu at Nijokani Market

King Crab Temple Donburi ¥2700 (at the bottom) & Temple Donburi ¥2000 (on top)

Huge king crab tempura

After lunch time, we're not leaving this market directly. Instead we still walked around to find other tasty food. We were walking at the north side of Nijo Market, and found a food stall selling oyster and grilled scallop. I tempted by its oyster because it's really huge, probably the biggest oyster I ever seen. I bought some oyster and put a lemon juice on it. OMG!! It's really fresh, no fishy at all. Nijo Market is totally a paradise for fresh seafood lover.

Fresh scallop

Fresh Oyster and Sea Urchin (uni) at Nijo Market

Even the oyster size is bigger than my hand

That oyster ended our culinary trip in Nijo Market. From Nijo Market, we're heading to our next destination, Shiroi Koibito Park. Actually, you can take a train from Odori Station to go to Shiroi Koibito Park. However, at that time we were at the east of Nijo Market, and if I looked at the map, it's written that Bus Center Mae station was closer from my spot. So we were walking to Bus Center Mae station and take Tozai Line train to reach Miyanosawa Station, which is the nearest train station with Shiroi Koibito Park.

During our "walking trip" to Bus Center Mae station, we found that Sapporo was really a quite city. It looks like nobody lives at this town. As you can see on the pictures below, it was really empty - totally different with the crowd of Tokyo. We've visited 3 cities in Japan such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and they're all different with cities in Hokkaido. However, even though it's really quite, but the ambience of winter in this city was really wonderful and also memorable for us.

Combination between traditional shrine and white snow is really amazing

The entrance if Bus Center Mae station