They even made little pink sakura (cherry blossom) designs out of the tofu.
Kamapi to an awesomely memorable trip to Kyoto!
Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi, Shimogyō-ku, Minamifudōdōchō, 3−1
A meal so good it deserves it's own entry. No joke. Since most of our Japanese meals were from local convenience stores or cheap noodle shops we quickly jumped at a chance to splurge on our last dinner in Kyoto. The restaurant was nice and cozy and located about a ten minute walk from the Kyoto train station. The Kouan Dinner (not sure what that means, Kyoto specialities...name of a person...name of the restaurant perhaps?! Not speaking Japanese makes researching frustrating and impossible at times....grrrr) cost 3,000 yen ($35) each but it was well worth it! All local Kyoto specialties paired with good ole sake! The appetizer consisted of pickled pumpkin, tofu and pickled radish. A bit strange and mushy but the massive bottle of sake we ordered helped to wash it down. Next came an awesome sashimi plate with seaweed. Yummy! Our waitress was awesome, anytime she brought out the next course she would have her Iphone ready and translate the dish. Gotta love technology and Japanese hospitality. Grilled fish with minced radish on the left and grilled tofu on the right. Both absolutely A-mazing! They even made little pink sakura (cherry blossom) designs out of the tofu. Salad, tempura shrimp, tempura vegetables and tofu soup. Last but not least, yummy udon noodles with soy sauce, radish paste and wasabi. And of course to end the night, here is my mom posing with the massive bottle of sake....sake galore...but rest assured, we did not drink the whole thing. It was just a decorative bottle the waitress brought out ;) Kamapi to an awesomely memorable trip to Kyoto! If you are interested in checking out the restaurant (which we highly recommend!), this is the best address I could find online:
Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi, Shimogyō-ku, Minamifudōdōchō, 3−1
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Kyoto has so many amazing sights, and since we had limited time we decided to check out the JTB Sunrise Kyoto and Nara 1 day tour. The tour hit some of the major sights in Kyoto in the morning and then proceeded to nearby Nara. Awesome on a sunny day, but unfortunately it was pouring the whole time. Grrr! A little rain didn't scare us away though. We still enjoyed the sights and tried to listen to our tour guide, who I am certain had ADD. Having a heavy accent and ADD is a bit of a disastrous mix if you ask me...especially when your profession is being a tour guide... that's why the rest of the entry will have very little information. I couldn't understand anything...so we just took pictures in the rain. Enjoy! First Sight:
Second Sight:
Third Sight:
If you want to see some non-rainy photos of the Golden Pavilion, check out my previous visit here. (Only 4 pictures!) After three rainy sights in Kyoto and a group lunch at a Japanese restaurant, we were off to Nara. Thank goodness we got a different tour guide, who was absolutely great! Talkative, informative and did not have ADD. Win, win! Fourth Sight:
The deer are considered sacred messengers of Shinto gods according to a local folklore. Our tour guide told us that back in the day you couldn't hunt them (still can't!) and if you were found to have killed one, you would be buried alive with the dead animal! I am NOT kidding! Buried alive with a carcass of a dead deer! The Japanese are not messing around. Be nice to the deer! Fifth Sight:
Trying to get through a hole in one of the wooden columns inside the temple. Apparently, the hole is the size of the nostril of the big Buddha. If you get through your wish will come true...or you will have good luck. Something along those lines. This better explains what's going on... Sixth Sight:
Shrine workers sharing an umbrella. At least my umbrella made it to this point. Bye bye umbrella...
There are a lot of great districts of Kyoto but the one you can't miss is the Gion District. It's absolutely amazing with traditional Japanese architecture, geishas (if you can spot one!), green tea everything, temples/shrines and lots of touristy hodge podge to buy. Spotted... a geisha! Not sure what was going on though...she was sitting with this lovely gentlemen, getting pulled on a rickshaw and stopping every few steps to take a picture....over and over again. Strange but hey, I guess if you pay that much to hang out with a geisha you might as well take millions of pictures to remember every.single.moment. (Cost varies but we heard it costs anywhere between $2,000-5,000 for four hours! Yikes!) Checking out touristy junk everywhere. Yes, I did get the umbrella below because I was so in LOVE with it (at that moment). Please don't ask me if it has seen the light of day since....but I will look so cool walking around with it with when the time comes. Mom got a fan that hasn't seen the light of day either...she is waiting for that hot day to bring it out. Ha! Such TOURISTS! The best part of the Gion district is the Kiyomizudera Temple. Totally a must see! Great views of Kyoto and simply stunning architecutre! Before we made our way to this lovely view below, we followed a huge group of tourists into the basement of another temple. We had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, just simply following the group. We paid 300 Yen, took off our shoes, and followed the crowd into a pitch dark basement. Pitch dark! You were able to hold onto a rope and follow the crowd, such a strange experience. We probably wondered around the basement for a good ten minutes and then came up to a lit up stone. We had no clue what was going on, everything was in Japanese! Turns out, (after researching it just now) the hall is called Zuigudo Hall, it's dedicated to Buddha’s mother (Daizuigu Bosatsu) and is designed to symbolize a mother’s womb. You are supposed to make a wish when you see the lit up stone and your wish will be granted. We didn't wish for anything... I guess maybe just light...so by paying 300 yen our wish came true! We saw light at the end of the tunnel. Once again, big time tourists!
Finally!!! Beautiful blooming cherry blossoms! Anywhere we traveled to it was too early to see them, but we finally had some luck by Kyoto Castle. Yay! Nijō Castle (Kyoto castle) Beautiful architecture Cherry blossoms & Japanese gardens! Great way to spend an afternoon. After checking out the Nijō Castle, we stumbled upon another shrine near the Gion District called the Yasaka Shrine. They were setting up for a cherry blossom viewing festival, so there were lots of food, drink and toy vendors. We sat on red benches, had a beer and enjoyed looking at the few lonesome cherry blossoms...only imagining how beautiful it must be to see the whole park in full bloom. Beer and takoyaki aka octopus balls. (Not real balls people, relax. Just ball shaped snacks filled with octopus. Oishii!)
I normally don't review hotels on our blog but our Japanese roykan experience was totally worth a mention. We decided to spend our first two nights in Kyoto at a traditional Japanese inn, that means wearing cotton kimons to bed and sleeping on the floor! So cool! A traditional roykan is a kind of "bed and breakfast" that features tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and public areas where visitors can wear cotton kimonos and interact with the other guests. Most roykans are family owned and very pricey, a night can easily cost you around $400! Thankfully the roykan we found was very reasonable priced at around $150 a night. Yay, savings! Modern yet traditional, beautiful, and cozy! Technically speaking this was not a real ryokan because breakfast and dinner are not included in the price. But at a $100 a night we were just happy to get a kind-of a traditional Japanese experience! So I would think of this as a Japanese bed and breakfast with hotel accommodations. Ha! Our private room had a bathroom, mini fridge and even a TV. Did I mention this place is spotless?! Talk about clean! Loved it. Highly recommend this place for anyone visiting Kyoto and wanting a reasonably priced Japanese roykan experience.
Check out their website: Kyomachiya Ryokan Sakura. For those of you that have seen Memoirs of a Geisha, the image below will be familiar. It's the scene where the geisha runs through thousands of tori gates to a temple. Very cool but oddly enough when you actually visit the site, the first thing you will wonder is where the heck was she actually running to?! Into the forest?! The tori gates continue for a good two hours with nothing else in sight other than a forest. Mmmm...Gotta love Hollywood! My mom and I arrived at the Fushimi Inari-Taisha on a nice sunny day. Thank goodness because we decided we would hike the whole Inari mountain and take in all of the tori gate sights. Fun idea in theory, but after you see the first 5,000 tori gates, you decide it all looks the same and start questioning why you have been hiking for 2 hours. Grrr, we are such tourists! The main Shinto shrine is located at the foot of the mountain. Inari is the Shinto god of rice, sake, and prosperity, so the whole shrine and smaller shrines leading up the mountain are dedicated to the god. Foxes can also be found everywhere because they are thought to be Inari's messengers. And there are a lot of fox statues, some even wearing red decorative bibs. In the Shinto tradition, foxes as well as the color red are used to ward off evil and illness. Starting our 2.5 hour hike. Still smiling and excited to photograph every, single, tori gate. In Japan, Inari is also seen as the patron of business, so each of the tori gates are donated by a Japanese business or individual. You will find the donor's name and the date of the donation on the back of each gate. The cost starts around 400,000 yen ($4,200) for a small sized gate and increases to over one million yen ($10,000 +) for a large gate. After a 30-45 minute hike we made it to the half way summit, called the Yotsutsuji intersection. We took in some nice sights of Kyoto, rested our legs and made a quick stop for some sake. There are a few restaurants located along the path but most of them are located on the first part of the hike. So bring snacks and water! There were A LOT of little tori gates hanging up at the smaller shrines. Anyone can purchase a small tori and put on their wishes. Here is our tori with wishes for both of our families, Fitzgerald and Dąbrowscy - USA/Poland. Totally worth the $15. Little shrines with a plethora of tori gates. A lot of the smaller shrines look very similar to Buddhist cemeteries...so we were not sure exactly what we were looking at. Still cool though. Awesome views from our hike. I was totally worn out though. ;) This was actually my second time visiting Inari mountain. The first time around, I went with my cousin and we flew through the whole trail hoping to find the main shrine on top of the mountain...somehow we missed it. So this time, I made sure to pay close attention...well...we did find the "top" of the mountain but only because a little store put up a sign that this was indeed the top of the mountain. Nothing special. Not worth your time to climb up and down stairs for two hours. Unless you want to that is. Then go ahead, climb away. So here are my tourist recommendations.
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