Five Days In Kyoto

When we settled into our  house in Kyoto we quickly found a grocery store and bought items to cook breakfast. We were all very grateful to have some food that we recognized, enjoyed and did not need to have an adventure to find. I was VERY happy to have this great breakfast on our first full day.

 

 

Our first day was dedicated to getting our bearings and making a game plan. We had seen on-line that there was a tourist center close to the Imperial Palace grounds, so we made our way there. The palace grounds were about a two mile walk away, and the weather was beautiful.

Unfortunately we were unable to locate the tourist center, so we took advantage of our location and explored the palace grounds.

We eventually found the tourist center and were given some advise on what were the key sights to see in Kyoto. A quick train ride brought us to Fushimi to see the first of many temples. There was a station where we were able write down a wish and have Bhudist priests burn and pray upon it.

We walked around the grounds and explored the many Toriis. These were in the formation of a larger tunnel with writing on one side. When you look into the tunnel, it is solid orange, and the reverse is filled with writing.

That evening we decided to try Japan's version of tacos, which we lovingly named "Japacos" They were on a sweet soft bread and our selections were Japanese curry or your traditional meat / cheese / lettuce / tomato combonation. 

After dinner we went to a brew pub we found. It was time to try some craft beers and see how they compare to ones from the States. We tried quite a few, but the overall consensus was that Japan was not known for having the worlds greatest beers.

The next morning we made our way to Gion. On our way there we visited a few more temples, including Higashiyama, which was just massive.

 

When we made our way to Gion, we came across some tourists, dressed as Geisha. This is something that I wanted to do, but there were only so many hours in this trip and with the heat, I am certain that the white face paint would be dripping and smeared very quickly.

We found a little place to have lunch... and ended up having more traditional Japanese food - and not by choice!

The next day I had the opportunity to wear a Kimono for the day. I hired a service, where a Japanese shop
owner came to our house to dress me and set my hair. It was a great experience, but the Kimono was not easy to wear. It was a tight fitting cloth, with many layers of fabric underneath. It felt similar to wearing a corset.

Our first stop for the day was the Bamboo Forest. There were many tourists exploring the area by bicycle and rickshaw. We walked around for a mile or so before we headed to our next destination.

 

Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. This was another area that was popular with tourists. The temple was very pretty to look at, surrounded by a beautiful Zen garden. As I was walking around and taking pictures, a few people stopped and asked to have their picture taken with me. I thought that was odd, but still a great compliment, mostly because I am clearly a Western in a traditional Japanese garment. Unfortunately, I only had the kimono until 6pm, so I had to make my way back to the house before it got to late and return it to the owner. 

Here is a close-up of the detail.

And my hair setting for the day...

and amazingly enough... this was everything that was underneath the kimono! So many layers of ropes to hold everything up and in....

That night we had more good luck by finding a Spanish restaurant. It was great to have some nice wine and piles of tapas.

Our last full day of Kyoto brought us to a Sake Brewery. This is a 300 year old plum tree that was in the chairman's house. The brewery was named after this tree.

The hospitality was amazing. We were given a lesson on Sake brewing, followed by a tour of the brewery itself. Sake season was over, but Plum Wine season was ongoing, so we were able to try plum wine from the vats and eat plums that has been taken out of a previous batch.

After the tour, we were then given sampling. As you can see, they were quite generous with the line up. We were able to "taste" each one of these. In this line-up included multiple Sake (Jumai and not Jumai, aged and not aged), fruit infused, plum wines, sparkling plum wines... it was all very tasty!

After the brewery we went out for lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant... meaning more fishes, cold noodles and gelatinous stuff.

We then went to a temple for Macha.And to the 'Deer Place" which was exactly as it sounds....

More temples, this one contained a massive Buddha.

And at the end of the day.... we decided that Pizza-La was the necessary way to go. It was awful, it was expensive, we didn't know quite what we were eating... but it was awesome all the same.