Kyoto: 7th July to 14th July

We arrived in Kyoto after a lovely relaxing night at the ryokan in Kinosaki! The station was designed by Hara Hiroshi who has designed the building in Osaka, there were some similarities and this building was also impressive.

We decided being peckish to get some food so we could see a bit more of the architecture we travelled up to the 11th floor and we stumbled on a ‘bad Italian‘ don’t get me wrong it was edible we both cleared our plates, but I have never had a tomato salad like it, and the cold mushroom soup Warrick got was different.

After lunch we decided on a taxi as it was pouring down with rain, this worked particularly well for a change, our hotel wasn’t what we expected as it was supposed to have a gym but it turns out Warrick booked the wrong one by mistake – the place was absolutely fine though – phew.

We had a lazy afternoon, followed by two loads of washing in the hotel – which takes a lot of time! This also involved a falling out with one of our fellow hotel guest who decided it was appropriate to take our clothes out the dryer for us, he came to apologise which we did not accept (it’s wierd to touch other people’s laundry – right?) Maybe it was karma as we managed to shrink everything that we put in the dryer.

After our ‘debate‘ we headed out for dinner, Warrick had found a ramen place Ipudda which wasn’t too far away, we both ordered different varieties and mine had an option of 1-5, five being the hottest, which I obviously went for (every meal in Japan has been so mild) this may have been a mistake as it blew my head off, I literally couldn’t drink the soup as it made my lips expand! The gyoza on the other hand were amazing.

In order to digest we went for a walk through Nishiki Market whilst this was closed it was pretty amazing to see, however the smell was very fishy we were almost glad it was closed.

Deciding the food was well and truly digested we set out to find a bar – this is harder in Japan than you might think as most places look like restaurants. We stumbled upon place where Warrick had a litre of beer – as you do, and I had a wine. It was a bizarre place and like most bars in Japan it was full of smoke! (not something either of us expected thinking Japan was super health conscious). We then tried to get in to a standing bar (they even have standing restaurants) but it was closing, so we stumbled into a good old Irish bar, which had a live band!

Heading back to the hotel, we decided on a night cap which turned out to be free, we remembered the hotel saying on checkin you could have one free drink each, we managed to get two before they caught on and charged us – all the whilst getting evil eyes from our washing pervert and his partner. Bed was calling….

We were supposed to get up early, the alarm was set but we both slept through it, in Warrick defence he was fighting off a cold/hangover, I had no defence I was just tired 😃.

Once showered and changed we set off when we stumbled upon a famous Japanese star you might recognise?

We were planning on going to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove but as it was later than expected we decided to head to Central Kyoto to Nishijin Weaving District this place was outlined in Lonely Planet as an area to visit to see beautiful kimonos etc, it turns out it was not, and probably one of our most depressing days in Japan. We visited the Japanese Textile Centre, in Warrick’s words it’s the centre of nothingness! We saw many unremarkable things displayed in a very unremarkable way – best pic’s below:

Following on from there we visited the Orinasu-Kan Museum expecting great things as we paid our 1,000 yen each to get in to only be told it was two floors – the first floor included 5 kimonos and the ground floor 3, they weren’t even the full outfits just the kimono! We were then told to sit down for tea which tasted like tobacco very typical of Japan, along with a sweet that I refrained from but Warrick’s tasted and disliked!

We were both starving by this point, especially as Warrick had been for a run that morning, we headed towards the Imperial Park which was meant to be pretty and to try and pick up some food along the way. There were very few options so we ended up in a ramen shop, the food was average but I think this place was the equivalent of an Asda or Morrison’s cafe, but on route we spotted another little park.

The imperial park whilst pretty was a little underwhelming compared to some of the smaller parks we have seen but we took a few snaps as we sauntered through.

Heading back home, we had some down time before getting ready for the evening. Now me and Warrick have become a bit obsessed with gyoza since we have arrived in Japan so we headed for Anzukko which apparently is the only place that cooks and serves them in a skillet, the gyoza were good but not as good as last night but we ate very well. What was supposed to be a dry day turned in to another beer and wine day it’s just to hard to say NO!

The next morning we decided on Southern Higashiyama and we took the bus directly there which was pretty pleasant, I was really looking forwards to this as its one of the famous geisha districts.

We visited the Gion area, in particular Shimbashi which is one of Kyotos most beautiful streets.

Kodak-Ja Temple
Ryozen – Kwan-On (Tribute to the unknown soldier WWII)
Kodaiji
To-Ji Temple
Oman for some udon

We were determined to have a dry night so we decided to stay relatively local, as we enjoyed the ramen so much the first night we decided to go back but low and behold it was shut for refurbishment – damn them I needed my gyoza fix. Our fall back choice was our old faithful Okonomiyaki! Whilst the experience wasn’t as good as Hiroshima the food was still pretty good.

The next morning we both woke pretty early me because my bites were playing havoc all night and Warrick just wasn’t feeling 100% so whilst awake at 6:30 we didn’t rise until around 8am, we were supposed to go to Arashiyamao for the Bamboo Grove (again) but as my bites were pretty bad we thought it best to leave the woods so we headed for North Higashiyama. It was probably the hottest day we have had in Japan and it was only 10:30 but a tube and a bus later we arrived. We had a few stops planned, first off Ginkaku-ji this is the most beautiful gardens I have seen, hopefully the photos capture this.

From there we walked to Honen-in this again was impressive it included several shines and a graveyard.

From there we walked the philosophers path, which was a lovely walk along the canal, reaching the end we decided we deserved lunch so we stopped off at Hinode Udon this place was surprisingly good:

Following the road along we reached Nanzen-ji which was another Japanese temple which was beautiful we sat there for some time then continued our walk picking up an ice cream along the way.

Our final destination was the National Museum of Modern Art and this was a real experience, up there with the worst gallery I have ever been too. The main event was musical music posters (we weren’t allowed to take photos but trust me you’re not missing much – surely that’s not art? You can buy them from Amazon 😉)

Heading back to the hotel we put our feet up before getting sorted for the evening, deciding to have an easy night we headed to an Internet cafe, followed by the station for dinner for what can only be described as the oiliest, msg filled meal we have ate to date. But this was topped off by a scone with cornish cream and strawberry jam.

Yes all the weight lost over the last 5 months is pilling its way back on in Japan – Wine and Cakes who knew….probably all of you.

We were changing hotel the next day but decided to pack in the morning as we have now got it down to a fine art, the hotel was only 10 minutes walk so whilst we couldn’t check in we dropped our bags off, and decided to head back to Southern Higashiyama, we attempted a bit of pottery – as you do!

As you can see by the results I think I have found my new profession, pottery wheel and kiln on order haha.

We managed to see another couple of sights which we had missed the first time.

Hungry, we decided to try somewhere different for lunch but as the udon was nice we stuck with what we knew – glad that we did as it was delicious.

That night we were thinking of pizza to ease the hangovers so we headed back to our favourite food area Shijo, however on the way to the pizza place we spotted an all you can eat barbecue, you’re right we should have known better, perhaps it was the lack of alcohol that caused the delirium but by he time we came to our sense we had gone inside and booked a table for an hour later.

Pleased with our find we went to find a bar (sometimes it’s the only way to get rid of a headache 😄) low and behold we found a Darts bar, excellent perhaps I can close the gap Warrick has created, several gins later I was on form, but it was time for barbecue, so we settled up and headed back to the restaurant. This was by far the worst meal we have ever had and had to cook for ourselves, the meat was fatty and the salads were just wrong – damn our belly’s…..on the upside we had paid for all you can drink and I feel this is were we came to life – we will get our money’s worth, 2 carafe of sangria later for me and about 10 beers for Warrick (all in 90 minutes) and we were smashed.

As expected we had the mother of all hangovers the next day but we weren’t going to let that stop us, so we headed to the station were we dealt with our tummies.

We then finally headed to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove this place was beautiful but full of tourists which made getting a good photo quite difficult.

There were several gardens, shrines and temples but we decided just to pick one so we went to Okochi Sanso and we are glad we did, it was beautiful, amazing views and it was pretty quiet. We were given a cup of the matcha green tea which is the most disgusting thing either of us has tasted along with the equally revolting sweet – which Warrick tries every time and every time he hates!

Heading back we picked up a kimono for me and a beer for Warrick – I was still suffering from last night, but we couldn’t resist the English pub (well one of us couldn’t!)

The next day was sumo day and we were so excited, we picked up some supplies for the 1hr journey.

And when we arrived we were greeted by a great photo op of two sumo’s holding screaming babies, they were literally all lined up, and me posing to intimidate the two men.

Once inside we found our seats got a beer and settled in for the action – it was GREAT, each fighter only does one round – I guess due to their size they couldn’t do much more, me and Warrick bet each time who would win and I beat him 27:14 if only we had of put money on it 😃