2024: A week in Kyoto – where old meets older

An Uber, plane, bus, plane, monorail, train and bullet train (Shinkansen) and here we are: Kyoto. The first leg of a visit to Japan. Next week Tokyo. 

We arrive at our hotel, the Celestine, which is located around a 15 minute walk away from downtown Kyoto. The journey, while comfortable, took about 20 hours, although we opted for a longer stay in Sydney to enjoy the first lounge and meet friends Michael and Kathryn, who are travelling with us. The 10 hour overnight flight was pretty easy. The next three legs getting us to our hotel, while not hard, were challenging. 

We arrive at the hotel with some time to kill before check in. So we wander up the hill along the Sannen-Yaka path. A centuries old area dotted with shrines, pagodas and Torii gates. Tiny little shops line the path, offering a variety of local food, gifts, trinkets and souvenirs. We wander into a little place for some Ramen. We sample the sweets and walk for around three hours. 

We head back to the hotel and settle in. 

Later that night we hunt for some food, a local place we visited in 2018 is closed so we wander looking for somewhere else. We settle on a little hot pot place with a queue out the front. After a few minutes waiting we are seated and enjoy some yummy hot pot. Mardi and I have the fried version, while Kathryn and Micharl enjoy the steamed, stock based style. Both are as delicious at the other with plenty of beef and vegetables. 

After dinner, we wander home, it’s been a busy first day. 

The next day we head into the city, a walk around Nishikikoji-dori markets could be fun. On the way we have breakfast in a little cafe on the river that Kathryn spotted. 

We enjoy a great mix of pancakes, eggs, avocado and salad – not all on one plate! We then wander towards the markets. 

Before we hit the markets we venture into a large electronics store, Edion. We are all amazed at the range and variety of products. We eventually drag ourselves away and hit the markets. We wander through the markets popping in and out of shops. We stumble across a knife store that I wanted to visit. I love my kitchen knives and eventually select one. Mardi and Kathryn try their luck on the gacha machines. Vending machines offering little toys for 200-500 yen. They “win” funny little cats and we keep going. We move from shopping market area to the food markets. It’s busy and slow going as we weave with the heaving crowd. Smells of cooking food waft in and out of our senses as do the yells of street sellers showcasing their wares. We stop and do some Sake tasting and buy a bottle. 

Mardi decides to head home and the three of us wander for another hour or so. 

As we head home the rain that started a while ago sets in and we get a bit wet walking the 20 minutes home. 

For dinner that night we have teppanyaki at a little place around the corner. The food is good, but it’s cash only, as many places are in Japan. We have limited cash on us so we can’t order a lot. We leave a bit hungry. 

We wander to 7-eleven for some dessert and supplies. It pelting with rain as we grab dessert and head home. 

The next day we wander back to Edion, we need to change an AirPod case over. Michael and Kathryn go for a bike ride and Mardi and I explore more of the markets. Mardi does some fabric shopping and I go in search of more kitchen knives. I buy another one and some sharpening wet stones. Mardi meets up with me with a sack load of fabrics. 

We then find a little cafe and sit and enjoy some cake and tea. After our snack we head home and catch up with Michael and Kathryn for dinner. 

We go out to dinner for some Yakitori and Michael and Kathryn tell us about their day riding and being befriended by a weird American man wanting a beer. He took them to a book store in exchange for a beer. It’s quite a funny story, and Michael found Harry Potter in Japanese for his son. 

On Saturday we head out to Nara. A train ride of about an hour finds us in Nara. We have a quick lunch before wandering to the deer park. We wander with the deer for a while feeding them, getting bitten on the bum and watching kids run around screaming. We explore the shrines and temples and then wander looking at old house. Mardi and I decide to settle into a cafe as Michael and Kathryn wander in the near zero degree temperature.   They explore more old houses, while we warm up with a hot chocolate in a tiny little cafe. The cafe has six seats and doubles as a little souvenir shop selling a range of things, mostly Moomin themed. A Swedish cartoon franchise adapted to Japanese anime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins.

We enjoy a second cup of coffee before Michael and Kathryn arrive. We then wander back to Nara station to head home. 

We decide it’s time for a gyoza style dinner, so research a place on the train. We jump into a cab at Kyoto station and head to Anzukka, a well rated gyoza place in central Kyoto. The cab ride is a blast. The driver is full of suggestions and very chatty about his life, learning English and his visits to Australia. He takes us to the restaurant, which is down a tiny little side street. He even gets out of the cab and shows us to the restaurant. Western society could learn a lot from Japanese cultural politeness and respect. 

The restaurant is another in our sampling of the smallest restaurants in Kyoto. A bar with four seats and two tables offering six more seats. Aside from a couple at the bar, we are it. We order a gyoza tasting menu. A combination of meat, vegetable and cheese gyoza. It’s delicious. 

After dinner we walk home, along what is Kyoto’s equivalent to Kings Cross in Sydney. It’s bustling with people, music, bouncers and traffic. As we leave the noisy streets behind and cross the river we arrive back at the hotel. 

Sunday starts with a short walk then bus ride. We are off to cook Ramen. We’ve enrolled in a class. the bus drops us off a short walk from the Ramen Factory. We descend the steps as instructed and enter the factory. We are gleefully greeted by our hosts and prepare to cook. We wash our hands and don bandanas and aprons. Our first task is to prepare the chicken by rolling and tying the thigh fillet. We add water, soy and sugar and it is then placed on a stove to cook. While it’s cooking we made the dough for the noodles. Flour, salty water and a few minutes of pounding the dough. Michael pounds his so hard we get decibel warnings on our Apple Watches! We then process the dough through a pasta maker to make noodles. 

Our chicken is ready, so we slice it and then use a blow torch to crisp up the skin. 

We then cook our noodles. 

Now it’s time to bring it all together. We mix our stock choices, chicken and fish. Add miso, shallots, chilli and a boiled egg. Finally we add our chicken. Yum. 

We then eat our own bowl. So delicious and filling. 

For the afternoon we decide to go to Fushini-Inari. A celebrated shrine area boasting over 1,000 Torri gates each as a shrine installed by people, businesses to bring luck and fortune. The area is a popular tourist stop and this Sunday afternoon is no different. The street leading to the shrine is jam packed with street food and shops on either side and a dense throng of people wending their way up to the shrine. It’s bitterly cold with an icy northerly blowing as we start our ascent. Mardi and I go up about a third of the way, while Michael and Kathryn go to the summit. 

We sit in the sun and people watch for an hour or do. It’s quite pleasant and the sights and sounds are interesting. Children play in the gravel walk ways, serious walkers have their walking poles, families excitedly talk about their day. A mother reprimands a child for walking too slowly. An elderly couple stops just in front of where we are sitting and pokes around on their phone. There’s lots of young couples decked out in traditional dress, Kimono for the woman and Montsuki for the men. The woman shuffle along in slippers as the silk capes of the men flutter in the breeze. They stop for selfies, examine their phone closely and invariably take another. It’s an endless procession. 

As Kathryn and Michael return, we walk back to the hotel. It’s about four kilometres, but the streets are interesting and we can stay warm. 

Tonight we are keen for some Sashimi. We locate a place and walk there. We are a little indecisive, but eventually go in. It’s stark white and light wood. An older man hands us a piece of paper. It’s the menu and price, 16,500 yen each. Over $160 bucks, we decide against it, we want some Sashimi, but not that much. We walk around and eventually find a nice place offering a varied meal, including some sashimi, rice, tempura and noodles. We settle on that, what a great find by Michael. 

The couple running it are tiny and speak little English, but they are very attentive and giggle at us a lot. Four big Aussie’s, well Michael towers over us all as well and our host seems very amused about his size and our animated conversation. We are the only ones in the restaurant. Another tiny place with seating for 8 and a bar area of about six spots. The food is awesome and there is plenty of it. 

We finish dinner, fully satisfied end walk home, stopping off for an ice cream from a konbini as usual. 

Monday dawns bright and sunny. Michael and Kathryn head off for a day of bike riding, while we take a more sedate route. We bus it up to the Imperial Gardens. The gardens are expansive, yet at this time of year there isn’t much colour. We wander around for a bit and then catch a bus back into town. 

We wander the streets, looking around at streets we haven’t walked, taking in the sights and sounds of the busy lunchtime crowds. I sample a McDonalds teriyaki chicken burger and Mardi opts for food from a convenience store. We keep wandering for a couple of hours before settling into a comfy chairs at a Lipton tea house. We sit for a while and enjoy tea, scones and a strawberry cheese cake.  

We do some more shopping before heading home to drop off our purchases.  We head out again to meet up with Michael and Kathryn for dinner. 

Tonight we are going to Seiseki Dori Street, a tiny little lanway, about two metres wide lined with restaurants. The street runs for a couple of kilometres. 

We meet around 6pm and start exploring the options. Every type of Japanese style of food imaginable is on offer. We eventually settle on a place offering hot pot, yakitori and ishiyaki. We enjoy salad, soup, rock cooked rice and stone cooked wagyu. It’s delicious. We wander home after dinner, and as usual pop into 7-eleven for a dessert!  

Tomorrow we head to Tokyo, check out the next post.