おはようロムジャパン
Good Morning from Japan!
After experiencing the busy city life of Tokyo it was off to see a bit more culture.
We didn’t arrive in Kyoto until around 3 pm so we spent the afternoon shopping on the main strip in Kyoto. Along this strip, you will find a ton of shops from ones you recognize like Loft and H&M, as well as a bunch of more local shops. It was really cool to look at all the shops and we ended up shopping until we were all ready for dinner. In the last shop we entered, the owner was very friendly and asking us lots of questions so we decided to ask him where he thinks we should eat dinner. He was so sweet and made a map of how to get there. When we arrived we were a bit nervous because it was up a small staircase and had one small sign. It was not somewhere we would have picked if we were just wandering.
When we got into the restaurant we were the only Americans in the restaurant. They seated us at a table like you would see in the United States, whereas many of the Japanese were seated at a traditional table where they took off their shoes and were seated on the floor with a lower table. The tables had a hot plate in the center where they placed the food to keep it warm while you eat a small section.
We ordered grilled corn and a chicken cheese thing for our appetizer and let me tell you, I could have just eaten that for dinner! Then for the main dish, we got Japanese pancakes. These are not the pancakes that we eat for breakfast in the United States but rather an egg and rice style pancake with soy sauce and a bunch of other stuff. It was so good. One of the best meals I had in Japan. I highly recommend asking a local where to eat dinner you won’t be disappointed.
When we were done with dinner we headed back to our hostel for the night to figure out what we wanted to do tomorrow.
The Hostel that we stayed in was called Len Hostel. I highly recommend this hostel as it is cheap, clean and in a great location. Along with this, it has a washer and dryer, a space upstairs for hanging out with wifi, as well as a little cafe/bar on the first floor which makes for a great place to hang out and get to know other travelers. There is also the option to rent out a room for 2 or 3 people which is what my friends and I did. This was only $5 more a night than renting a bunk so between 3 people it was well worth it.
On our second day in Kyoto we packed it full of sight seeing. Sadly it was raining most of the day but it was still really fun to see all of these well known sights. We started the morning going to Fushimi Inari. We were hoping to head there at 6 am but were all too tired and didnt get there till 8 am. Due to the rain the place was still not extreamly crowded but if you want to limit the people as you walk through the famous orange arches get there as early as possible because it tends to get very crowded pretty early in the morning. Around the temple there is a place where you are able to get custom engraved chopsticks which I got for both my family and I. Although we don’t eat with chopsticks often they are a really cool souvenir. We also tried traditional Mochi from a street food stand near the entrance of the temple and it was so good. The traditional one is made with red bean paste but since I am not a huge fan of beans I got the chocolate one which was amazing. highly recomend.
While we waited for all of our chopsticks to be engraved we walked around the area and ran into a billion temples. Many of them you could not enter since they were active temples and were not open to the public. We did find one that we were able to walk around outside and pay to enter. Then we headed back picked up our chopsticks and were off to our next destination.
Then it was off to the bamboo forest. This was a bit smaller than I was picturing and would have been a lot better had it not been raining but it was still worth the visit. There are also a bunch of shops around this area. We stoped and got some hot coco to warm up.
Within walking distance of the bamboo forest is the Monkey Park. This park is home for a dozen snow mokeys that roam freely. There is a small gated part where you are able to buy peanuts and feed the monkeys. To get to the park there is a small entrance fee and it is a small hike. From the park there is a great veiw of the city and an awesome experience with the monkeys roaming right next to you. It was surreal having wild monkeys just hanging out 6 feet from you. If you do go be respectful of the monkies space. Don’t try and pet them or hold them. Although they are very used to tourists coming to see them, remember they are wild monkys and are able to do as they please.
After a long day out in the rain we were all ready to call it quits for the day so we went to the market to caught dinner but we were a bit late and many of then stands were closing or had stuff that was a bit to wild for us to try. We ended up geting caving and getting burgers.
Kyoto was my favorite city in Japan and if you have a short amount of time in Japan I highly recommend checking this beautiful city out. There is so much to do in Kyoto that we weren’t able to explore due to our short trip but it has so much to offer.
また近いうちにお会いしましょう
See you Soon
xoxo Gina