Kyoto – Part 1

Day 00 –

Today we’re going to Kyoto. We have to fly to Osaka first and then take a train to Kyoto. So, there isn’t much to say…. Oh just one thing maybe… We saw Mount Fuji!!! We saw Mount Fuji!!!! 😁 And the point of view was just exceptional!! Here…

Day 01 –

Yesterday, we settled in our new apartment. Julia’s favorite so far. It’s spacious and very Japanese. In addition, we are located at a walking distance to the center. And that’s where we’re going today. Since it’s cloudy and there are showers, we decide to leave the temples for a sunny day and we take with us transparent Japanese umbrellas. They’re just a great invention! You can stay dry and still admire the view around. Côme will spend hours today playing with them…

On the way to the center, we stop at a couple of temples. One of them is a Shinto temple dedicated to the protection of animals. Here, people pray for their pets and around the temple there are 5 animal clinics. It’s just awesome ! Once in the center, we walk through covered shopping streets. There is a market with many “delicacies” that intrigue us. There are octopus lollipops, torch-cooked crabs and meat skewers but we’re not quite sure what it is. There are also many sweet shops. We see Matcha desserts, huge ice creams and creme brulee pancakes.

In the other shopping street, you can find clothing, fabric and souvenir shops. Since it’s already noon, we try to find something to eat but every restaurant we would like to go to are full and there’s even a line worthy of Disneyland to eat there. So we search, and search… but we can’t find anything. We get impatient and tension is brewing between Julia and Doo. In the end, Julia and Côme will go for the skewers which are actually sweet rice and not meat while Doo will eat a kebab. Suffice to say Julia and Côme will never eat those skewers again and Côme will eventually also eat a kebab. We then continue our walk in a more traditional neighborhood with beautiful wooden houses and narrow alleys before returning home for a quiet evening and yakisobas.

Day 02 –

Today, the weather is beautiful. We are going to see torii and tadukis. What’s that you might say?! You’ll see. When we get to the temple, there’s a giant torii (spiritual gate) welcoming us and lots of people dressed in traditional clothing. We venture on a path that takes us into a forest and up a mountain. The torii will accompany us throughout this entire 2 hours walk. There are 10,000 of them. Well, that’s what they say. We started counting them (great exercise for Côme) but we stopped after the first hundred. We were only within the first 10 minutes of the walk so it has to be true. There are indeed 10,000 torii around here. By the way, we appologize in advance for the picture gallery. Even though you won’t see the 10,000 torii, it was really hard to make a selection…

At first, we’re on a race against the crowds to take the best shots. We even make an alliance with other tourists to block people in order to take pictures without anyone. But about 1 km away from the entrance and then on, in the more remote places, there’s hardly anyone. We can take our time under the torii and take beautiful shots. When we reach the top of the mountain, Côme is exhausted and we only have two clementines to give him (it’s already 2 p.m.). So we head back down through another forest this time. It turns out our stomachs will have to wait because we come accross other beautiful spots: another temple and a traditional house surrounded by a beautiful garden. We even take some time to sit down and admire the view. Then, we head to town through very pretty residential streets and finally, we find a traditional restaurant in which we’ll eat our first ramens. It’s almost 5 p.m…

We slowly head back downtown and in the evening we eat yakitoris in a restaurant before heading back home. The skewers are really good but when Doo tries to remove the “Covid” plexiglass in between us, the waiter tells him it is mandatory to keep it. During dinner, Doo feels a bit lonely…

These past days, Côme:
Did not understand: why we had to take many trains to Kyoto.
Learnt: that you could eat octopus on a stick.
Loved: playing with the umbrella.

Julia:
Did not understand: how it was possible to eat an octopus in one bite.
Learnt: that sweet rice skewers that it looked like meat existed. Yuk.
Loved: the traditional wooden houses and the walk under the torii.

Doo:
Did not understand: why there were paper angels in water at the animal temple.
Learnt: that it feels really weird to eat behind plexiglass in front of people you are with.
Loved: to finally see Mount Fuji!!!