Kyoto Day 7

I now know how the Japanese can eat so much and yet maintain a figure. They walk. A lot. Kikuko-san, who accompanied us up the hill to Kiyommizu-dera, didn't as much pant on the entire journey. I, the flabby unfit, was secretly taking fast, short breaths. haha. Embarrassing. Anyway, we too walked alot. And i quite enjoyed it. How I wish I can do that in Singapore but Singapore is just too hot. :O

Day 7

Just across the street from our ryokan is Amazon coffee shop. They serve amazing breakfast and coffee.

We sat here, facing the street.

Then Yan turned emo on me. haha. just joking.

Her waffles breakfast.

My mum's honey toast with ice-cream breakfast.

My open baguette breakfast! It was voted the best among the three. :D

After which, we walked to Sanjusangendo to see the five hundred thousand armed Kanon statues. They are all housed in this thirty-three (hence the name) pillared temple. Sadly, no pictures allowed inside.
Coca-cola benches!

Huge temple doors.

After sanjusangendo, we trekked a 2 km to visit Kiyomizu temple again. This time my mum chose the cemetery route which is even steeper than the previous day's route. (Yan didn't approve of me taking pictures of cemeteries. She said it would also capture the spirits of the graves. haha. i took them anyway cause it's just too beautiful.)
After our arduous journey, we ate! My bento which I bought earlier .Jelly noodle in syrup which we ordered from the stall. The stall mama was quite displeased that we brought outside food into their stall. :Þ

Kiyomizu-dera. Sakura in full bloom.

We caught some japanese girls who came to perform their coming-of-age ceremony. heehee.

Our looong walk down. From here, we began our South Higaishima Walk.

Right turn into Ishibeikoji, our lunch! A home-made soba house.
My tenzaru super-thin soba. I didn't know thin soba can taste this good.
My mum's beancurd skin cold soba.

Yan's ten-don.Some lovely sights along the way:

My favourite anpan-man! And it comes in 2 sizes: big and bigger. :D

Lots of walking after, we made it back to our ryokan where Yan had her cup-noodle dinner and my mum and I head to a nearby Japanese restaurant for dinner. Below is beancurd skin salad.

Seasoned sea snails.Chilled baby octopus.

Sushi moriwase. Wasn't fantastic. I had a real good sushi meal later in Osaka.

Tender beef tendons with mustard. My mum was oohing and aahing over it. haha.
And all the the dishes were accompanied by Asahi, 500ml. I think it was the beer causing me to behave in a particular way because the chef behind the bar kept pointing to me and say kawaii. haha.Our long overdue mochi dessert. We bought them in the morning. Goodnight.

End.

Kyoto- my longest shopping experience Day 6

Today's itinerary is to visit the famous Nishikikoji street market of Kyoto. Then try out the legendary kaiseki for dinner. Well, nothing went according to plan, which is alright because we got found something much better in the end. :D

Day 6

We went to Takashimaya's basement for breakfast. You won't believe the variety. Singapore's version is only one-tenth of the one in Kyoto. My mum and I bought little bentos. My anti-japanese food cousin slept on the chair.

My cousin's breakfast at Lipton along Shijo street: seafood marinara.
My eleven-tea at Lipton: Waffles with strawberries and cream. Waffles here are heaven. How the hell do they make it so soft and yet retain the subtle crunchiness of the skin?
My mum's eleven-tea at Lipton: berries pie.
Cake galore.See the little bags we're carrying? Shopping bags!
At long last, we've made it to Nishiki Market with many shopping distrations on the way. Tsukemono- pickled vegetable.

All sorts of beans. Japanese pickle beans too.

Flower shop!

Luncheon Time!

Curry udon for my mum.

Zaru udon for me. Did I mention I fell in love with udon?

Visit this stall when you visit...

They serve excellent grilled oyster.

After the very lengthy walk in Nishikikoji, we took a bus down to Gion and hopefully we can see a geisha.

So we walked,

and we walked,

and we ain't see no geisha.

Then we chanced upon this little shrine. See this big stone covered with paper? Legend said that if you can squeeze through the hole, you'll get a good marriage. I managed. :D

For dinner, we found this quaint little wooden house that serve nepalese food. haha. We didn't actually have much of a choice since many shops are closed for the spring equinox holiday. The food was pretty good.

Rice with dahl, chicken curry, fried prawn cake and salad.

Nepalese fried rice with salad.

Strawberry cake topped with home-made strawberry jam. Absolutely delicious.

Chai tea. Yumiko-san made it from scratch. She said she had to boil cardamon, cinamom, cloves, anise seeds and pepper together first before adding the milk. (i hope i remember it correctly)

Owner of the restaurant: Yumiko-san. She is married to a Nepalese who i think is very rich because other than this restaurant, they also own a breakfast and bed place in Kyoto. Plus she had this really expensive sound system, the size of a piano, playing in the restaurant.
Everything is wooden. Check it out.


In the restaurant, we met a kind friend of yumiko-san, kikuko-san, who volunteered to bring us all the way up the kiyomizu-dera. We walked almost 2km to get there, which means another 2km back to the ryokan. Japanese, and i mean only the older generation, are very hospitable people. They go all out to help you. Anyway, we made another friend. :)
End.