Kyoto

The photos post way out of order when I upload all the photos from my computer at once and I'm too lazy to rearrange every single one of them, so some of these events will be not in the order that they occurred, but you'll still get the picture.

We booked a round-trip flight to and from Tokyo and I'm so paranoid about missing flights so we left Tokyo for the end and hightailed it to Kyoto. We stayed overnight near the airport and then flew out early the next day to Osaka because it was way cheaper than the bullet train. Then we took a train from Osaka to Kyoto because we would be flying from Osaka to Hanoi later on and once again, paranoid. The train we took from Osaka to Kyoto was Hello Kitty themed! 

We are staying in hostels for most of the trip, this first one was super cute! You aren't allowed to wear shoes inside and they give you slippers to wear around the hostel. Super clean and cute.

We had quite the list of foods to eat, and one was omurice, which is a Japanese rice omlette thing. We found a really good place but in order to get a seat you have to show up the day of, in the morning to get a code to unlock the booking website, then log in at 1pm and fight for a table. We didn't realize it was this serious the first day we were there, and then the only other day we had, they were closed! So we found another place which had tatami mats and we sat on the floor to eat which was really fun and this omurice was delicious. And I got a miso soup, yum! 

Another thing we had to eat was okonomiyaki, which is kinda like a Japanese pizza, or so they say. There was a place that specializes in it around the corner, everything seems around the corner, Kyoto isn't a huge place. There was a line outside and there were foreigners in it so we felt safe that we wouldn't be turned away. Lots of places in Japan will only serve Japanese people, so you have to be aware of that, but likely any you read about online will be alright. The line outside was going so slowly, and then eventually we get inside and there's even more of a line! It was another place where you take your shoes off before you really enter the place. They had us order while in line to expedite the process once people were seated.

Mine had egg on it, it also has some BBQ flavor, it was pretty yummy and definitely filling.

Continuing on the food tour, we got some takoyaki for Mat since octopus = meat, and he didn't like it much, but you gotta try once.

We got our street food fix in a little open air but covered market.

I got tempura egg which was quite strange, also oddly sweet.

Kyoto has a nice river running through it with paths on both sides for activity, and this was the single time I ran while on this 3 week trip.

We went to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the place with the millions of orange shrines that you probably have seen on social media. At the bottom it was super busy, lots of people taking pictures with lots of people in the background, but there is a whole loop walk/hike that you can do, and if you keep going it really thins out.

Almost nobody in the back of our picture!

There are lots of stop offs too with different shrines dedicated to different people. The shrines in Japan aren't dedicated to deities, but to departed family members. 

Do the whole hike, it's worth seeing this place with nobody in it.

Another day we went to the Arashiyama area to see the bamboo grove. We took a bus there and were lucky to get on super early in the route because this bus definitely fills up. And we were not there in the peak season.

Lots of tall bamboo, it is so pretty with the light filtering through.

We also went to a park in the area with some nice overlooks. There is a train that runs through this area every hour or so during certain months that they say is quite pretty.

Got some food on sticks, lots of people were eating mochi sweet potato ball type things which we didn't end up trying because we didn't have enough cash. Lots of the market stalls will only take cash.

A funny sign that we saw.

The kimono forest, it's listed as a thing to do and I guess it was pretty, but it's just some more walking. Just prior to taking this picture though I had tried one of those ball machine things where you get a plastic ball with a randomized goody. I tried for a pin one because I collect pins, and the machine ate my money!! It didn't have a ball lined up in the slot when I turned the lever. Really put a damper on things.

Nice nature and mountains. Little did we know that we would be CRAVING greenery soon.

Some classic lights on the street. I think Japan is pretty known for its abundance of LED signage and the colors of this one just were really calling out to me.

Got some ramen, they had a vegan ramen and it was so good, the broth was so creamy and the abundance of green onions was amazing.

The place was so cute too, it was just one counter all the way down the shop, probably like 10 seats and cash only. This cat poster made me laugh.

We went down to the Sannenzaka street which has lots of traditional architecture and this temple that everyone takes a picture of.

We also visited lots of temples that had large grounds and really intricate and elaborate gardens.

Definitely recommend spacing out the temples you go to or you will likely get templed out.

We went to a vegetarian cafe that had some classics but all vegetarian.

I definitely appreciated this vegetarian curry because it typically has chicken so we can't go to a place that specializes in it or I won't be able to eat anything. This fake chicken cutlet was so good. I don't really remember the names of the places we ate unfortunately, I'm not a food blogger clearly.

This was at the Ryoan-ji temple, they have a rock zen garden that you can just stare at and get lost in, if it was warmer. We weren't very zen because all I could think about was how cold it was. Also you had to take your shoes off to go into a lot of the temples so my toes were really cold

We saw plum blossoms! My namesake! It was super cool to have that connection.

The imperial palace had really cool architecture as well and lots more of the orange details that the temples didn't have as much of.

Standout food of the trip for sure was the red bean Taiyaki 

Got some revolving sushi, we went to Kura which is a large chain but also crazy popular, we had to wait like 45 minutes for a table. Unfortunately being vegetarian on this trip is proving quite difficult, but I had some omlette sushi and cucumber sushi. Still a fun experience though.

Making the most even though it's raining most of the time. 

Birb.

Onigiri is proving to be the hero of the trip, every time we go into a convenience store we walk out with some rice balls. Most are fish or meat, but there are some vegetarian options.