We arrived in Kyoto and immediately stepped out onto a rainy, soggy side street. (We have since learned that we have been incredibly unlucky with the weather in Japan, for us, maybe 2/3 of the trip had been set to the background of torrential rain, whereas others we have met along the way have only experienced one or two days of misery water pouring from the sky).
Our hostel was pretty tricky to find but luckily we spotted it on the first try as I don’t think wandering around in the rain and the dark laden with heavy backpacks would have done our relationship any favours at that point. We were pleasantly surprised by the fact that, although we had booked a pod hostel, the central wall of our pod could be removed to create one MEGAPOD! It was cosy and cute and cheered us right up (despite the constantly in, constantly bickering couple below us).
We headed out in search of a bar to watch the Japan vs South Africa RWC match and, having refused to have learnt from our previous mistakes, were unable to even get close to the door of the first few places we tried.
We ended up settling for a very enterprising theatre who had set up a TV, a few benches and opened their bar for the evening. It was heart-breaking to watch Japan lose but still one of the highlights of the trip to have been here to experience the highs and lows with them.
On the way home we popped into a conveyor belt sushi restaurant which was closing in 15 minutes (Pro tip: if you’re low on cash this is a great cost saving technique) and had several delicious pieces to cheer us up after the loss. We then popped into another super cheap fast food place because sushi on a budget is not filling…..
The next day we were up early again, this time for the Kyoto free walking tour. The tour takes place around Kyoto old town and Gion, one of the major “flower districts” in Kyoto. Walking down this damp, grey street we were informed not to expect to see any sort of shrubbery adorning the window boxes but after that the term Flower refers to Geisha.
Actually it was a term that applied to the types of houses that were clustered in the area, namely tea and Geisha.Tea houses are large buildings that require monthly membership, costing upwards of £8,000 a month. They are often where big business deals are made or where visiting celebrities are entertained, all in the company of a Geisha or two, of course.
The other type of house is where the Geisha, mostly Maico (Geisha in training) actually reside while they undertake their training and for a few years after they become full Geisha to pay back their debts to their “Mothers”.
After our tour we went on the hunt for Omonomoyaki. It’s different in Kyoto than it is in Osaka but we hadn’t had a chance to try it yet and everyone had told us we should. We ended up finding a place that serves Issen-Yoshoku, a style of omonomoyaki that is commonly served in Kyoto. The list of ingredients was phenomenal and this was the only thing they served in the entire restaurant. It was phenomenal.
Next stop was the station to catch a train out to the middle of nowhere so that we could travel back into town on what Martin assured me was a “Romantic Train”. In true travelsty style, we arrived just in time to miss a train and had to entertain ourselves for an hour. This was the prime area to fly the drone around and catch a few cheeky shots of the river and the shrine opposite.
Drone photos from before romantic train. (Pending)
On returning to the station to catch our train I was slightly bemused, amused to learn that, in fact, the train itself was called The Romantic Train. (Although the journey down was pretty romantic, apart from the crab on the roof). The view was beautiful and the route followed the river, through the mountains back to the city.
Upon getting off the train we were delighted to discover that we were about 3 minutes away from The Kyoto Railway Museum. Obviously, following on from the theme of the day (trains and romance, if that wasn’t clear) we made our way over eager to learn all about Japanese trains and to be very jealous about our sheer lack of Japanese trains in the UK. It was only later, having complained about the lack of alternative languages available in the museum that Emma pointed out to us we could have read every single thing if we had only used Google Translate.
Our last stop of the day was back in the Flower District. We wanted to catch a Geisha show and had found out about a Japanese Arts show that the Geisha school holds every evening. At 2500¥ each it was pretty pricey but we figured it was one of those experiences that you just have to have in this city. The show started with a tea ceremony (we were beat to being volunteers by an incredibly keen couple that definitely didn’t need the caffeine), followed by Japanese flower arranging, a puppet show and a Maico dance. The show lasted for an hour and was a great insight into traditional Japanese culture and arts.
Thursday in Kyoto was very chilled, by our standards as we only had two activities planned. One was the fire festival, which you can read about in a separate post (trying to keep you all hooked, ya see), the other was a visit to the distillery of Martin’s favourite whisky: Hibiki.
The Yamazaki Suntory Distillery tours sell out months in advance (we know, we checked) but there is still the museum and, most importantly, the gift shop (obviously a joke, it’s the tasting floor). The museum is very interesting and we’ll layed out, you can learn all about the history of Japanese whisky and why the various Suntory Distillery locations were selected but the bar area is really the highlight of the place. This is not just because of all the old, rare whiskies that you can try for a fraction of the price of anywhere else, but also because of the aesthetics of the place, it was beautiful.
We each chose a flight of whiskies to try, mine included a “new make” which is basically 60% clear spirit which is rancid and honestly kind of ruined the taste of the rest of them.
Martin was FAR smarter, taste-wise, and chose a 30 year aged Hibiki which doesn’t even retail in the UK (from best estimate we think that, if it did, it would cost about £5,000 per bottle). Martin has never looked so happy as he did when he took that first sip. And even happier when he found out he got to finish all of my leftover tasters too.
On our last day in Kyoto we decided to do like the locals do and become menaces on two wheels. Cycling in Japan is huge and the cyclists own the road (and the pavement, and the footpaths). It’s a very strange feeling, being expected to break all the rules of the road, and all the rules of general etiquette and just do what you want. Nobody gets mad, cars always give way to cyclists, whether they jump and red light or cycle the wrong way down a one way street. The bike is king. Both of us being cyclists who have regularly had our lives threatened by impatient drivers, this was incredibly liberating and we tried to utilise our new found two-wheeling respect with grace, we only ran like 3 red lights….
Our first port of call was Fushimi Inari, the shrine to the Rice God which is made up of a 5km hike up a mountain with over 1000 arches carved with prayers and blessings for the God of Rice. The bottom of the mountain is jam packed with tourists, at least half of whom are wearing kimonos, all clamouring to get the “look at this beautiful secluded place I just happened to stumble upon” photo. This involved a lot of queuing to wait for the group in front to turn a corner or waiting whilst someone was directed into an artfully blocking position.
I love Instagram, I am a regular user as you can see from our Instagram page (@what_a_travelsty), but sometimes I find the culture behind Instagram somewhat hilarious, “candid” and *secluded” photos being two of my favourite categories.
Anyway, what the tourists at the bottom didn’t seem to realise was that if you went a little higher up, put in the effort, and didn’t mind sweating a little, this illusive shot was far easier to achieve:
After completing the 5 or 7km (depending on who’s watch you believe) round trip to the peak and back, we spent some time exploring the food market. We sampled some more takoyaki, and we tried a delicious cake/pancake/scone type situation which we now know is called obanyaki and everyone should try this.
Fully fed we jumped back on the bikes and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon cycling around the city to take in the final moments of atmosphere. We cycled along the river, around the Imperial Palace and through all the backstreets we could find.
We finished off our trip to Kyoto by popping to an Italian Japanese fusion restaurant. Now, I know that this does not sound like a great mix, but trust me. It worked. I had a hybrid of ramen and pasta with a creamy mushroom sauce and Martin had fried chicken and noodles with a tomato based pasta style dressing. If you ever have the chance to try this rather odd sounding cuisine, I couldn’t recommend it enough.
You can see where this restaurant, and many of the other attractions mentioned in this blog are on our Where in the World: Japan page.