We slept in a bit today, what with the late night, and headed down for breakfast around 9 AM. After breakfast, we met up with Sarah and Michael, then headed to the train.
On the Keihan, it's important to learn the distinction between all six non-local train options: the semi-express, sub-express, express, rapid express, limited express, and rapid limited express all stop at slightly different sets of stations.
Or rather, it would be important to learn if one didn't have Google Maps to tell you which train to get on. This section of the map is for the other end of the routes, in Osaka, anyway.
We took one of the express variants a few stops up the line, to the station just northeast of the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden, which surrounds the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
The walk from Demachiyanagi Station to the palace involved crossing the Takano and Kamo rivers, where the former joins the latter.
Along the way, we got distracted by the smell of a bakery, and decided to join the fray. It took us a minute to figure out that we needed to get a tray and set of tongs from the stack by the entrance, but then we had no problem loading it up with anything that looked good.
The hot dogs were oddly appealing, but not as enticing as the pastry/bread options.
As we couldn't eat while walking, we waited until we got to the park to tuck into our carbs. Again, more rules. Admittedly, some of these seem perfectly reasonable.
We sort of took a guess which of several gates would be the way into the palace, and started walking down the west side.
There was a cafe ("Rest House") that served as a perfect pit stop before we toured the palace.
Once inside, we followed the numbered route around, peering into the ancient buildings.
The weather was overcast and threatening, but it hadn't really been raining yet, so we really lucked out for a day that was forecast to be rain-all-day.
Apparently, much of the palace is only used for formal, state functions these days. There was some symbolism to the flanking cherry blossom and orange trees, I think.
The gardens inside the palace were also immaculately coiffed, which were honestly more appetizing than the buildings.
About halfway through our walking tour, it started raining lightly. Compared with what we endured in Tokyo a few days ago, it still seemed quite pleasant.
This might be the first time I've ever taken an umbrella selfie. I suspect not, but it feels like maybe yes.
On our way out, we found a few cherrry and/or plum blossoms heralding spring.
Outside the palace, there were plenty of trees starting to bloom in the National Garden.
Leaving from the southern side of the gardens, we strolled a few blocks east and south, aiming for a nearby tea house.
The tea room at the Ippodo Tea (main store) was crowded, so we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. We each ordered a small pot of (various) tea, each of which came with a "confection".
Sabrina had some type of sencha green tea, Sarah had a hōjicha roasted green tea, and Michael and I had mugicha barley tea.
The roasted barley tea was sort of like a weak coffee taste, in that it had a similar-but-milder roasty flavor.
After tea time, we continued south, heading to the Teramachi Street Shopping Arcade.
Teramachi stretches on for almost half a mile, including a slight jog in the middle that put us back out into the rain briefly.
I think it kept going, but we turned into Nishiki Market where it intersected Teramachi, heading west along the similar-feeling-but-more-enclosed street.
It was around 2:30 PM by then, and we hadn't really eaten anything since second breakfast, so we basically ate our way through Nishiki Market for the next two hours.
This culinary tour included wagyu beef skewers, sushi, fried chicken, french fries, matcha ice cream, soy donuts, rolled egg omelets, and probably a few more things that I forgot. Oh and maybe some sake.
This is definitely the first time I've eaten fries with chop sticks.
Extended, indoor, market strolling was a perfect rainy-day activity. It felt like approximately 200,000 other people had that same thought today, so it was slow going at times as we shambled along with the crowds. Also we kept stopping to shop around, and to eat.
Here's the tamagoyaki. Some of the food vendors didn't have any in-store space for eating, requiring customers to just eat in the concourse (because No Walking And Eating); some, like this particular tamagoyaki vendor, had seats and tables. Some had small upstairs dining areas.
Nobody was interested in the candied baby octopus stuffed with a quail egg (in the head), though. There were plenty of very unusual (to us) offerings, but this was probably the strangest.
At the end of Nishiki, about six blocks west of where we'd entered, we discovered that it had stopped raining so we could loop back on another street instead of enduring the crowds again.
Being easily distracted as we are, we ducked into Liquor Mountain for a small tasting session of Japanese whiskies.
One block south of Nishiki, we headed back east on Shijō Street, which is the main artery of a bustling shopping district.
We didn't do much actual shopping, although we did take a series of escalators up to the top of the Takashimaya Shopping Center to visit the Nintendo store. Although not one of their flagship stores, this is the city where Nintendo started in the late 19th century.
The store itself was an assault on the eyes and ears, so we didn't linger for too long.
There was an alleged rooftop section, but it was closed due to weather.
It was almost 6 PM by the time we were done touristing for today, at which point we paused for a few minutes to evaluate our options for dinner.
We briefly flirted with the idea of getting takeout, as there was an enormous food market in the lower level of the mall we were in, but it was nearly a mile walk back to the hotel and our dinners would be nearly frozen by then. Instead, we opted to see if anything appealed to us on the walk, but didn't find any suitable options en route.
Back at the hotel, we unloaded our various bags, took a few minutes to look at nearby dining options, then headed back out to a local noodle bar.
It was a bit of a surprise to have to take our shoes off and sit on the floor (well, on an elevated platform anyway), and it was a bit of an adventure to order, but other than that it was quite good (and quite cheap).
After dinner, we stopped at 7-Eleven to grab some dessert, but didn't eat it until we got back to the hotel. Because there are rules.
Inexplicably, nearly the first thing customers see upon entering is a box full of toy/stuffed cats, with this gem perched atop it.
Tomorrow, we're doing a day trip to Hiroshima with a probable stop in Himeji en route. The plans may need to slightly yield to the weather, depending on the rain situation. We shall see.
1 comment:
The Imperial Palace is unfortunately a lot of closed buildings, but you were lucky to see many plum trees in bloom. How was the whiskey?
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