1st day in Kyoto

Our first day waking up in Kyoto... our hotel room on the 11th floor of the Granvia Kyoto Hotel looks over the southern part of the city. We could see the Shinkansen (Japan bullet train) and other trains pulling into the station below us on a regular basis, but we're so high up that we can barely hear them. It's forecasted to rain today, and today's also the last day of the Kyoto Winter Festival where they use lanterns to light up the Arashiyama (western hills) district. Hopefully the weather will cooperate... but look at the glorious sky! Aahhh.... what a way to start the vacation.

Given the cost of breakfast in the hotel, we decided to look around the Kyoto train station for other food. We found this little Japanese-French bakery called Vie de France in the basement of the shopping mall; surprisingly, people smoked inside the restaurants! No one at the counter understood any English, but luckily we could pick up the baked goods ourselves.

By 10am, we were ready to head out to explore Kyoto! Today's there's also a flea market that takes place every 21st of the month at the Toji temple... it's only a 20 minute walk from the hotel, so we figured we'd go there first and come back to the hotel for lunch. The streets were not too crowded at that time, but it was really interesting seeing how different the city is compared to say, Hong Kong or San Francisco. People drove very small cars (smaller than Mini Coopers) that fit in tiny little parking spots under or next to their homes, and many of the buildings seemed to be short (other than hotels) and quite old. The city is very clean, however, and there did not seem to be any litter on the ground.

By the time we got to the Toji temple, it was VERY crowded. As soon as we got to the main gate, we were swept in by the swarm of people. Rows and rows of merchants selling trinkets, food, and other wares under tents filled the temple grounds. Karen and I were just focused on hanging onto each other as we waded through the pushing and shoving.

We managed to get into a corner where there was room to stand, and lo and behold we were in front of a woman grilling battered octopus and fishballs. At 300yen a pop for something totally new, we had to try it. From then on, stall after stall of food, we went to look at each unique offering: fish-shaped waffles filled with red-beans, griddled batter balls filled with squid and cabbage, more grilled foods that we did not even recognize, and many many others.

This man was selling tiny little fish (they're about the size of this "L"), but there was a really long line of people waiting to buy bags of them...















No idea what these are, but no, they are not s'mores...










Fish-shaped waffles filled with sweetened red-beans (with her husband lighting up to keep her company)...


We did buy a box of these squid and cabbage filled batter-balls cooked in their griddles. They were very soft, were topped with sauce and dried onion flakes. Pretty good!













We also saw many vendors selling earrings, kimonos, pottery, and various hand-crafted trinkets (like these little dolls).


The Toji temple consists of several buildings, and was built in 794 by the Emperor as a "guardian of the south gateway" into Kyoto. Like many other wooden buildings in historical Japan, it was struck by lightning and burned down numerous times (the existing one was built in 1644). This 5-story pagoda is the tallest in Japan, but we were not allowed to enter. The grounds before it, though, was quite peaceful, and many people were resting next to the pond.

The other buildings (the Main Hall and Lecture Hall) housed many statues of Buddha, and were filled with people praying.

We got back to the Kyoto train station by around 1pm, and went to the 10th floor food court -- this floor consisted of 7 specialty ramen shops (with little dessert stores in between)! We could not read any of the menus, and so it was hard to know the difference between the shops other than that they represent the noodle styles from different regions of the country. We just found a store which seemed cozy and didn't have a long line.


The ramen floor works as follows: You pick where you want to eat, then go to a vending machine outside the entrance and buy a ticket for your ramen. Then, you line up (each shop had quite a line), and you enter whenever there is room after someone is done eating. Luckily, each shop had plastic food models in front of the windows so we could see what looked good, and try and match up the price of the display against the price of some Japanese name at the vending machine. While you're in line, a woman comes and takes your ticket, and places the order in advance. As soon as you get seated, your order is brought to you... so the only time spent inside the ramen shop is when you eat! Lucky for this efficient system, otherwise those shops with only 10-12 seats would always be full.

The ambience inside is great, and so was the food. We happily joined in with everyone else in creating the incessant slurping sounds as we ate our food. We have no idea what we ate (I think it was a pork-based soup, with pieces of pork loin, noodles, a soft-boiled egg, chives, and some bonito flakes), but the combination with their hot tea was quite good! Each bowl was also only about $8USD (at the existing ~90Y:1USD conversion), and was a quick local meal that was off the typical tourist path!

Whew! All that, and so far it's only 2pm on our first day! We're heading back to our room to take a quick nap before tonight's tour of the Arashiyama district... stay tuned.