Kyoto, Japan
Definitely a nice change of pace from the fast-in-your-face Tokyo. Kyoto is very historic and serene. It was very calming being here.
Soundtrack
Kyoto's Kamogawa River
Small street near hotel
Across the bridge, shopping city-like Kyoto
Matcha Ice cream bar
Nishiki Market
More Nishiki Market, really dig the rainbow glass tiles
Trying out grilled baby octopus
I checked out The Pokemon Centre at the top floor of one of the super shopping malls
MN03
stopped by for some Ramen
Checked out some historical sights
"Let us discover the significance of birth and the joy of living"
Higashi Honganji Temple
Higashi Honganji Temple
feelin' breezy
I really dig the black and gold color scheme here. Very interesting Wiki on this temple.
Sanctuary of Fushimi Inari-taisha
I like that its smack dead in the middle of the town. This shrine was cool because it was an actual hike up the mountains as well. Pretty famous shrine, everyone has pics of it (and I understand why). Here's the Wiki. The shrine is dedicated to the Kami Inari, a fox for the rice grainary. Rice is the soul essence of economy, health and wealth.
A Kitsune statue
Basic Fushimi Inari selfie
10,000 Torii gates
Stopped by for some Wagyuu beef
After returning back to Kyoto via train, I stopped by Issen Yoshoku. This reviewer captures what this place is: "There's a sign saying there are "5 girls in kimonos inside who are famous for their beauty", which turn out to be mannequins in kimonos. They have only 1 thing on the menu which is something similar to okonomiyaki, which is also similar to Vietnamese "khanom bueng yuan"I do like the humor and atmosphere very much. Great place to have a snack and a beer" . Another good link here
Beautiful lady 1
Astro Boy wall
The goods
Later (next day) went for some more Wagyuu beef bbq
Yakisoba
last meal, more wagyuu bbq
Capped off the night at a pretty cool upstairs bar
Kyoto rules. I wish I had time to go to Osaka (I hear the food there is the best) since its only an hour or less bullet train ride away. To Kyoto to Tokyo was about 160min and I was able to go straight from Kyoto back to Narita for departure. I stayed at the Kyoto Granbell Hotel. This is one of my favorite hotels ever. Has a Japanese bathhouse on the bottom floor, the room was small but efficient.
You can see here you have a comfy couch that faces the bigger-than-average hotel LCD TV and the bed takes up the whole rest of the room, side to side. The bathroom is to your back left and closets to the back right
It had a state of the art Toto heated toilet (seriouly, I want one), an Apple TV. The service provided was impeccable. THe staff dressed up in Kimonos (or Yukatas in the summer). The location of this hotel is 2 blocks away from the bridge to the shops and malls of Kyoto. While the hotel is on the otherside of the bridge that is close to all the historical museums and shrines.
I think I really found the answer if an Asian can be a weeb