With a forecast of substantial rain for the first time on the trip, we grabbed our ponchos, umbrellas, plastic bags for devices, and put on sandals as to not walk around with wet socks all day.
We set off to our first stop of the day – the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The skies were dark and cloudy, but feeling not even a sprinkle, we kept our rain gear in our bags.
We arrived to the palace grounds, seeing mostly gigantic plots of flat gravel that go on for hundreds of feet and a few small sections of greenery and no palace in sight.
We decided to duck down a side area as we saw a nice looking bridge, and were rewarded with the most amazing view of a beautiful building with a boat house and a small boat sitting in a small pond full of vibrantly green water. The pond was full of fish, turtles, and even a crane standing on a rock almost looking staged. We took our time appreciating this area in private, as few people were there at this time.
We found another side trail down to a small shrine much closer to the pond and took a closer look for a little while.
As the clouds were looking darker by the minute, we set off to find the palace. After walking through a sea of gravel, we finally see a massive wall in the distance with giant closed gates. Upon reaching the wall, we realize that this is the outer palace wall.
At this time, the first few tiny droplets of rain finally hit our skin, but not seeming to threaten to increase, we keep our umbrellas packed up. Finally reaching the corner of the wall, we turn and see that it goes on again for hundreds of feet, seeming to be a giant square structure, again with a large closed gate. Assuming the internal palace is not open to the public, we look for any information as to what there is to see on the palace grounds. We finally see a small tent with an informational guide out front, who offers free reservations for tours to the imperial gardens (which you are unable to visit without a guided tour). We learn that there are also a garden inside the palace, which IS open to the public, however, only accessible from a gate on the opposite side from where we were, and not requiring any reservations or tours. We set off to the only open palace gate on the opposite side from where we currently were. Along the walk, we spotted a large falcon or hawk flying low. Suddenly, we watch it dive towards a woman sitting on a bench enjoying a snack. She screamed out as the bird knocked the food out of her hand, circled around, and dove down again to grab some of her food. We were both thankful to NOT have any food on us at the time, as the bird seemed very unphased by humans. Luckily, the woman was unharmed. We stood and watched the bird for some time before continuing on to the entrance of the imperial grounds. After having our bags thoroughly checked before entering, we were handed badges that we were instructed to wear while wandering the grounds.
While a bit cooler than the past few days (mid to low 80’s today), the impending threat of rain caused a massive humidity spike leaving any sweat or water plastered to your skin and causing a real feel similar or higher than previous days. Just to our right was an indoor visitor center, which we entered looking for a vending machine for water or even just some A/C for a moment. Upon entering, the cool air blasted our faces, finally pushing some of the sweat from our bodies. Two vending machines in the corner answered our calls, as we quickly downed a water and took a quick seat on the benches dotted throughout the room. We sat for just a few minutes working on our blog while we cooled, intending to get back out and see the palace, when we looked outside to see torrential rain slamming down onto the ground. We decided to stay indoors and maybe wait out the worst of the rain, keeping our claim on our bench as dozens of soaking bodies poured in from every direction on the castle grounds.
When the rain finally slowed, we stepped outside, popped open our umbrellas, and followed the directional signs for the self-guided palace tour. The inner palace offered views of the internal walls and gates, however did not have any indoor rooms accessible to the public. We admired the towering doors and lucky occasional views into windows on the inside of the palace, reading the history and significance of different parts of the palace on the signs around the grounds.
The grounds also had beautiful gardens with serene ponds, beautiful structures, and unique plants.
We were pretty hungry at this point, having not eaten today and done a good amount of walking, so Caitlyn found a nice local spot called “Taruhinotsuki” in the direction of our next destination. We exited the Imperial Palace to make the 30 minute walk to our lunch destination, and were almost instantly greeted with a down pour of rain. We did our best to stay covered under our umbrellas as we walked out of the park that surrounded the Imperial Palace, but it seemed as though it was raining sideways, from BOTH directions. We found a way to tie our rain jackets around our bags to keep our electronics and valuable dry, as it was too hot and humid to wear the jackets, and trekked on. 30 minutes later and with soaking feet and shoes, we made it to the restaurant. We stepped in to see what looked like a husband and wife team behind a small counter/kitchen and no one else in the restaurant (to be fair it was like 1:45pm). They clearly were happy to have us there, providing some of the best service we’ve had so far. They offered us free plum juice, seemed very thankful for us being there, and actually was the first place we’ve had our waters refilled without having to ask, which was nice. We noticed a little bit in that some older American music such as Elvis was playing on the speakers. We’re not sure if it was already there or they put it on for us. Very hungry, we ordered two meals instead of sharing one like we usually do. David got the fried chicken dish and Caitlyn got a ginger pork dish. Each meal came with a cup of red miso soup (best miso so far- Intense miso flavor in a rich warm broth), rice, two small piles of some unknown pickled vegetables, what appeared to be a cold bok choi side dish marinated in a vinegar based liquid, a cold eggplant side dish, and a few pieces of matcha mochi. The food was all amazing, but we both agreed that the best dish was the fried chicken. It was even better than the boneless leg we had gotten yesterday, with a light and crispy flavorful batter and the juiciest chicken thigh meat inside. It came with a white sauce on part of it, which tasted a bit like a Japanese ranch (Caitlyn loved the sauce while David didn’t care for it). The ginger pork had a wonderful sauce with beautiful mushrooms and nicely cooked steamed broccoli which soaked up the delicious savory and tangy sauce, as well as some onion slices.
We finished everything aside from some rice in Caitlyn’s bowl and started getting ready to pay and head out. They did not appear to know any English, however we we were leaving they did ask in very broken English where we were from. When we said Washington D.C. (we always say this…easier than saying Virginia and getting blank stares), she gasped and started smiling excitedly. We even heard her go to her husband and loudly whisper “Washington!!” She was very thankful and even opened the door for us to leave, following us out and grabbing our umbrellas from the stand outside so we didn’t have to lean over, lastly giving us a small piece of Japanese candy to take with us. We both agreed this was by far our favorite meal due to the overall experience.
With full bellies, we started walking again to work off the meal. We begun to walk towards our next goal of heading to the Philosopher’s Path. Soon after leaving, we realized we were in the college area of town, having a lot of young people and students, and more coffee shops than you can imagine. We briefly stopped into a large temple, but left after realizing further access was locked behind a 600 yen entry fee.
Our GPS took us down the street towards the path and through multiple Japanese neighborhoods, which was fascinating to see and compare to American neighborhoods.
We eventually made our way out of the neighborhoods and towards an area studded with temples, shrines, and parks just prior to the Path. We made many stops to appreciate the architecture and scenery, being disappointed countless times by finding a shrine or temple we wanted to visit and having between 400-600 yen entry fee (while it is only $2.74 – $4.11 USD), they add up quickly. We were able to appreciate Nansen-ji Temple and Eikan-do Temples before finally arriving at the Philosopher’s Path.
Just beyond the Philosopher’s Path was a small shrine, which of course Caitlyn insisted on walking through. It was very small and secluded, and seemed to be more of a neighborhood shrine as compared to the large ones that tourists frequent often,
Finally, on to the path!
The Philosopher’s Path (哲学の道, Tetsugaku no michi) is a pleasant stone path through the northern part of Kyoto’s Higashiyama district. The path follows a canal which is lined by hundreds of cherry trees. Usually in early April these trees explode with color, making this one of the city’s most popular hanami (cherry blossom viewing) spots.
Approximately two kilometers long, the path begins around Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion) and ends in the neighborhood of Nanzenji. The path got its name due to Nishida Kitaro, one of Japan’s most famous philosophers, who was said to practice meditation while walking this route on his daily commute to Kyoto University.
Essentially, it felt like a stony path alongside a more paved walkway for people and bikes running alongside a beautiful small river. We stopped countless times to look at beautiful stone monuments, large fish swimming lazily along the current, and the cutest cats enjoying lounging alongside the pathway. It turns out David is a bit of a cat-whisperer, having a big chonky Boi run over to get pets the second David sat to adjust his flip flop. The streets were covered with cute homes, dozens of cafés, and small boutiques. We reached the end of the pathway after taking our time exploring the path and its offerings.
At this point, we did some digging into our recent walking history and set a few goals for the future. To make up for a few days walking less than we had hoped, instead of taking a bus back towards the region we are staying, that we would walk the whole way (just over an hour) and set a goal of 30,000 steps for today. This felt a little ambitious as we had flip-flops on, and David’s are certainly not broken in. His skin on both feet under the straps begun to be rubbed raw, but thankfully we had a roll of blister tape with us, and turns out Caitlyn is a wizard with applying it (whereas when David put it on, it lasted maybe 20 minutes before peeling off).
We powered through and made the 40 minute walk back towards the main region of Kyoto, passing by some beautiful scenery along the way.
Once back in Central Kyoto, we stopped by a Barnes and Noble-esque library and then Caitlyn grabbed a Boba tea to refresh.
We got back to the bridge over the Kamo river just in time to see an amazing sky as the sun started to set.
We found a few options for food, but arriving at each place, were a little taken aback by the high price (3,000+ per person…we generally shoot for less than 1,500 a person for our formal meals). We spent a ton of time looking for a suitable restaurant, eventually electing to go back to the room to sip some sake we had in our fridge and change our shoes before going out to find more of a dive-establishment or Izakaya in our price range.
This turns out to have been a great choice, as we found a baseball themed izakaya with tons of skewer and small dish options for around 125 yen per skewer (100-150 is what we consider a good price. They go up to 250 or 300 especially in touristy areas). We settled in and had some lovely conversation with an Italian couple on their honeymoon while we shared a few drinks and ordered a ton of skewers to share to fill us up after walking a huge distance today. We talked at length with the staff and some patrons, learning about the Tokyo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka baseball scene and who roots for who (go Hawks, apparently!).
After filling up and deciding it was time to head back, we did our final walk for the night. Check the steps/miles below for the details, but spoiler alert, we hit our goal AND an all time high distance walked in one day. We took some deserved showers, begun to wind down and make some calls to our families before having the sleep of a lifetime.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: The Japanese people are so polite with their inherently understood lines. At rail stations, people will politely line up behind a mark on the ground to enter the train car in order. While waiting to go up an escalator, they fall into single file line to wait to go up. This is very different from the US, where people tend to pool in the area waiting to be the first to get on the train or be able to get up the elevator.
David’s thoughts of the day: so many bars are smoking, but you would never know it. People can smoke next to you and somehow, unless its a flavored tobacco (extremely rare here), it somehow doesn’t smell. Unsure if its good air flow or that the food smells so good and overpowers the smoke, but I’m not complaining.
Total steps walked: 33,313
Total miles walked: 15.82
Bluming Travelers 