Our plans today were pretty relaxed, and after such a huge day of walking yesterday, we allowed ourselves to sleep in some. We realize that it was cleaning day at the hotel (usually they just swap towels and grab trash), so we had to remake our room and pack our bags up.
Our first objective of the day was seeing Nijo Castle. We set off a bit later in the day than expected (we thought cleaning day was tomorrow!), so by the time we got to the area around Nijo, we decided to grab some food. Caitlyn found 2 or 3 options, but as we have been experiencing constantly in Kyoto, when we check the menu outside the restaurant it is usually at least 2,000 yen per meal (almost $14), and even if we do decide to suck it up and pay, we have found they typically do not allow us to share one meal. Giving up on our search, we decide to go with a “fire ramen” place that David discovered months ago when creating his Japan guide. We find it just a few blocks from Nijo Castle, and after a brief wait, we are called inside.
The restaurant has the kitchen at the center and is surrounded on 3 sides by a bar where the patrons eat while facing in watching the kitchen. They sat us down and we decide to share an order of the “special set”, which includes a bowl of ramen, 5 gyoza, 3 pieces of Japanese fried chicken, and some fried rice. As an added bonus, it came with a free pin from the restaurant! They begun preparing our ramen while we excitedly wait. The boss (as his name tag said) asked us for a cell phone, which he placed on video mode and hooked up to a cellphone holder attached to the kitchen ceiling, doubly securing it with rubber bands. After placing the bowl in front of us, they hand us each a large paper apron and pull out a laminated booklet with large print in English telling us to place our water cups under the bar on a shelf, place our hands behind our backs, and that we must follow instructions if we don’t want to be covered in hot oil. We comply, additionally scooting our chairs back as another patron who had just finished their meal advised us using body language. The boss then goes to the corner of the kitchen and lights a pot of oil on fire, brings it up to the bar, and then proceeds to pour hot oil into the ramen, causing a massive flash fire and subsequently shooting flames and hot oil all over the bar. We were very thankful that our friend had told us to scoot back, as we somehow managed to leave with the two pairs of eyebrows we came in with. The fire extinguished quickly, and we hungrily dug into our food. The ramen was delicious (and hot), the fried chicken was good, but so far our least favorite of the three we’ve now tried. Caitlyn liked the gyoza alright, but David found it too soft and lacking flavor. The fried rice was pretty nice, with large chunks of tender chicken, but very unexpected as it was definitely prepared in a Chinese style. We finished our meal and headed to the front to pay, being given our choice of pin to take with us. The boss was so kind, asking us what our next destination was and then drawing us a map and offering the best bus stop to get there.
We headed out, electing to walk instead as it was only around a 15 minute walk. Today was an important day not only as it officially marked the second half of our time in Japan, but as this was the first time we decided to pay money for a sightseeing activity. Nijo Castle was actually quite expensive, at 1,300 yen per person for access to the garden and the inside of the castle proper. We went inside and took in the views of the impressive interior of the fort-like structure, along with the intricate arches that brought you towards the castle.
We followed the signs to the castle interior, first stopping at the front room to remove our shoes as directed. From here, photos were not allowed so we tucked away our phones.The castle was fascinating, and more of a mansion than what you’d imagine when thinking of a castle. As we walked through with the other visitors, a beautiful chirping noise filled the air. We found a sign that described the floor as “nightingale floor”, being caused by nails moving against nail clamps in the floorboard and producing a sound similar to birds chirping. There were maybe 1 or 2 dozens rooms visible (however none you could enter, just walking through the hall), all barren of furniture but adorned with gorgeous painted walls (signs alerted us these were reproductions and the originals were kept safe in another museum). The room that was the most fascinating was a room where the shogunate officially took Japan from the Emperor, keeping it for over 260 years, and later the empire reclaimed Japan in the exact same room in the biggest “f*** you” we could imagine. The empire even went back and replaced the most pedantic items such as the doorknobs in an attempt to solodify that Japan belonged again to the Emperor. We definitely recommend reading into this if you want more of this fascinating story. All of the other rooms were pretty, and many had signage describing some significance, however no others stuck with us quite so much.
After we made our way through the building, we checked out the grounds and garden area, walking up to a guard tower granting us an amazing view of the city.
We begun to get a little bit “castled-out”, and made our way to our final planned stop of the day in the Gion area (the first place we went in day 1 with the quaint ancient streets) to finish walking through and see a temple. However, the sky started to darken and rain was on the radar. We realized we had just enough time to wait out the rain at our favorite happy hour spot with the 99 yen sours and 199 yen double sours, catching the last hour of their happy hour from 4:00-5:00. We grabbed a drink and worked on the blog some while we waited out the rain. Still stuffed from lunch, we tried to change our dinner reservation intended for 7pm to be a little later, but unfortunately the online system wouldn’t allow changes or cancelling. Additionally, while we have unlimited data and texting, it does cost money to make calls and even then it is uncertain if they speak enough English to make the call worthwhile. A drink later, and our blog nearly published, the rain let up. Along the way to Gion, we actually passed the restaurant we had made reservations at, and they were more than happy to let us change our dinner from 7:00 to 8:00! We continued on our 40 minute walk to the Southern Higashiyama Gion area. We arrived around 5:40pm, walking the streets and noting that most of the shops were closing down and shutting their gates. We went in and out of the few remaining shops, including the chili store with the plentiful samples from our first day. Caitlyn was unable to resist the urge this time, and bought a spice set. We continued up the narrow streets, watching the sun begin to set.
We reached the top, and unfortunately found that the Kiyomizu-dera temple had just closed less than 5 minutes prior. Of course, we still snapped a few photos from the street.
With an hour to go before needing to start to walk to our dinner spot, we decided to pivot and grab a small sake from the convenience store and walk down to the Kamo river bank. We sat along the edge of the river, and as darkness fell over Kyoto, the city came alive with warm glowing lights. We took our time enjoying the scenery and the sake.
Come 7:30, we made the 25 minute walk back to the restaurant. Caitlyn had found this place from a recommended sushi-making class that we were unable to make time for. The chef that runs the class is the chef at the restaurant, and it comes highly recommended. The ambiance was clearly upscale from every other restaurant we had been in, with a modern twist on traditional Japanese design. We unfortunately found very little sushi on the menu, and prices slightly higher than what we were expected. However, we decided to try the sushi sampler and tempura fish and vegetables. The server first brings out complimentary appetizers, which were small chunks of fig covered in some strange chunky white sauce and a bowl of unknown green slime that looked as if it was pulled out of the slow moving river we had walked by getting to the restaurant. Being adventurous eaters, we dug in with no question. The fig dish had next to no flavor, however the flavor it did possess was incredibly conflicting between the sauce and fruit, and the texture was very unpleasant. Speaking of unleasant texture, the bowl of goo was absolutely disgusting. The flavor was foul, and it was probably one of the most unpleasant textures we have both ever consumed. One bite in and we decided that we were putting the bowls down, despite knowing that it is considered rude to leave any food uneaten (though we did choke down the fruit to be polite as it was much more bearable). Our tempura arrived with two pieces of an unknown vegetable, two small pieces of a white fish, and two small shrimp alongside a small bowl of Macha salt (which WAS delicious). The tempura was all pretty good, made even better by the delicious salt. Finally, the sushi we had been looking forward to arrived. It was a little hard to understand the server, but we believe she said it was: sea breem, yellowtail, salmon, tuna, and japanese mackerel. We were incredibly underwhelmed with little to no flavor, and all unique essence of each individual fish totally stripped away leaving a bland piece of flesh over unflavored rice. David says that if you had blindfolded him, he wouldn’t have been able to tell the tuna from the salmon from the white fishes. Additionally, the menu stated that if you only ordered water, you would be charged 500 yen, whereas beer and sake were only 600 yen each. David chose a beer and Caitlyn a sake. The beer came out cold in a standard mug. Laughably at this point, the sake came out in the tiniest shot glass with only 2 or 3 total sips worth of drink.
With incredible disappointment, we finished most of our meal and decided to try to find a real izakaya and grab a skewer or two to put real food on us. We found a small izakaya with reasonable prices and only a standing bar to eat at. We grabbed a beer for David and a normal sized sake for Caitlyn and ordered a few skewers: 1 pork tongue, 1 pork heart, and 1 pork temple. The skewers came out, and with half the portion of meat as compared to other izakayaās we have been to. The tongue was okay with fine flavor but a little tough and possibly overcooked. The heart was similar to the pork heart we had in Tokyo as far as flavor, but we felt it was tougher than we had before (though Caitlyn thought the flavor was great, actually). Lastly, the temple was skewered alongside some leek. The temple was the winner, with an amazing salty tender texture that melts in your mouth. David thought the leek was a bit undercooked, while Caitlyn didn’t mind it.
We decided to start heading back, but were not satisfied or remotely full after two huge days of walking and the totally disappointing dinner. We had been wanting to do a convenience store picnic one night as Japan is known for having great convenience store food, and figured that this was the night. We grabbed a small fried chicken, a spicy chicken, a small smoked duck skewer, a habanero chicken, and purchased a teriyaki chicken and egg sandwich and a onigiri for tomorrow. We got to our room and popped on the āNo Reservationsā Osaka episode to get us excited for our next city while digging into our room picnic food. The regular chicken was pretty good, but the spicy had a jalapeƱo flavor and was actually amazing. The habanero chicken was not quite as good but did have a good flavored spice that lingered some. The duck was fine, with a heavy cured flavor but definitely edible. Winner was by far the spicy chicken. Finally with a good meal and full bellies, we finished the episode in bed and fell asleep.
Davidās thoughts of the day: The first day in Kyoto, I think we were looking to find Tokyo in Kyoto, and that just isnāt the case. It is such a vastly different city with different culture and an experience you canāt find in Tokyo. Also, you canāt be a fly on the wall as much as you can be in Tokyo. It is much smaller and more intimate and we were constantly passing by people we saw all over at other places in Kyoto.
Caitlynās thoughts of the day: There are a lot of ways to do Japan when it comes to sightseeing, either expensive or affordable. Though today was our first day to pay anything for access, we have already seen so many sights and temples. Many temples will have areas that are free to visit, but cost 400-600 yen or even higher to visit specific areas, such as a garden or to go upstairs. While I’m sure the cost could be worth it, it adds up over time and there are tons of free ones that are equally as beautiful.
Total steps walked: 25,282
Total miles walked: 12.16
Bluming Travelers 