Day trip to Kyoto Part Two
Tawanda had arrived!
We were all starving so we headed to find somewhere for a late lunch. I was craving pizza, so we went on a wild goose chase to find somewhere we could sit in. After much walking in various directions only to be hit with take away places, we decided to abandon the pizza and hit up any nearby food establishment. We found a rotisserie chicken and Mexican cafe - which yes, is a bizarre combination - but was none the less, delicious!
I had some really nice quesadillas and felt replenished after our long trek up the hill side and back. Another friend of ours, Neil, came and met up with us. He ended up giving us an impromptu tour - as he lives in Kyoto and I was curious about many places so asked him to take us around and suggest places to visit as we were walking. Since we'd passed some shrines and temples on our pizza hunt, we decided to first wander around those.
Then, I wasted no time in asking Neil to show us the Geisha District.
Unfortunately, we were just at the wrong time to see any geisha going to work or between tea rooms but we did get to walk down one of the most well known street. It was really busy but when we went onto the adjacent road, it was really quiet. Neil suggested going to a temple to catch the sunset. He took us through some really pretty temples on the way:
Despite all the interesting things to look at, we had to be quick since it was already really close to sunset but it was so worth it to see Kyoto stretching away below and the sun setting behind the city. The temple also had a giant Buddha statue which was facing the sunset and sat serenely behind us whilst we took our pictures.
Walking up to this sight, we'd discussed sitting above the river Kamo for dinner. Restaurants along the Kamo put up outside decking with stilts above the river for the summer period only and they usually take them down in September so we thought we should capitalise on the opportunity. These restaurants were all upmarket and therefore would be pricey, but Neil knew that one of the restaurants was more reasonable - a Chinese restaurant.
On our walk to the restaurant, we passed through more temples and busy roads.
We were all starving so we headed to find somewhere for a late lunch. I was craving pizza, so we went on a wild goose chase to find somewhere we could sit in. After much walking in various directions only to be hit with take away places, we decided to abandon the pizza and hit up any nearby food establishment. We found a rotisserie chicken and Mexican cafe - which yes, is a bizarre combination - but was none the less, delicious!
I had some really nice quesadillas and felt replenished after our long trek up the hill side and back. Another friend of ours, Neil, came and met up with us. He ended up giving us an impromptu tour - as he lives in Kyoto and I was curious about many places so asked him to take us around and suggest places to visit as we were walking. Since we'd passed some shrines and temples on our pizza hunt, we decided to first wander around those.
Then, I wasted no time in asking Neil to show us the Geisha District.
Despite all the interesting things to look at, we had to be quick since it was already really close to sunset but it was so worth it to see Kyoto stretching away below and the sun setting behind the city. The temple also had a giant Buddha statue which was facing the sunset and sat serenely behind us whilst we took our pictures.
Walking up to this sight, we'd discussed sitting above the river Kamo for dinner. Restaurants along the Kamo put up outside decking with stilts above the river for the summer period only and they usually take them down in September so we thought we should capitalise on the opportunity. These restaurants were all upmarket and therefore would be pricey, but Neil knew that one of the restaurants was more reasonable - a Chinese restaurant.
On our walk to the restaurant, we passed through more temples and busy roads.
{The night lighting highlighted the amazing decoration on one of the temples we passed}
It was a busy Saturday night, so we weren't sure if we'd get in at the Chinese restaurant but my lucky blessing from earlier came through for us, we got a table straight away and ordered some shared dishes to chow down. We splashed out a little, but it was worth it to sit over the river, laughing over funny stories.
Neil dabbles in photography and I was very interested in what subject matter he likes taking pictures of and was pleased when he mentioned looking for things within the day or interesting people. He took some photos of dinner so I'm including them here - his are much much better than any I took!
The food was really nice and having eaten it, we consulted our local guide to get us the fastest route back to the station. Thank you Neil, you definitely made our trip!! My first visit to Kyoto was a success, I had a lot of fun and shared it with good company. I'm very lucky that Kyoto is easy to get to from where I live. It's not too expensive to get the train and it's only about 1hr 30mins to get there so day trips are very easy to make. I sense more trips in the future!
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