Kyoto

I had a pretty relaxed first couple of days in Kyoto, just aimlessly roaming around the city checking out markets and reading in parks and by the river. Kyoto is quite a bit smaller than tokyo but it seems like there're just as many tourists which means everything always has a queue. Ive started to really lose my patience with the crowds recently so ive been getting 711 food for the majority of my meals. One of the photos I've attached shows my go to 711 breakfast, kelp sushi triangles and maple syrup Pancakes. The 711 cakes have been totally blowing my mind, they're the softest, lightest, most decadent little fluffy pieces of perfection, theyre actually the best ever. My favourites are the Malay sponge 4 packs and the Pancakes.

On Saturday night I went to a record store and the person working there recommended I go to an opening party for a film festival being held in Kyoto. It was a fun event but just a normal clubbing experience, no weird or interesting japanese stuff (I was super curious about that). There were some people who performed live and then a bunch of DJs who were doing some pretty eclectic world music type mixes.

The following night I went to check out a spring illumination night at the To Ji Shrine. It so magical walking around the grounds while the cherry blossom petals were falling off. Every now and then a big gust of wind would blow through and loads of petals would fly around everywhere, it felt like I was in that Kung fu panda scene where the turtle dies and is carried away by peach blossoms.

There're shrines literally everywhere in Kyoto and I've been doing my best to see a bunch of them. On Monday I caught the bus out of the city centre to visit a couple shrines I was hoping would be less crowded. Unsurprisingly the shrines further away were still stupidly busy but while i was out exploring I pulled into a sake museum which was brilliant! It was an exhibition on the history of Gekkeikan which is one of the oldest and biggest sake producers in Japan. I learned how sake was made and how the process has developed throughout the years and then at the end there was a free sake tasting. All the sakes I tried were so smooth, it was like drinking a light, subtle but slightly volatile juice. My favourite sake from the tasting was one called Horin Junmai Gingo, which tasted a tiny bit like banana. I liked it so much I bought myself a little bottle :).

Yesterday was a big samurai and ninja day. First I went to the samurai and ninja museum where I got to hold a real katana and gun from the samurai era as well as throw some ninja stars! One of my throws went dead on bull's-eye which felt pretty euphoric ahaha. After that I went to a samurai class, I didn't really read what the class was when I booked it but figured we'd be learning how to chop through logs and doing fruit ninja type stuff. Turns out it was actually a samurai dance (kenbu) class which was a bit weird. The instructor was a no nonsense type of guy and there was quite a big emphasis on respect and tradition, so no mucking around. The class was still really fun, we got to do a bunch of stabbing moves and dress up. It was easy to tell who was good at slicing because the sword would make a nice whoosh sound if you did it right and let me tell you I was getting some crazy loud whooshes. I could tell everyone was super impressed ahahaha. There was an interpretive japanese fan dancing section of the class where we learned how to do the actions to portray rain, wind and fire. At the end of the class the instructors did a show for us which was a bit boring in parts but there was a super full on sepuku scene which was actually quite enthralling. For dinner I finally went back on my renunciation of restaurant queues and went to a popular Tempura place which was soo delicious.

Today i went to the Nishiki Market for breakfast where I got some fish cakes, prawn Tempura and then a big tray of Takoyaki. Then I walked to Sannenzaka road which is a super well maintained old style japanese road full of restaurants and gift shops. I got a macha spider which was super yummy. I followed the  Sannenzaka road all the way to the end which brought me to the Kiyomizu temple, its in the jungle that surrounds Kyoto. The views of the city from Kiyomizu were spectacular and it was so nice walking through along all the jungle paths around the temple. Kiyomizu was easily my favourite Shrine/temple of the trip but that didn't last long because for sunset I went to the Mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi which was wayyyy better. The Mausoleum is at the top of a super long path of mossy stairs that go through a part of the jungle that has super tall trees with a thick canopy. At the top of the stairs theres an amazing view of the city and the Kiyomizu temple. The best part about the Mausoleum was that it wasn't crowded at all, no one knows about it somehow! I sat there for two hours finishing my book, drinking my special sake and watching the sunset. It was a perfect end to my Kyoto visit :).もっと詳しく