Day 9: Kanazawa to Kyoto

Day 9: Kanazawa to Kyoto

As we were leaving Kanazawa, the citizens were starting to line up the streets for the festival, and TV reporters already started their broadcasts. Unfortunately we were leaving right before the events started. Oh well, there is always the next time!

The train ride was comfortable and uneventful, although we snacked the entire way with the yummy food we got from the train station before we left. The fancy cookies with a cat image on the box were especially delicious!!

I think I found the oldest taxi driver is Japan at the Kyoto train station. He was at least 80 years old! Communication was difficult since the address on Google maps didn’t make sense to him. I ended up showing the nearest landmark to him, this time he got it and started to drive. Well, as Chinese say, the older the ginger the spicier it gets. Our driver was fearless when navigating the busy and narrow Kyoto streets, avoiding all the traffic! At one point, much to our amazement, he turned into an impossibly busy street with many pedestrians. As he slowly driving on, we slowly realized that our Airbnb was in the middle of the busiest tourist attraction in Kyoto!!

Imagine you were standing in the middle of Time Square in NYT, and found your house right in the middle of it. Well, considering it’s location, we imagined it would be a tiny house.

Well, we were wrong, very wrong. This house, with a simple black gate facing the tourists, is impossibly large, and beautiful inside. As you walk in, there was a cooking pit on the floor and a large tatami area. To our right, a large modern bathroom, a toilet room and a laundry room. Continuing inside, a dinning room with a fireplace and sofa, next is a decent size kitchen in Japanese standard. A nice courtyard garden outside.

Second floor, the master bedroom has two king size beds!! Another bathroom with a shower, another toilet room. And then, there is an entire suite at the end of the hallway, with a tatami room, a living room and a bathroom! I think the house is designed for three families to stay here. Evan happily claimed the suite at the end of the hall, Steve and I each got a king size bed. 😂

Getting onto our comfortable beds, we unintentionally took a nap. By the time we got up, it was dinner time.

Aiming towards a Japanese curry restaurant which has a Michelin star, we started our stroll on the narrow streets with old houses, admiring how well the streets preserved their heritages and charms. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed today. So we randomly picked a Japanese Western food restaurant since it was busy inside. The hamburger steak and pork cutlets were delicious!!

Walking the exact same route back, we realized we got a full moon tonight. The streets near our house were quiet now, revealing its real beauty.Läs mer