First full day in Kyoto

Today we headed to Nishiki market, which apparently doesn't open until 10am! We settled for coffee before finding a place that did pancakes not too far away. A bit average and over priced, we then set out for Kiyomizudera temple. We were doing so well on the bus, where every stop is announced in plenty of time, until the bus missed a stop and subsequently, we did too 😂. Not too discouraged, we walked back down a hill before walking up a different hill to the temple. Plenty of shops littered the path on the way up and we were rewarded with nice views and lovely temple grounds. We also found the Tainai Meguri (the mother's womb). It's a pitch black pathway under the temple that leads to a lit rock. You spin the rock and make a wish. Now I was expecting dark but wow this was next level - a few times I thought it would be easier to go back, a few times I thought I was going to walk straight into a trap. It definitely made my senses work overtime - I wasn't expecting it to be quite so long. Eventually the stone emerged, like a beacon. We made a wish each and were happy the exit wasn't too far away. We then wandered through the streets of Gion before finding a place for soba noodles for lunch on the way back to our apartment. Having rested, we later headed out for dinner. We had tonkatsu pork fillets which were served with barley rice, miso soup, cabbage and sauce. Wow! The meal was amazing with the most juicy tender pork (that didn't taste porky) encased in crispy, light crumbs... Oishii! It's going to be hard not to go back there before our time in Kyoto is finished! We stopped by Lawson conbini for some sweet treats for later and walked the 5 minutes back to our AirBNB. Not as many steps today; only 18,000.Read more