Japan trip recap: Kyoto

Kyoto: Day 7-9

After a relatively late but uneventful night out in Osaka, Sophia and I slept in a bit and decided to just get to Kyoto. The train ride up was very easy and pleasant. We got off the train and made the short walk to our hotel. Sophia and I don’t typically splurge on hotels and we usually end up with cheaper but solid options. I was pleasantly surprised by the Granbell in Kyoto. The rooms were small as all of Japan, but the facilities were new and modern.

After getting settled in, we decided to book it to a soba restaurant called Honke Owariya which is touted as the oldest soba restaurant in Kyoto. It normally comes with a line, so we were lucky to have only waited 10 minutes. The restaurant was fantastic and was a great introduction to traditional Japanese wooden architecture that is so famous in Kyoto. The soba might be the best I’ve ever had.

After lunch, we decided to check out Nijo Castle which was pretty cool. Unlike Osaka Castle which was rebuilt after the war, Nijo Castle was still relatively well preserved and we got to see most of the rooms as the samurais did. For dinner, we decided to try Gyukatsu which was delicious but disappointing. My steak was clearly overcooked while Sophia’s was in a good spot. It was still great so what can you do.

We decided to get up really early the next morning to hike Fushimi which is the famous place with all the Japanese red gates. We didn’t count, but apparently there are over 10,000. We got to the base at 7am and it was perfect. The crowds of tourists weren’t there yet and it wasn’t as hot as normal. We hiked all the way to the top taking a lot of pictures along the way. Fushimi was surreal and it was incredibly meditative hiking up and down through the gates.

Afterwards, we went to grab shabu shabu for lunch right in the middle of Gion district. I really enjoyed it but definitely left hungry. After a quick break at the hotel, we went to a really awesome beer bar to grab a pre-dinner drink. It was smack dab in a tourist location, but it was really refreshing to meet some very tourist friendly bartenders. We met a few other Americans and had a great couple of hours just hanging out, drinking great local beers. I was happy to finally drink something with a bit more flavor than a lager.

For dinner, we went to go get dinner at this gyoza location that Sophia found. She’s always good at finding hidden gems and she really nailed this spot as we had the best gyoza we ever had in this small 6 seater. The chef has been making his gyoza here for 30 years.

We had a lazy morning the next day to rest a bit. In the late morning, we went to Nishiki Market to eat brunch. Compared to Osaka’s market, it was definitely a lot more interesting albeit much more touristy and crowded. The variety of food was a lot more interesting at least. We decided to get off the tourist tracks and headed to Izugen which is one of the famous Kyoto style sushi restaurants in the city. I have never really had proper Kyoto style pressed sushi like this so I was pleasantly surprised.

People come to experience old Japan. While most of the country was bombed during World War 2, Kyoto was one of the few that was spared and still holds it’s old Japan charm. I just loved walking around everywhere here. We spent most of the rest of the late afternoon and early evening walking around Gion and checking out the Japanese architecture. We did make a stop to Maccha house which is a famous matcha spot to grab some of their matcha tiramisu. I don’t know what they put in that thing, but it was as good as advertised on Tik-Tok and Instagram.

For dinner, we decided to do our splurge on a traditional Japanese Kaiseki dinner. It’s a traditional multi-course Japanese meal with local and fresh ingredients. The restaurant was right in Gion in an old Japanese wooden house that used to be an inn. Given we were in Kyoto, I wanted to try one of these traditional Japanese meals. We had over 10+ courses and while everything was good, nothing really stood out as great. The experience was fantastic however. There is something about sitting shoeless in a wooden Japanese restaurant being served by someone in a kimono that hits different.

The next morning we decided to go to Arashiyama bamboo forest in the morning. We got there early again to avoid the crowds and glad we did. The whole place is serene and I just felt refreshed walking through the bamboo garden. After, we hiked up 30 minutes to a temple called Otagi which is famous for the hundreds (thousands?) of hand carved statues. These 2 foot statues all had different expressions and actions. Some were happy. Some were playing tennis. To my dismay, I couldn’t find one playing golf.

We got back to the hotel and checked out to get on the road for our next leg which was Hakone. At this point, we were absolutely just exhausted from all the sight seeing and we were happy we were going to a place to relax and unwind.