25.11.17 - Kyoto

Breakfast is a simple affair this morning - fruit, yogurt and toast from FRESCO. There's no toaster and Mom doesn't do cold bread in the mornings so we macgyver ourselves some toast with butter and a hot pan. Success!

We tried the muscat grapes and maybe ours not the right season, but they were okay. Not as sweet as I was expecting, although very meaty. The tangerine is very sweet and the apples were crunchy. Pretty good!

And some fun this morning...we got a visit from a heron! I took way too many pictures of this guy, but he is very photogenic. If you've seen Miyazaki's latest film, The Boy and the Heron, I instantly thought of that film when I saw the heron.

After breakfast we decide to visit Nijo Castle. The grounds are perfectly manicured and very nice to walk. We also walked through Ninomaru Goten Palace which seems to go on and on, the building is spread out over a large area. The rooms are amazing to view with all the art and decoration. The floors were cool and totally tripped us up (not literally) - they are designed to make noise like the sound of a nightingale when someone steps on them. Gotta keep those ninjas out.

At the end of the maze around the palace, they had a few food and craft stalls. One of them had mitarashi dango with kinako - yum! I originally skip this and we get coffee/beer from the souvenir shop (yes, they sell beer). After the coffee I can't resist the mochi so we walk back and get some. They also had a matcha dango and red bean dango, but we chose mitarashi. It was steaming warm and so tasty, a perfect snack before more walking!

After the mochi, we make our way over to Nishiki Market and oh my gosh this place is cranking. So many stalls of basically anything you can imagine. It's definitely overwhelming with both people and options. Nothing catches our fancy in the moment, but we walk the full length of the market which seemed would never end! It did eventually end and led us into another shopping area I believe is Teramachi. At this point it's getting closer to lunch so we decide to call it and look for a sushi place we had on our list that is on Teramachi - Kura Sushi (conveyor belt).

Through the door, we go down an escalator which leads us into the dining area. Right inside the door there is essentially a computer in the wall that you use to "register" your party and get a table. Zero person-to-person interaction. We get our receipt and find our booth. Ordering takes place on an iPad-type device or you can use a QR code to order on your phone. Pretty neat. We don't go too crazy and just order a few rolls and nigiri. Dad gets his beer (because beer is everywhere here, even at conveyor belt sushi) and it's green tea for Mom and I. The sushi isn't anything to write home about, but we just needed some light fare to get us through our next walk. Our total bill came out to $15 - two beers, two teas, ahi nigiri (2 pc), shinko maki (6 pc), kappa maki (6 pc), tuna mayo gunkan (2 pc) and ebi tempura (2pc). Suffice to say, we were shocked how cheap that lunch was.

After sushi, we make our way to Kyoto Takashimaya for food shopping. The basement is the best place to be! And clearly everyone thinks the same - B1 is the busiest floor! The amount of delicious looking good options and people walking about, it's an overwhelming experience but so fun too. Everything looks so dang good it's hard not to buy all the things. We grab a few dishes for dinner and make our way out to head back home.

We take a bit of a siesta to rest the feet then decide to walk along Kamo River before dinner. It's about 4:00pm and some clouds have moved in so it's a pleasant time to be out and about. The only caveat to this peaceful walk is turning back every so often to check for incoming bicycles. And there are a lot of bicycles.

Now time to enjoy the goodies of Takashimaya! We picked up "savory shrimp" (that was on the label), "30-ingredient salad" (and no, not all 30 ingredients were listed), potato salad "with vegetables" (such as iceberg lettuce, strange choice but okay), an avocado broccoli salad (Dad's favorite), a superb mini sourdough boule, and instant rice a la FRESCO. The food was delish. Definitely will be back to Takashimaya for more finds.

For dessert, I couldn't help myself, I grabbed one of those ice cream bar things from FRESCO to try. And I gotta say, it's pretty good. I don't usually go for vanilla ice cream (mint chip all the way), but this I would definitely get again.

Time to rest up before more Kyoto tomorrow.

Sayonara!