For no reason in particular, this was the latest I got out of bed the entirety of the trip, finally getting up at around 9am or so. I looked up nearby cafés and went to one a couple streets west. It was a small coffee themed café, which sounds like something most cafés would be, but this one had a large list of different beans, how sweet, strong, etc. each one was, the large canvas bags the coffee comes in hanging on the walls. We got our drink and sat on the second floor, going over the route for the day.
The plan was to visit the traditional district of Kyoto, Higashiyama, and wander around the area for a bit. Our Ryokan was only a 10 minute walk or so from the area, so after finishing our drinks, we set out to the other side of the Kamo River to see some of the most famous buildings, temples, and shrines in the country. Due to the late start in the morning, we ended up catching the start of the very large crowd of visitors that frequent Higashiyama from late morning until the evening.
Despite having to weave between the sea of people some of the intersections had, we were still able to see many of the gorgeous buildings and streets of the area. I grabbed a skewer of candied strawberries from one of the stalls and took a photo of the 5 tier pagoda that acts as th centre point, being visible from a lot of the streets there. After checking the famous sights of Kyoto off of the to-do list, we briefly head back to the Inn to get out of the still-present heat, amplified by the plethora of stairs, hills, and crowds in Higashiyama.
While I would still probably reccomend the area to visit, it is quite touristy, and there are still other areas around the country that have the older style of architecture present in Kyoto (though admittedly maybe not as large of an area). If you are visiting, try to go early in the morning or later in the evening to avoid the crowd and be able to enjoy it when it is a bit quieter. After cooling down and chugging a Pocari Sweat (weird name, I know, but it’s a sports drink I had pretty regularly throughout the trip), we were ready to head back out. Only problem is, I did not know where to go next.
While I do like the area of Kyoto I stayed at when I was an exchange student, it’s not a super interesting area if you aren’t a student of one of the schools there. After some brief impromptu research, I found a shrine that seemed worth a visit a little bit further away from the Higashiyama core called Okazaki shrine, the route to which takes us through a very nice park called Maruyama park.
We also passed some other very large shrines and temples along the way, some of which have absolutely massive entrance gates or Tori gates leading the way in. After just over an hour of walking, we arrive at the small and quiet Okazaki shrine, otherwise known as the bunny shrine.
Small statues of bunnies and an emblem of two bunnies, it’s tuckes away under the shade of some large trees and away from the super busy areas. It’s a very cute shrine with a restaurant on the side. After exploring and taking some pictures, we begin the trek back, this time taking a more direct route straight West until we hit the Yama river, then walked along the river until we were back near our Inn.
After all the walking, we wanted a larger for dinner, and luckily, Kyoto happens to have a lot of one of Japan’s more popular larger dishes, Ramen. It took roughly 2 blocks before we found a Ramen shop, ordered from a meal ticket machine (basically a vending machine that gives you a food voucher you can hand to the chef), and sat down. The food came out and I’m not sure if it was because I hadn’t eaten that day or not, but is was one of the best Ramen dishes I’ve ever had.
The broth was extremely flavourful, there were a good amount of toppings, the noodles were cooked well, and the whole meal came to a total of about $10, despite how much food it is. Two empty bowls later and we head out back to the Inn to lie down lazily until tired enough to fall asleep.
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