Tuesday, November 28, 2006
23 November, 2006
We got up really early and walked to the station. We got on the JR line (the bullet train) to Kyoto and it took real quick. It was clean and really pleasant. We arrived 2 and a half hours later and the station was packed. It was a public holiday and it is Autumn, the busiest time of the year. We reached our Ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) and the lady could not speak any English. Thank goodness our lovely friend Kumi and her son Yuki (Noboru’s wife and son) were there to take us out for the day and they translated everything. We had an awesome day with them going first to a typical Kyoto-style lunch at a beautiful restaurant. We then walked through the chaotic streets lined with crafts and food, souvenirs and people, all the way up ‘teapot lane’ to the Kiyomizu Temple. The colours and the views were spectacular. We started by washing our hands before entering the temple and then strolled through the halls and shrines. Before leaving we drank the sacred waters believed to have therapeutic properties from the waterfall. We walked back down through the shops and cute lanes and stopped to have a cup of coffee (at Starbucks) before saying good-bye. They were so good to us and we had a really special day with Yuki and Kumi. We walked around Gion, the main area for shopping, restaurants and nightlife and we had a few more tastings (sweets) in the shops. We found a little restaurant for dinner but no sushi. The main food speciality in Kyoto is the pickles, which we don’t love that much. We got back to our Ryokan not knowing where our heads were going to rest the following night but the old lady told us we could stay another night if we wanted to. We accepted since we tried almost every other place in Kyoto and they were all fully-booked!
We got up really early and walked to the station. We got on the JR line (the bullet train) to Kyoto and it took real quick. It was clean and really pleasant. We arrived 2 and a half hours later and the station was packed. It was a public holiday and it is Autumn, the busiest time of the year. We reached our Ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) and the lady could not speak any English. Thank goodness our lovely friend Kumi and her son Yuki (Noboru’s wife and son) were there to take us out for the day and they translated everything. We had an awesome day with them going first to a typical Kyoto-style lunch at a beautiful restaurant. We then walked through the chaotic streets lined with crafts and food, souvenirs and people, all the way up ‘teapot lane’ to the Kiyomizu Temple. The colours and the views were spectacular. We started by washing our hands before entering the temple and then strolled through the halls and shrines. Before leaving we drank the sacred waters believed to have therapeutic properties from the waterfall. We walked back down through the shops and cute lanes and stopped to have a cup of coffee (at Starbucks) before saying good-bye. They were so good to us and we had a really special day with Yuki and Kumi. We walked around Gion, the main area for shopping, restaurants and nightlife and we had a few more tastings (sweets) in the shops. We found a little restaurant for dinner but no sushi. The main food speciality in Kyoto is the pickles, which we don’t love that much. We got back to our Ryokan not knowing where our heads were going to rest the following night but the old lady told us we could stay another night if we wanted to. We accepted since we tried almost every other place in Kyoto and they were all fully-booked!
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 11:55 PM 
