JAPAN
Japan 2023 Day 16 - Kyoto
Today was a BIG temple day for us in Kyoto. We needed to have a big strong breakfast to give us energy.
We went to a place called Shinshindo Sanjo Kawaramachi which is a bakery slash restaurant. The premium breakfast was hearty with scrambled eggs, sausage, salad and endless bread from a variety basket. So I got to get a croissant, garlic bread and cheesy bread. Also they offered endless coffee which I took advantage of.
Then we met up with our friends who had to work that morning to start our shrine tour. Here’s a PDF shrine map for tourists to reference.
Yasaka Shrine - starting in the Gion district and not too far from our hotel. Honestly with having seen Fushimi Inari the day before this was mainly standard faire for us by now.
Ryozen Kannon costs extra to go inside but you get a lit incense stick and you get to see a giant Kwannon statue so I think it’s worth it. Partially kidding, this place is actually really interesting.
Besides the big pond, incense burner and statue there’s a temple and place for prayers.
Additionally there’s an altar dedicated to the “unknown soldier of WW2” where the message is of hope for continued peace. They have a card catalogue with the names of all the soldiers killed in Japanese occupied areas. I could’ve stayed and spent an hour trying to read through the stuff they had in English but we had an agenda.
Kodaiji Temple - this was kind of pitstop on our way to our next temple but it was a pleasant experience nonetheless. It is to commemorate the great samurai lord Hideyoshi and his wife Nene. Nene herself is buried here! The complex is quite lovely and a change of pace as well.
You can take your shoes off and go inside the main hall which is really cool. It’s traditional sliding wood doors with rice paper walls and we got exceptionally lucky that they were displaying an old wall hanging that they display once a year in February. They don’t allow photos inside so I can’t show anything but the temple’s website has some more information.
They have a small bamboo grove (we haven’t seen THE bamboo forest yet on this trip):
And on the way out there’s a teahouse with glass walls to enjoy some matcha and mochi in to take in the view and rest.
On our way to Kiyomizu-dera we walked up a path of shops and stalls. We got distracted a couple of times buying stuff and fueling up. They have everything from fried meat on sticks, soft serve ice cream, nama yatsuhashi, personally engraved chopsticks, kimono rentals and so much more.
It’s really cool to see all the people wearing traditional kimonos and robes! It is sorely tempting to rent some ourselves.
Ouso no Sato - umeboshi shop that was selling fancy umeshu and other plum treats. We stopped there for umeshu and enjoyed some free samples.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple - the BIG temple of the day. Also costs extra to enter but has a lot to see and walk around. It was super crowded even in the off season.
The way the temple is nestled into this forested hill is just incredible:
But also, a dope overlook of the city since we walked up so much:
Below is a place to wash your hands and mouth with holy water. The water tastes really good actually! And the cups you use to catch the water are kept in ultra violet light so they’re supposed to be sterile.
Argh I liked this photo when I took it but now that I look at it on my computer it is really hard to see the temple through the trees. So I managed to take literally zero actual photos of the temple as a whole. Guess you’ll just have to visit it yourself!
On our way back down the shopping street it started raining pretty badly so we stopped at Gong Cha for boba and to get out of the wet. I think they have these in the US as well but I didn’t mind since the tea is so good. Also they have Wi-fi here!
We just barely got done getting back from Kiyomizu-dera before leaving right away for dinner. We had our reservation at 5 PM at Moritaya sukiyaki that we made the other day in person. Compared to Komai Tei this place is much fancier with better presentation overall:
I liked the food a lot but I think it’s tough when the meat quality gets so high, the differences are probably negligible. The way they cooked the meat was similar with sugar and soy sauce. So I’d say it was a nicer atmosphere but likely a wash compared to Komai Tei.
We wanted a nightcap after dinner so Justin tracked down a liquor store to check out called Sakenosokuhai. He wanted to pick up a bottle of Yamazaki whiskey to make whiskey highballs with.
We had a tour booked at Yamazaki Distillery for later this week but it was awkwardly timed with other travel so Justin wanted to just buy the bottle of whiskey directly and cancel the tour.
They had a great selection there and totally unrelated to Yamazaki or whiskey I found these gems
After that we went back to the hotel and made some highballs for ourselves and chatted away the rest of the night!