Kyoto 京都
Traci and I planned to meet in Kyoto on Thursday morning, March 5th. I took the Shinkansen to meet her, which only took 80 minutes. I thought I'd be bored again, but it was so nice to relax and watch Japan go by.
Kyoto was much colder than either of us had expected or prepared for. So, we went to Uniclo (which is like an Old Navy) in the station. There, I got my first pair of "Heat Tech" tights. They are the best tights I've ever bought in my life. With those tights and my uggs (and huge coat), I was totally comfortable all day walking around outside.
I wanted to go to Fushimi Inari, which is a short train ride from the Kyoto station. I think the last time I went there was in like 2006 with John. I really wanted to take some good pictures. Fushimi Inari is famous for all of the torii that go up the mountain. We didn't walk to the very top of the mountain, because that would have taken half the day. It was so pretty to walk around and I was able to get some great pictures.
Since I’d been to Kyoto many times I didn’t have a
particular plan of action. The thing I wanted to do the most was walk around
the Kiyomizudera area and look for a glass shop that my mom and I used to go
to. We took the train back to Kyoto to the Gion area and walked the long way to Kiyomizudera. We actually (surprisingly) found the glass shop (with no map). A lot of Kyoto's streets look similar, so it can be hard to tell which area you're in. The glass shop was disappointing. I am so glad I still have the earrings I bought way back in like 2006, because they are beautiful.
We then walked up to the temple, which is on of my favorites. I forgot that it was still winter, so all the trees were bare and the plans dead. The temple is made of wood, which is usually beautiful when surrounded by green trees…. But that wasn't the case. It's okay though, I'm still glad I went there.
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| The shop keeper popped his head out the window and was selling baked mocha. That sounded great! It was funny though cuz he totally scared me. |
After Kiyomizudera, we walked around some more and found a
street with lots of shops. I ended up doing way more shopping in Kyoto than I’d
planned, but I got a lot of great stuff. The highlight was finding a Miyazaki
store, which had a HUGE Tottoro in it! Tottoro is my favorite character. I got
some toe socks and a new bento box. We got soba for dinner at a hole in the wall place and then headed back to the station.
In total, we walked over 10 miles! We got to the train station and I was really confused because I didn't see my train on the list. I'd missed it by 2 minutes! I probably missed a train only a handful of times in the 3 years that I lived in Japan. I couldn't believe it. The junk thing was that I had to wait 1 hour for the next direct train to Okayama. Luckily, Traci didn't mind sticking around and the train stations always have tons of shopping! So we got some omiyage and I found a Kyoto beer to drink on the train back. Life is good!
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