Japan Holiday, July 22 (To Kyoto)

Packing my bags and heading for Kyoto. Another Shinkansen trip and we were once again hunting for the hotel. I'm not sure why I wasn't better prepared this time, Google Maps said the hotel was only a 10 minute (1 kilometre) walk from the subway we were getting off at, so how bad could it be ? Well, the weather was up in the mid 30's like usual, I've got a backpack on which pretty prevents any air getting to your back, I was wheeling a mid-sized suitcase in one hand and carrying a smaller one in the other (note: having two suitcases was useful exactly once later in the trip, but it was a nightmare trying to carry them on trains, through the ticket gates and walking anywhere with them. Due to a crowded footpath, waiting at traffic lights and being weighed down by luggage I'm pretty sure it was more like half an hour before we got there, but it felt like forever.

Spent the afternoon exploring nearby, while waiting for hotel check-in to open. Started off across the river in Gion which is a small district where they've tried to preserve the old-style houses. It's quite a change from the main street which leads right up to it, which includes a number of large department stores. There's a bunch of small shrines around in the side streets where you can do all the usual stuff - donate a coin, cleanse (wash) your hands, ring the bell, clap twice and pray in that order (I think). The main street ends at Yasaka Shrine which is hard to miss being bright red. The shrine appeared to be set amongst a massive park, but did not go all the way through it.

Kawarama to Gion

Yasaka

Went to Nishiki Market next. It's a famous market in Kyoto which was selling mostly fish and other weird looking & smelling foods that I knew nothing about. The market ended at Daimaru which, as I might have already mentioned, is like most or all department stores in that it contains a food level in the basement and at least one if not more levels of restaurants at the top. I don't care about all the levels in between, which for the most part seemed kind of expensive, I want to know about the food! The Japanese seem to be very big on desserts, with quite a heavy French influence, there's lot of sponge cakes, cookies and ice cream based things on sale. My favourite place is definitely the bakery stores which are just like a Bread Top.