Oh what a hot day… We woke up in our Pokémon covered hotel room, and set out for breakfast. Already the 11 minute walk to Komeda coffee had us panting and wishing for air conditioning. Komeda coffee prides themselves on offering “free” breakfast with your morning coffee, so you get half a slice of fluffy toast, with either butter or strawberry jam, and you can choose between a hard boiled egg, egg salad or red bean paste as your protein. Joe and I had one of these morning sets each, and the girls picked “pizza toast with lots of eggs” (Téa) and “homemade egg dog” (Maylin). Both girls were stuffed before finishing half of their breakfasts, so mommy and daddy got leftovers to fill us up from our “large” half slice of toast breakfast…
Then we set out. Our goal today was to go see one of the many famous temples, so we tried to go by subway. Seeing as today is our only day navigating Kyoto’s transportation system, we didn’t really have time to get used to the system. Whereas in Tokyo each subway platform only has one line and every subway that stops there goes to the same destinations, in Kyoto you have to pay attention to which train is coming. We did not. But, all is well that ends well, we ended up at Kyoto Station, which all lines lead to, and easily found our way from there.
The first stop after getting off the subway was 7Eleven. We were already panting and suffering in the heat, even with our fans and umbrellas, and needed cold drinks. We wanted a vending machine, and got selection heaven instead! Armed with cold beverages, we set out for the 10 minute walk to the temple.
The To-ji temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a beautiful one at that. It was built in the late 700s, and we were able to visit some of the buildings surrounding it. The 5 storied pagoda is from 826, and at 57 metres is the tallest wooden pagoda of Japan.
We didn’t last long at the temple, the heat was getting to all four of us. We located a mall (remember, it means air conditioning by now) about 10 minutes away, and tried to survive the walk over. There is no way to properly explain how good air conditioning feels after an hour at close to 40 degrees, walking with a heavy backpack (3 water bottles and all other necessities) and trying to motivate everyone to keep on keeping on…
At the mall, we found many stores to ooh and aah at, and Maylin got a smaller backpack as well, one that can hold her water bottle and other necessities when out exploring. We then hit the food court, where Téa and Maylin were excited to give Japanese KFC a try (it’s not the same as home, and no, they do not have poutine). Joe found a ramen stall, and I opted for tsukemen, both good versions of each.
You’ll never guess what we did next… Claw machines! Gochapon! Enough to make this mom go a little bit crazy… But we steered the girls towards the video games today, Joe and I tried a drumming battle, the girls hopping in to “show us how it was done” (but not really), and they got to do a Mario Kart race.
By the time we were done at the mall, a thunder storm was looming, and another 15 minute walk to the nearest bus or subway station did not sound great. We took a taxi back to the hotel, stuck the girls in the bathtub (because look mom, there are Pokémon on the walls) and relaxed while the storm raged.
We reemerged around 5pm, on the hunt for dinner. Our two main challenges, in comparison when I was in Kyoto with my mom 18 years ago, are that we are 4 people, and half of us are children, and we have a more limited budget. Kyoto is a truly delicious city, and there are amazing restaurants hiding around every single corner, but rarely do they have tables to seat four (often tables for two, or counter seating only), and often they specialize in one type of dish only, and that’s rarely a kid friendly option.
We ended up at Tori Mero, a fun yakiniku restaurant that serves grilled skewers of meat, and so much more. Fun story – my mom and I landed in Tokyo in September 2007 and were recommended a yakiniku restaurant by our hotel staff. We had no idea what we were doing, ordered “assorted skewers” and did not end up eating more than one or two of the five that arrived. These usually have one skewer of each cut of meat, one being chicken skin, another gizzards, chicken cartilage, wings and thighs.
Our order was not quite as adventurous, we ended up ordering 14 different plates of food, and had a delicious meal overall! We ate cabbage with sesame dressing (essentially a cover charge, but I guess they have to actually give you something for the fee), cherry tomatoes w bacon, mochi wrapped in bacon, grilled ray fins (dried and grilled stingray fins), chicken thigh skewers, unagi (grilled eel with BBQ sauce), tuna belly roll, pork belly skewer, deep fried octopus, roasted eggplant, mushrooms wrapped in pork, deep fried chicken on a stick, and finally dessert – “long churro” (it was really long) and sweet potato ice cream.
That concluded our last dinner in Kyoto for now, and we headed back to the hotel to pack up to leave for Osaka tomorrow. At this point, after having lived out of suitcases for so long, we are looking forward to getting “settled” in Osaka. We’ll be there for 2,5 months, and we can’t wait to get to know our new home away from home and neighbourhood!