Japan part 5 - back to Kyoto

We made it back to Kyoto with no problem. This time, we are staying near Kyoto station to be a bit more central. This is the Kyoto tower.


Michelle really loves Kyoto station.

We are staying at the Matsubaya ryokan for two nights. We got a 3 tatami matts room, it is tiny, but good enough for 2 nights. We have our own toilet, but the shower is shared.
After a little rest in our little room, we went to Fushimi Inari shrine. This shrine has over 4000 tori gates lining the path to the top. This shrine has foxes instead of fu dogs guarding the place.
We got there around 5pm and Michelle thought it was a bit spooky once it got a bit darker.
The shrine. You're suppose to ring the bell, clap your hands and then pray for the winning lotto ticket.
more gates, we didn't go all the way to the top because I wanted to take it easy on our rest day. We really didn't schedule a rest day on this trip and we were pretty tired out by now. So we took it easy that day and this is the only sight we went to.
Back to Kyoto station for dinner. On the 10th floor, there are 7 ramen stores to choose from and we got pork soup ramen. I really liked this one, the soup was thick and flavorful, very good. Michelle liked the light broth ramen in Tokyo better though.
The next morning we went to the monthly flea market at Kitano Tenmangu shrine. There are a bunch of people selling used kimono, obi (sash) and the outer kimono covers for 1000Y a piece, cheap. Also many stalls selling used goods such as kitchen wares, antiques, tea stuffs, and more. We spend 3 hours here and had a blast. Michelle got a kimono outer cover, what is it called? And she got the orange scarf there for a total of 2000Y. Joe got a little iron teapot for 2000Y and one of those tiny clay Chinese teapot for 500Y.

We had taiyaki (fish shaped snack) and takoyaki (octopus balls) for breakfast.
We ended up spending about 3 hours at the flea markets, there are so many stalls there. There are actually 2 monthly flea market and this is the smaller one so the big one must have many more people.
Lunch setto at Iimura an LP recommended place. There are tonkatsu, fried fish cake, miso, pickled cukes, cucumber and tuna salad, rice and tea for 650Y. Great price and just the right amount of food. It was easy to order, just sit down and say setto. Everybody was getting the samething.

We took a rest after lunch and then headed to Gion that evening, the geisha district. We started off at the shrine where merchants prayed for good business.

Green tea icecream at a snack shop. There are snack shops everywhere in Japan.
Here is the old quarters of Gion. Cool old wooden houses.
Yay, Geisha hunting success! I think she is actually a Miko, a geisha apprentice. We were at Gion corner when Michelle spotted the Miko and I ran over to take her picture.


She could really scoot in those high wooden shoes.

grilled mochi wrapped in seaweed. umm, this is one snack that we didn't like too much.

This is Ponticho, a small pedestrian street lined with restaurants. The restaurants dining rooms are right next to the river so the food here is quite expensive. We weren't too hungry so we strolled around and then stopped by Mos berger before heading back.