Rick, Wendy, and I started our day with a nice, big bowl of ramen. The Kyoto Train Station's 10th floor is dedicated mainly to ramen (except for one random burger stand). We had a lot of options, but the one restaurant with the longest line got our attention. Plus, there were displays outside about the restaurant's awards, and they even had a trophy inside, right next to their pre-packaged noodles for sale.
The nice thing about Japan is that some restaurants use meal ticket dispensers to place your order. Most of them usually have pictures above the buttons, so in addition to the food displays on the front, you pretty much know what you are getting, without having to speak or read Japanese. AND some places even sell different meal sizes: mini, medium, and big! It's perfect because I can order the mini (apparently I eat like a bird) and save money. Win-win!
After getting our orders in, our ramen bowls arrived within a few minutes. The broth was pretty salty since it was miso-based, but the pork was tasty and the ramen was just right, not soggy at all. Rick already decided then he wanted to come back the next day (which we did).
Ramen with Pork, Onions, and a Raw Egg
Next, we rode the #100 bus from Kyoto Station to Sanjūsangen-dō, a temple housing 1,000 golden statues of Kannon, the goddess of compassion and mercy. (We couldn't take photos inside, though). It was pretty impressive in that the hall housing the statues was 400-ft long. What wasn't impressive was the bus ride to the temple. Turns out that this temple was just 2 blocks from our hostel! We could have easily walked. Oops.
So far, taking the metro and railways have been surprisingly easy in Japan. Both Osaka and Kyoto metro systems were very similar, and the maps were easy to read. There was a station a few blocks from our hostel, so it took us no time to get to Shijo-dori, near the Gion area, to meet Akane.
Akane was so nice! It is really great to have someone local show you around, even if it's for a little while. They know so much more about where to go and can communicate for you (which we really needed at times). We had dinner reservations for an modern okonomi-yaki place later in the evening, so in the mean time, she took us to Nishiki-koji, a great food market in narrow backstreets. Even though we were stalling for dinner, it didn't stop us from trying a few things, like sashimi and grilled fish (I can't remember the names, but were similar to hamachi and one was like eel, but it was a fish).
She also took us to the Daimaru food basement, which was just incredible. Lots of food, from sushi, to cakes, breads, teas, gyozas...it was a lot to take in. They had a great display for Milky, with Peko-chan! If only we didn't have reservations in a few minutes...we would have gladly tried some food there as well.
Cute Milky Packaging with Peko
But the okonomi-yaki place Akane brought us to was amazing! 100xs better than Donguri, because the mixed ingredients of eggs, leeks, cabbage, carrots, and onions were more balanced; not overly egg-y like an omelet. They had non-traditional sauce toppings. We tried one that contained avocado and shrimp and two with tomato and pork. I never really ate leeks that much, but I had of lot of it in Japan, and I like it a lot more now.
Okonomi-yaki with Avocado and Shrimp
To walk off our food coma, Akane took us to Gion, the traditional area of Kyoto, where geishas are often spotted. (Unfortunately, we did not come across any.) It was a beautiful area at night, with the lantern-lit cobblestone streets and women wearing kimonos walking around. It was a nice way to spend our last night in Kyoto.
No comments:
Post a Comment