Our first full day in beautiful Kyoto – and I managed to convince Jules to come for a morning run. It was still cool enough to move around, so we headed up to the Imperial Place grounds – which are vast. It was still closed up but the park surrounding it and the massive walls were impressive enough. Imagine making that part of your daily run routine – it seemed like quite a few locals already had. Found a great place for coffee and pastries on the way home – we had to walk so as not to spill the lattes.
The plan for the day was to head out to the Southern Higashiyama area of Kyoto to check out the Kiyomizu Dera temple. This time we were taking the bus – which turned out to be way more of an adventure than anticipated. After getting on the wrong bus, I think we also took the wrong path after getting off somewhere allegedly near the temple. Anyway it turned out to be an excellent mistake as we had to walk through a local cemetery to get to Kiyomizu Dera. Kinda cool. As was the temple itself – overrun with tourists but also beautiful. Located high above Kyoto with amazing views and surrounded by a massive verandah. By this time the heat and humidity was getting up there, but we pressed on doggedly washing our hands, bowing and clapping. Luckily there were numerous smoothie and takoyaki stalls on on the way down – and Lou bravely consumed a very sketchy looking hotdog.
We were dehydrated and hangry by the time we made it back to Kyoto station. Luckily there are 9 Ramen shops located on the 10th floor of the station and all of them sold beer. It was the usual deal (order and pay via a machine outside the shop and hand your slip to the dude inside) and the usual deliciousness. Our moods magically improved enough for a little shopping.
After a little time decompressing in our room we headed out again for bit more lookee lookee then decided to go back to Before 9 Sake and Craft Beer Bar again. This time we tried the snacks – all the snacks. Delicious chargrilled edamame, kara age chicken, omelette and some really excellent humous. Would love to go back but don’t want them to think we are creepy unadventurous losers.
flyeelookee 