Miles Walked: 14.5 (Andrei) and 7.5 (Jessa)
Naps Taken: 2 (Jessa) and 0 (Andrei)
Japanese Samurai Armor almost purchased: 1
We are wrapping up our time in the city full of rich history and traditions. Kyoto was a bit warmer, more authentic, observed more American tourists, and surrounded by lush green forests.
During our stay in Kyoto, we stayed in a Ryokan that was over 100 years old. Clyde and Linda were wonderful hosts that provided us with sights to see, food recommendations, and a tour of Kyoto at night. We will never forget about our stay! Here are a few things we did:
Monkey Park: We had to hike a bit of a hill to the see the monkeys. I’m not sure Andrei will ever hike anymore unless there are monkeys at the top. Sorry, Colorado! The monkeys were very friendly, as long as you didn’t feed them unless you were in the feeding hut, didn’t look at them directly in the eyes, and stayed 6 meters away.. pretty sure if a monkey was mad 6 meters was not enough space to protect me. Did you know they have red butts because of all the blood vessels!
Bamboo Forest: This was bigger than we expected. Most people would say this is an underwhelming experience, but we were impressed! Bamboo can grow up to 3 feet in a day! If you have a neighbor that annoys you might be time to give them a wonderful gift of a baby bamboo seed in their front yard. Just kidding that would be very mean!
The only thing Andrei was disappointed about was the fact that he did not see any pandas there. Instead, we saw many people being pulled in rickshaws pulled by men. I couldn’t imagine doing that in the heat!
Wonderful Meal: With the recommendation from Linda, we went to a small restaurant in the middle of the Geisha district named: Ootake. It is owned by a sweet couple that we met. As you can see, we had a delicious steak meal! Incredible.Our favorite meal so far!
After dinner, we stumbled upon a tucked away dessert shop called Harmonika. According to Google, it had a 5 star rating! We had never seen anything with more than 4.Anything with a 3 star rating had a good food, so we were excited to try what this place had to offer.
Owned by this gentleman, he made the desserts right in front of us. He would present us with the dessert, give us an explanation of the ingredients, and then finish it off with a fancy plating technique.
We were in awe and constantly looked over with anticipation for the next dessert in the queue. He just opened up this dessert shop 4 months ago and was doing great things! We could tell he was very passionate about his delicacies and making a personable environment for his customers.
Imperial Palace: Last place we visited was the Imperial Palace. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1000 years, and this was where all the most important decisions were made. It was stunning to walk around and see all the structures, interior, and gardens.
Now time for Andrei’s Reflections:
What I loved most about this city was our location. We stayed in a place called Gion about 3 minute walk to Yasaka Pagoda and all the famous sights you’d see in movies and read about. I loved being able to wake up at 5am and walk around before the swarms of tourists invaded the streets. It felt so calm and peaceful and was fun to imagine the kinds of people who would walk these streets. It always felt like we were learning something new whether from our geisha experience to the palace to how a vending machine that makes fresh orange juice works!
Kyoto will be forever a special place in our hearts. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found ourselves back here someday!
Sneak peek of yesterday’s adventure:
