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Japan – Day 18 (Kyoto)

I got up and packed for the trip back to Kyoto. I wasn’t in a rush, so I took a cheaper local train back. I liked the hotel I stayed at last time, so I rebooked with them and dropped my luggage off at the counter. Since it was near closing when I went to Nishiki Market last time, I walked back over there and took my time strolling through the shopping center. I was feeling jealous of all of your lovely Thanksgiving turkey photos (seriously you guys, you all outdid yourself this year every picture everyone posted looked amazing!) because turkey isn’t really a thing here. So instead I went to an A5 wagyu beef restaurant and had a sirloin steak. It was pretty delicious, I think Kobe beef is still the best but A5 wagyu is pretty dang close! I picked up some souvenirs at the market, then went back to the hotel to check in. I was a little nervous when I walked up and my bag was no longer in the bag storage area, but turns out they went ahead and carried it up to my room for me once it was ready. Since this was my second stay here in two weeks they moved me up to the top with a gorgeous view of the garden across the street. After settling in, I took a seat by the window and watched the sun set over the mountains in the distance.

The only thing I don’t like about Kyoto is that there’s not much night life. There’s arguably only one real “bar” area, and most stuff around here shuts down after dark. One of the few places with things still to do and see is around the Gion district, and since I hadn’t properly explored that yet aside from Yasaka Shrine I decided to hop on the train and take a walk. I didn’t have any luck spotting Maiko, but I did stumble upon a Hard Rock Café I didn’t even know existed so I got my travel pin, and wandered back over to Yasaka Shrine and picked up some street food. Then I headed back to the hotel and jumped in the soaking tub for a bit because dang it got cold FAST. I need to get one of those installed wherever I decide to settle down!

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Japan – Day 9 (Kyoto)

I was going to see my monkey buddies today, but the weather was spotty with random rain showers and climbing up a dirt path mountain is the last thing you want to do in Kyoto when it’s raining! So instead of going northwest, I went northeast with my first stop at the famous Kiyomizudera. The momiji here were at peak, and everywhere you looked was gorgeous. I was only planning on spending an hour here, but I ended up staying for three as I took a ton of photos of the gorgeous foliage. The main temple is completely under restoration, which was a bummer, but not a big deal since there was plenty to look at. A stray rainbow even popped up behind the pagoda at one point, which was great!

Tourism in Kyoto has definitely skyrocketed since I was last here, and some groups have been particularly rude and practically bully other tourists out of the way for their photos. I’m not talking about if someone gets in their shot, I mean someone is taking a photo and they will literally push people out of the way or tell them to move because they want the same location. I first noticed this back when I was in Yellowstone, I was baffled by their behavior at first, but it’s apparently an international problem with these people. They come in on multiple mega-buses and SWARM the tourist attractions and shove everyone else off. I’ve run into them enough times now that when they do try to bully me or others I push them right back, or if they shove I’ll just stand there and not let them take their photo until they politely ask (the only good thing about being a short and stout dwarf class is that you can stand your ground pretty well), or worst case tell them clearly and loudly: NO they can wait their turn. They back off quickly, of course. I never had a problem with these groups before and was rather indifferent towards them, but the Japanese are so polite and there are a LOT of bad eggs with these groups of people (based on my worldwide experience at this point, I’ve noticed it everywhere I’ve went) they’re honestly starting to piss me off. There’s nothing you can really do about it though, hard to be mad at tourists when you yourself are a tourist, right?

After grabbing some udon and relaxing on a tatami mat and watching the foliage and people cleansing in the water fountain for a while, I packed up and headed over to Yasaka Shrine. The foliage here was nice too, and it’s a huge temple, but not quite what I was looking for today so I moved along to Nanzenji temple. Along the way to all of these places I kept stopping at other less popular shrines and temples like Kodaiji Temple, Maruyama Park, and Chion-in. Everything is alive and colorful this time of year! Also since I had my big camera out people would come to me to ask for photos, this is not unusual and the same as in America and I think it’s hilarious. Like reverse paparazzi. So I spent a lot of time taking photos of other people and families with their cameras, so many cute little kids and Japanese babies almost make me want to reconsider not having children. That being said, I didn’t make it through my full itinerary for today. Ah well, that’s why I made sure I was staying in this area for 2 weeks!

After Nanzenji I braved the bus back to the hotel, since it was rush hour we were all jammed in right up against one another. Welcome to Japan! Back at the hotel, I jumped right into the hot deep soaker tub and tried an interesting pear cider which was pretty dang strong, and a weak alcohol orange soda of some sort. Then I spent some time clearing out photo memory cards because they’re already full! That’s the opposite of a problem though.