(ix) Special Kyoto food post

Finally my favourite part to review - FOOoood. More accurately the numerous street food we tried in Kyoto.

Maruyama Park

The egg/pork belly on a stick was made up of fresh pieces of grilled pork belly wrapped within an egg omelette, drizzled with mayo, soy sauce and ginger. Never thought that this could be a yummy snack combo.

The look of the grilled squid was to die for...it had a chewy texture, not much of a flavoring though.

The crabmeat sticks were my favourite. The meat was sweet and soft, and took 2 seconds for me to devour it all.

Hard not to miss the takoyaki balls. These ones were very soft and had almost a liquid filling with a large tentacle in the middle. Note to self - never fully bite into them when they're fresh from the grill!

Nishiki Market

The street snacks on a stick continues! Nishiki Market is full of seafood and street food stalls; a perfect destination for food addicts. These little grilled squids were sweet and more tender than the ones we got at Maruyama Park.





Fresh sushimi can be found here too, but we went a level higher to try fresh sea cucumbers. The sensation of the cucumbers were slimy and soft at first, semi harder in the center. The taste was a lot better when dipped in the special salty seafood sauce.







OOohh the fish cakes!! If there one thing anyone should try (unless they hate fish or are vegans), its the fish cakes. They range from just plain round cakes to quail embedded eggs on a stick. Their rich aromas can easily be detected a mile away.




Restaurant in Kyoto

A random run in at this restaurant in Kyoto introduced us to our first taste to yakitori - or chicken on a stick. From the menu, we deduced that most of the dishes were mainly chicken orientated. Below were the dishes we ordered -

Taste plate of various yakitori's, the last one being just green peppers. The ones with the marinated sauces that were tenderly grilled we were favourite.




 Rice and egg omelette

Tempura

Fried soba

Grilled onigri

Dessert

Charyo Tsujiri
This place stands as the longest running tea house in Kyoto, and famous for their green tea desserts. The parfaits were no doubt a popular choice for customers.



Green tea taiyaki - can be found on the streets at a small vender.

Mochi with strawberries - at Arashiyama. Came in chocolate or milk bean flavour.

Dango - Rice balls that come in various sauces other than the traditional soy sauce. Below is the green tea variation.

Soy sauce and white savoury sauce dango.

Cute little round cakes with a sweet center sold in a little cake shop.

(viii) Kyoto : temples and bamboo

In contrast to Tokyo, Kyoto was a city full of historical and natural sights. It's a great city to visit for a temple buff, or those who want a slightly quieter place to explore to escape the busy-ness of Tokyo.We took the bullet train using our JR pass straight down to Kyoto, where we headed down to the bus depot area to catch the 205 to Kinkakuji Temple. There is also a tourist center in the station where English speakers can assist visitors with transport routes.

Kinkaku-Ji is in no doubt a main tourist destination for anyone visiting Kyoto. We walked through a pretty scenic garden before arriving at the ticket box. The tickets come in a nice calligraphy written piece of paper so it made for an authentic keep-sake. 

Visiting the golden pavilion for the second time around, nothing much has truly changed. The gold painted shrine still stood out shining among the forest and mountain scenery surrounded by the lake. We were able to walk around and take different scenic shots of the shrine before ending by a small temple.

Judging from the amount of coins around the small buddha stone shrines, people have been aiming their yens into the well or food bowl in the center for luck.

Bus 204 allowed us to travel from Kinkakuji to Nanzenji temple, where we could also walk down Philosopher's Path (cherry blossom area as mentioned in the previous posts). Ideally it would be a great idea to start at Ginkaku-ji Michi Temple (different from the Golden Pavilion) where the start of the Path is and walk down towards Nanzenji. But due to time constraints we were only able to visit Nanzenji. Plus the famous UNESCO Kiyomizu-dera temple was being refurnished so unfortunately we couldn't visit it either.

The spacious temple grounds of Nanzenji consisted of an impressive looking wooden Sanmon Gate and a long wide path leading towards the temple itself. The outer grounds are free to roam around, with a fee to enter the temple itself.

My crochet Charmander posing in front of the temple.

Fushimi Inari Taisha would definitely be the hallmark of Kyoto with their series of red Shinto shrines famously seen in the film Memoirs of a Geisha. Visiting the shrines in the evening had a more 'eerie' feel and look, and hiking to the top of the mountain was near impossible without freezing our butts off and returning late in the evening. Nevertheless, I will certainly return to Inari Taisha during the day and spend more time hiking through all the shrines.

The town of Arashiyama located on the west side of Kyoto is another well-known picturesque destination, mainly the bamboo forest. Coming here was quite simple, again via the train system towards Arashiyama station on the JR Sagano Line. On the way towards the bamboo groves, we passed by Tenryuji Temple which is the top Zen temple of Japan and a world heritage site. Payment is required to enter the temple and garden itself, but we were still able to enjoy the outer arena and smaller temples.

The main road along the way to the bamboo grove was chock full of tourists, with many tourist stores and restaurants on either side. There are clear signs pointing towards our destination, so it wasn't hard to find the entrance into the forest. 








Below was one of the temples in the forest we visited, where couples can fill out a wooden plaque of their dreams and wishes regarding their relationships.

Finally we passed Kyoto Tower Hotel at night outside Kyoto station before training back to our accommodation in Osaka.