Kirk
Woke up at 6am and went for coffee at 7am.
Elaine
Christmas in Kyoto! Christmas is not so much a family celebration in Japan as New Year’s. It’s like any other work day.
Stopped in for an early morning coffee at Ushiro. I didn’t realize it was part of a Share Hotel. It was very cozy and relaxing.
Picked up a couple of onigiri for each kid on the way back to the hotel. Kali was craving onigiri yesterday but we didn’t get around to picking any up. The convenience stores are awesome for snacks and desserts!
Kirk
I miss having a longer lens for some shots. But, my back is a lot happier with the small camera.
I had another coffee with the kids after we got back to the hotel. Oh, maybe I should explain. Elaine and I usually wake up before them. And, we go our for coffee together. Then come back and get them. We do this daily in Vancouver too.
Since this is an Ace Hotel, there's a Stumptown coffeeshop here in the lobby. It's a Portland thing. We have been going to Stumptown way back when I think they only had the one location in Portland.
There's a Krispy Kreme donut shop in the train station. And, it had a massive line.
Elaine
Before heading out to visit some shrines we had to pick up Shinkansen tickets for our trip to Nikko in a few of days. The train stations have already started to get very busy with both foreign and local travellers. The JR booth attendant was helpful but only gave us two sets of tickets but we needed four so we went to the back of the line. Success!
Visited Fushimi Inari Taishi and Kiyomizu-dera shrines today.
Kirk
Visited the famous Fushimi Inari shrine. It was crowded in the bottom section, but it's a long climb uphill. So, if you go further up, 95% of the crowd disappears. You don't have to go too far either, maybe about 20 minutes up. I took so many pics, like everyone else. It's just so photogenic.
Elaine
At Fushimi Inari Taishi we walked up part way, turned around and walked down, then decided to walk up half way, then turned around and walked down again. Got a lot of beautiful photos.
On the way down we came across a few cats. Kali really wanted to pet one but didn’t want to bother them. Eventually one cat came up to her, so she was more than happy to pet it. Sadly she forgot (or remembered but didn’t care) that she was allergic and her face broke out within minutes ☹️. She said it was worth it.
Kirk
Grabbed some food back at the bottom.
Elaine
he first time we visited Fushimi Inari Taishi in 2016 we tried this food stall, basically a rice ball wrapped in meat (Nikumaki Onigiri). We didn’t have a name for it at the time so the kids called it “Heaven in a Ball” - remember this was 7 years ago. We went in search of it and found a stall that offered something similar on a stick … but it was not the same.
Kirk
Slow shutter speed. Something I can't do with my iPhone (yet).
Went to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple.
I almost took a tumble down the stairs. I wasn't even trying to take a photo. I was just walking. Luckily nothing bad.
Elaine
Around the Kiyomizu-dera shrine in the midst of all the tourist shops there were Studio Ghibli and Sumikkogurashi stores. Cuteness overload!
After visiting some beautiful historic shrines what did we think would be a good follow-up? Visiting a Pokemon Center of course! On our way to the Pokemon Center we stumbled upon the Kyoto Nintendo store. So much fun to browse!
Kirk
There's an amazing Tsutaya bookstore in the same building as the Nintendo store.
They had a Ferrari book, which comes in a case that resembles the heads and valve covers of an engine. $11,000.
Underneath the amazing Tsutaya bookstore was an amazing, huge Japanese pop culture store. They had so much stuff, including vintage items.
Kyle and I picked up some Kyoto-exclusive Bape tees.
There's a Pokemon Center here too.
Elaine
The Pokémon store was big and full of so many cute things. So hard not to buy everything! Kyle got a couple of items but they were all out of the Kyoto exclusive plushies (if they exist). We plan on trying to squeeze in a visit to the store in Osaka in the next day or two - it is supposed to be the biggest one.
Kirk
There's a bookstore underneath the Pokemon Center. And, there's bar inside the bookstore.
Had dinner in gyoza restaurant that was also inside the bookstore.
Elaine
It was Christmas but it didn’t seem difficult to find a place to eat. We settled for a dumpling place located in/next to the bookstore we were browsing in. Dinner was yummy but not quite filling enough, so we went in search of a dessert place. Found a nice little place, Second House Cake Works Higashinotoin. As it was Christmas most of the desserts were sold out, there were only five options left to choose from… by the time we got around to ordering it was down to only four, making our decision for us.
Side note - there is a sales person at a store in Vancouver that we frequent often who is from Kyoto who is a huge Hanshin Tigers fan. The Tigers won the Japan Series this year after a 38 year drought. Whether there is any truth to the Curse of the Colonel or not, no one will ever know. There were a few commemorative magazines at the bookstore so we picked one up for the sales person back home. Note that neither Kirk nor I are baseball fans and the only reason we know anything about the Hanshin Tigers was because the chef at our Midnight Diner experience on our first trip to Japan was wearing a jersey when we visited.
Side note 2 - the kids watch a lot of anime! They both know some Japanese phrases from watching so many shows. Before our trip Kirk sent out a video with common phrases to help us out. I tried so hard to learn basic phrases but can’t seem to remember any of them. Kyle prepped by watching even more videos. Wow he knows a lot of phrases!
Kirk
Elaine and I grabbed a beer at a craft beer bar in the hotel.
Elaine
On our way back to the hotel we walked past Dig the Line Bottle & Bar and decided to stop in for a couple of beers after dropping off the kids. I remembered that Kyoto was supposed to be THE craft beer city in Japan and we hadn’t stopped into any breweries. Here was our chance to try a couple local beers. There were quite a few options we both liked the ones we picked. Loved the labels on the cans!
When we were drinking there was a dude wearing an MIT Engineering hoodie so Kirk struck up a conversation with him. The guy was in Japan on vacation with a few friends. It felt so good to have a conversation with someone and not have to resort to Google Translate!
Can’t believe we have been in Kyoto for only two days. Vancouver seems like a lifetime ago. Heck Kirk is super chill and the kids are relaxed! What more could anyone ask for? This is such a magical place!