We left Kyoto early, after yesterday’s satisfying 紅葉 koyo experience, to 岡山 Okayama, dropped our bags at the hotel, and went straight to take the train to 姫路 Himeji (since we had activated our JR Pass).
At the station, we met a very helpful information counter staff who spoke Mandarin, and gave us some advice for our day trip, and also directed us to the popular タコピア Tako Pia at グランフェスタ Grand Fiesta, which was just in front of 姫路駅 Himeji Station.
We were done with sight-seeing for the day and were searching for cheaper alternatives near 祇園 Gion area for dinner, before heading home. Ms V found a highly recommended 居酒屋 izakaya, and we decided to go try our luck!
When we peeped in, we saw that the bar counters were fully occupied, but still decided to try enquiring for seats. To our pleasant surprise, there were tables available in another room, away from the smokey bar counters.. Happiness!
It was a traditional tatami room, which meant that we had to take off our shoes, and kneel/sit on the floor. The trio of stiff-legged 外人 gaijins ended up sitting with legs in various positions to avoid leg cramps 😛 The food and atmosphere were good enough that we sat through leg cramps and enjoyed our dinner for 2 hours!
Most of the items were ¥390, excluding tax, and of a small portion, which was good, because we wanted to have a variety. For a total of ¥5610 (~S$65) for 3 persons, we left the place really bloated and happy.
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During our 1 day stopover in Kyoto, we had originally planned to go for the night illumination at 清水寺 Kiyomizu-dera. However, it had been a rather hectic itinerary for us so far, and 清水寺 Kiyomizu-dera seemed rather far away.
Instead, after hearing great reviews from a colleague, and also read many good things, we decided to go for the nearer 高台寺 Kodai-ji Temple instead, as we wanted to be nearer to the 祇園 Gion area.
We wanted and had hoped to try to catch some 紅葉 autumn colours from the maple leaves during our trip, but it was so difficult to find reasonably priced lodging in 京都 Kyoto, so we decided to stopover at 京都 Kyoto for 1 day (and stayed in a capsule hotel) before returning back during the later half of the trip. 東福寺 Tofuku-ji Temple was the place to try our luck for the day time… and we were so so glad that we made the effort to come here!
As we had our JR Rail Pass activated, we took the train from 京都駅 Kyoto Station to 東福寺駅 Tofuku-ji Station on the JR Nara Line, and from there, it was an easy 10-minute walk to the temple as we basically just followed the crowd.
While the peak was probably over, it was amazing to see the red, orange and yellow colours all around us… simply stunning, and totally worth the ¥400 per adult entry fee! We’ll let the pictures tell the story 🙂
We left 東京 Tokyo on 東海道新幹線 Tokaido Shinkansen and headed to 京都 Kyoto!
After dropping our luggage at the Capsule Hotel, we went back to JR Kyoto Station for lunch before making our way to 東福寺 Tofukuji. FourSquare suggested はしたて Hashitate, and we managed to find the place after some help from the information counter.
The queue was rather short, but we only got a table about 30 minutes later. By then, we had more or less decided on what we wanted, a Seasonal Set (¥1650+8% tax) with a groupa and spinach don, vegetable soba, appetizers and pickles, and a Special Set (¥2250+) with a groupa, egg and vegetable noodle soup, preserved tuna don, appetizers and pickles.
The food was presented in a lovely manner and we could not wait to attack the food! Despite the almost completely blocked nose, I felt immediate bliss from the first bite… I love Kyoto! 😀
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This was our first time staying in an Airbnb apartment ever! Hubby was initially quite wary, as he has read some not-so-good and scary Airbnb reports previously. However, we were having a really hard time finding affordable and conveniently-located hotel stays in Tokyo for 3 persons, so eventually, we decided to look for an entire apartment to rent… We figured that Japan should be quite safe 😛
After browsing many apartments, we finally found one with 2 real rooms located near Shinagawa Station with availability that suited our travel plans. Many apartments that said ‘sleep 3’ actually meant that someone had to sleep on sofa bed, or in the living-room that could be converted to sleeping quarters by shifting the furniture, or having 3 people to share a bedroom.
We had initially planned (with flexibility) to go 河口湖 Kawaguchiko (to admire 富士山 Mt Fuji from afar) by bus either on Monday (1 Dec) or Tuesday (2 Dec). We were more keen to go on Monday, as we needed to get up early on Wednesday to catch the early 新幹線 Shinkansen to 京都 Kyoto.
As we got nearer to the dates, the weather forecast for Monday was cloudy, and sunny for Tuesday… Which kind of determined that we would go on Tuesday, because there’s no way to get a clear view of 富士山 Mt Fuji on a cloudy day.
We had initially wanted to check out イーヨ横丁 Iiyo Yokocho, but somehow ended up 黒塀横丁 Kurobei Yokocho (black-fence alley). However, it looked like a tourist trap with very few customers, and none of the restaurants were appealing to us. We were almost going to settle for one of the nearby restaurant, when hubby recalled that Mr J had mentioned a very famous つけ麺 tsukemen place at Tokyo Ramen Street in Tokyo Station.
Without further ado, we located Tokyo Ramen Street within the massive Tokyo Station, and before I could look for the name of the shop, we spotted the queue 😮 It’s amazing that there were 8 ramen shops here but only one has a snaking queue!
We were looking for a place to rest, and Ms V read about this cafe with excellent, fluffy waffles that tasted like “It was like biting into a crispy cloud“, so that was where we went!
There were 2 branches of NOA CAFE with another one in Harajuku, and apparently this is a popular joint for breakfast among Japanese, and for coffee/dessert break after shopping along the Ginza strip. There are quite a lot to offer on the menu, from waffles to sandwiches, to desserts and mains for breakfast/lunch and coffee/tea/soft drinks/alcohol, and the dining areas are thoughtfully separated into smoking and non-smoking areas.
We had a set of seasonal キャラメルエスプレッソと自家製ティラミスのワッフル Caramel Espresso and Homemade Tiramisu Waffle (¥1100+8% tax with coffee or tea) and a set of キャラメルバナナワッフル Caramel Banana Waffle (¥1000+ with coffee or tea).
The waffles were crispy enough and the tiramisu soft and moist with enough rum. We enjoyed our little escape from the cold as we used the free wifi to plan for our dinner!! 🙂
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We did not think that we could wake up in time for the tuna auction, so we did the next best thing, which was to aim for breakfast at 築地市場 Tsukiji Fish Market 😛
We reached the market close to 9am in the morning, and just followed the crowd into the fish market. We had initially wanted to visit the wholesale market first, but our attention were diverted when we spotted the snaking queues at the most popular sushi places (like Sushi Dai, Sushi Daiwa and Sushi Bun) 😮
We saw a more manageable queue at うまい鮨勘 Umai Sushikan, and had previously read online that it was also quite value-for-money, so we decided to join in the queue.
While queuing, I could not help but notice the steaming hot omelette stick that the person in front of us was having, so I bought one to share from a stall in the previous aisle. It felt great to have hot food in the cold!
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 