Japan Honeymoon Adventure: Gion, Central Kyoto
We arrived yesterday afternoon in Kyoto. It was raining... hard. I got really overwhelmed in the train station, so rather than try to figure out the subway and stuff, we opted to take a cab. Luckily it was close! (Although the cab driver did get slightly lost. However, it was more of a "which building is yours?" issue rather than a "we're on the wrong side of town" issue...)
Since it was so wet, we opted to chill out in our apartment a little. Through the magic of the Internet, Des found us a vacation rental on the outskirts of Gion, which is the (fairly touristy) geisha district. It's in the middle of an apartment block that I'm pretty sure people actually live in - aka not 100% vacationers. It's kind of nice, actually! We have a small kitchen, a scary robot bathtub and beds upon which to sleep (although my mattress was very uncomfortable last night - we flipped it, so hopefully that will help).
Speaking of scary robot bathtubs - I think I've developed a phobia of automated devices. I keep being afraid that the toilet with its 8000 buttons is going to start spraying me with water randomly (it doesn't help that the toilet here sounds like a demon velociraptor when you flush it) or that the auto-fill feature on the bathtub is going to try and drown me or something. Yesterday Desiree decided to take a bath, and she discovered a button on the bathtub that would fill it up automatically. When it finished, it beeped very loudly (from the panel by the tub as well as one in the kitchen) and yelled something in Japanese, which made me jump up from the couch and start running around in terror. I wish I was exaggerating.
Today the weather report was favorable, so Desiree and I decided to go for a walk to Kiyomizu-dera (a very famous temple that is pretty much down the street from our apartment) and then up to the Philosopher's Walk. Yes, that is a long walk. Yes, right as we got to the start of the Philosopher's Walk, the heavens opened up. Again. Yes, Desiree did decide that since the weather report was for mostly sunny skies, she could leave her umbrella at home. I'm sure you can see where this is going. We took the bus back to the apartment to get Desiree's umbrella and regroup.
After we got the umbrella and Desiree changed into dry pants, we walked up to Gion proper. From there we wandered across the river into Central Kyoto, where we went to some shops (I found an amazing polka-dotted skirt, and Desiree finally found a hilarious Engrish shirt) and had what I seriously think was one of the best meals we've had in Japan, if not *the* best meal - broiled fatty salmon over nori (seaweed) and rice. The salmon was only just cooked on the top - underneath that, it was practically sashimi. It melted in your mouth and tasted like sunshine and rainbows. It's one of the only times I have finished a meal more quickly than Desiree!
After we ate, we wandered along the river, walked down Food Alley (which was full of extremely expensive restaurants - good thing we already ate!) and then wandered back home. I took a bath in the scary robot tub, and now I'm writing on the less scary robot computer. ;)
(as always, more photos can be found here)
Next entry!
Since it was so wet, we opted to chill out in our apartment a little. Through the magic of the Internet, Des found us a vacation rental on the outskirts of Gion, which is the (fairly touristy) geisha district. It's in the middle of an apartment block that I'm pretty sure people actually live in - aka not 100% vacationers. It's kind of nice, actually! We have a small kitchen, a scary robot bathtub and beds upon which to sleep (although my mattress was very uncomfortable last night - we flipped it, so hopefully that will help).
Speaking of scary robot bathtubs - I think I've developed a phobia of automated devices. I keep being afraid that the toilet with its 8000 buttons is going to start spraying me with water randomly (it doesn't help that the toilet here sounds like a demon velociraptor when you flush it) or that the auto-fill feature on the bathtub is going to try and drown me or something. Yesterday Desiree decided to take a bath, and she discovered a button on the bathtub that would fill it up automatically. When it finished, it beeped very loudly (from the panel by the tub as well as one in the kitchen) and yelled something in Japanese, which made me jump up from the couch and start running around in terror. I wish I was exaggerating.
Today the weather report was favorable, so Desiree and I decided to go for a walk to Kiyomizu-dera (a very famous temple that is pretty much down the street from our apartment) and then up to the Philosopher's Walk. Yes, that is a long walk. Yes, right as we got to the start of the Philosopher's Walk, the heavens opened up. Again. Yes, Desiree did decide that since the weather report was for mostly sunny skies, she could leave her umbrella at home. I'm sure you can see where this is going. We took the bus back to the apartment to get Desiree's umbrella and regroup.
After we got the umbrella and Desiree changed into dry pants, we walked up to Gion proper. From there we wandered across the river into Central Kyoto, where we went to some shops (I found an amazing polka-dotted skirt, and Desiree finally found a hilarious Engrish shirt) and had what I seriously think was one of the best meals we've had in Japan, if not *the* best meal - broiled fatty salmon over nori (seaweed) and rice. The salmon was only just cooked on the top - underneath that, it was practically sashimi. It melted in your mouth and tasted like sunshine and rainbows. It's one of the only times I have finished a meal more quickly than Desiree!
After we ate, we wandered along the river, walked down Food Alley (which was full of extremely expensive restaurants - good thing we already ate!) and then wandered back home. I took a bath in the scary robot tub, and now I'm writing on the less scary robot computer. ;)
(as always, more photos can be found here)
Next entry!