October 23rd (Kyoto)

Today, it was raining so we bought a 1 day bus pass and I bought an umbrella on the corner of the street so I could take pictures.

We headed for a house that was said to have secret passage ways and hiding spots for retainers to protect lords that came to the city castle. It ended being an old couple's houses and could only visited with a guide on special occasions :S We were sad that we couldn't visit it because it looked really cool.

We went to "Nijo-jo" instead (Nijo castle which is the city's castle). The castle and gardens were really nice. I think the coolest part was the floor of the main palace which is called a "nightingale floor". The floor is designed in a way that it always squeaks when you walk on it (the squeak has a nice sound to it though). It was probably made against assassins I guess.

From Trip to Japan

You can securely leave your umbrella while you visit the castle, free of charge

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

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From Trip to Japan

There's like 2 different trees making one

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

After the castle visit, we went out for lunch. I ate once again a local specialty "nishin soba" (soba noodles with a piece of dried herring on top). I forgot my umbrella when we left :S

A small store had this set up in front of it

From Trip to Japan

Nath and her katsudon

From Trip to Japan

Since we had a day pass for the bus, we took it to go to Inari temple. This temple is dedicated to the gods of rice and sake and it has hundreds of torii along winding paths in the mountain. Lucky for us, the rain had stopped when started the visit of Nijo-jo.

We got off at the stop and as we headed to the temple I stopped in a small factory (the size of a small bakery) and bought nama-yastihashi. It's Hirishoma's specialty dessert but raw. It kind of tastes like raw pie dough with a strong taste of cinnamon. It's insanely delicious :)

Train station near the bus stop

From Trip to Japan

I wonder who she was waiting for

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From Trip to Japan

The shrine was worth the (small) trip. I like visiting religious places, there's always something special and beautiful about them. This temple with it's paths in the woods with rows upon rows of red torii over your head was just fantastic. There was also a couple of statues of foxes that are the messengers of Inari. I really liked them.

From Trip to Japan

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From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

On our way back to the bus stop we bought "yatsuhashi" which is cooked nama-yatsuhashi :P The classic shape is one of a roof tile.

We went straight downtown to maybe try and spot a geisha in the entertainment district of Kyoto. But before that we stopped for coffee in a modern style tea house to take a break from the rain. Before we left we asked the waitress where we could eat a local dish called "yudofu" which is basically tofu (Kyoto is know for it's tofu) and vedgetables cooked in light broth. She told us it was a dish they mostly ate at home and not really in restaurants (the usual places that serve this dish are temples but it was too late and far for us for that option). A waiter that was with her made a quick phone call. Their family also owned a restaurant and the waiter had called so that they would make us the dish :)

It was too early to eat so we visited a nearby temple.

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

We also explored the streets without seeing any geisha (we weren't looking too hard :P). We stopped at a small shop to buy sake from the region so that we could drink it in our room later that night and the owner gave us a sake cup. People are so generous with us.

Roaming the streets

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

We finally went to the restaurant. The dish was good but nothing crazy. It's pretty simple food. The tofu was still presented with some gold leaf on it, the restaurant was kind of classy. The sake drank was super good. The glass was put in a wooden box and the waiter filled the glass until sake spilled into the wood box. We don't know why but we plan on finding out when we get back.

Sake

From Trip to Japan

Tofu

From Trip to Japan

As we walked back, we bought more nama-yatsuhashi and ate some while we walked :P

We ended up not drinking our sake but just write our journals/blog instead and then go to sleep.