Wanderlust: Kyoto (Part 1 of 2)

I am writing this blog post almost a year later.

I’ve never had any interest to go to Japan until I came to Shanghai, and everyone would tell me of how wonderful Japan is. I was definitely very curious about Kyoto.

But the most special part of this trip was that inside of me was a little baby almost 3 months old. It had not yet fully hit us how our lives were about to change in another 6 months. This little one had already visited Japan with us.

Our flight was at like 6 in the morning.  Meaning we had to be at airport around 4.30.  We booked a motel 168 near PuDong Airport, and i remember thinking this is probably the last time we are gonna take budget flights with such hours!

I remember arriving at the Osaka airport – and everything was stark WHITE. Talk about having everything white in our home – this was a white AIRPORT! And while i was at the airport washroom, there was an option in the toilet with “music” – you use this button when you do your business so that others do not “hear”! And then we had to walk through a walkway where it said that our SHOES were being sterilised by the mat/carpet that was there. That was a first!

We were exhausted upon reaching our lovely and super expensive hotel.  We took the bus to see this famous temple, and while on the bus i spotted an indian place – and i just had this strong craving for indian food.  So, our first meal , in Japan, was a singara and paneer butter masala!

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The temple was beautiful although half under restoration.  Everywhere we went, we heard CANTONESE>  i felt like entire Hong Kong must be there!  And there were sooo many women in Japanese traditional clothing – all tourists who rented the clothing!  We considered doing that, but decided not to, and now i wish we had!  It just looked awfully uncomfortable to be walking all day in a kimono with wooden slippers.

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IN the evening we went into town and visited this mall that was like a more posh version of Hong Kong’s ladies night market.  We had Katsudon in a very popular little “hidden” place – i wasn’t a big fan.

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The next day we had a late start to philosophers lane.  This would NORMALLY be sakura season, but as luck would have it, the bloom was delayed this particular year by over a week so we would just miss it!  Its as bare everywhere…and it wasn’t crowded despite a few crowds of photographers here and there.

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After the walk, we visited a Japanese garden, one towards the end.  It was really really beautiful, serene, calm, just like in the Japanese movies!

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The same afternoon, we managed to make it to Inari in time for Sunset!

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The night restaurant streets were bustling and actually very cosy.  We walked around for an entire hour before we randomly went into a bar and it was the BEST Japanese food I’ve eaten – super fresh and amazing sashimi – BEST ramen EVER, I’ve never eaten ramen like this again, and we got to eat FRESH WASABI it was DELICIOUS!!!  And some kind of wasabi pickle!!! we were SO surprised… the place looked dead, we were the only ones beside a group of 3 women.  I”d say we got very very lucky with this place!

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