Japan 5.3: The end of Tokyo and Kyoto's geisha district at night, along with the best Starbucks in existence

     The next night I ventured to Shibuya.  I walked down a straight that is labelled as both Shibuya Yokocho and Miyashita Park on Google Maps.  I went into a cramped restaurant for some yakisoba.  This area of Tokyo is filled with young people, in different, more trendy clothes and a look very different from the other parts of Tokyo that I have been in.

  Next, I walked down to Ometesando, another Tokyo street lined with lights.  I ended the walk near the Christmas tree at Cartier Square.

  The next day I took a taxi to Tokyo Main Station and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto.  Before I left the hotel, I only had the equivalent of $100 bill.  I asked the receptionist if they could provide change, and they directed me to a machine in their lobby that allowed me to insert the bill and have it give me change however I wanted.  I had never seen a machine in Japan like it before.

  For the first night in Kyoto, I stayed mostly in my hotel room.  I went out for Yakisoba at one restaurant, which didn't impress me, and then went to a gyoza only restaurant, where I tried three different types of gyoza, including a chicken and cheese dumpling with mayo dipping sauce that was surprisingly good.

I tried this odd snack from the local Lawsons.

  Rather than breakfast in a bag, this new hotel offered a buffet breakfast.  First, they make you use a hand sanitizing gel.  Then, they make you use gloves on both of your hands while at the buffet, and you sit near a screen at your table.

  Using the Line app, created and shared through a reddit Japan travel thread, I connected with a young man named Jimmy.  Jimmy is twenty eight and from Boston, and this is his first solo trip abroad.  We met up and walked along Nishiki Market, stopping to sit and talk at a coffee shop near the end, at the west end.  Then we walked back and then north through Shinkyogoku Shopping Street.

A church that I walked past while on my way to meeting Jimmy.

At night, I went out by myself to a small ramen shop, for noodles and curry.

  The next day i went out for coffee, but the cake shop that I had wanted to visit was closed for the day.  Across the street was nother coffee shop.  They had me take my temperature with my wrist and a scanner, before sitting down with 3 barriers around me.  They had flat white on the menu, which I obviously chose.

  At night I met up with Jimmy again.  We decided to walk toward Hanamikoji Street, known for its traditional buildings and geisha.  

  We wandered along some of the local streets before turning south and venturing toward the Kennin-ji Temple.

  We turned east on Yasaka-dori and went straight up the hill toward Hokan-ji.

  Just past the pagoda, we turned left and down a hill into Nineizaka, a big tourist area with many shops.  We had walked down most of the street when I had remembered that there was a unique Starbucks nearby.  I searched for it on Google Maps, and we turned to the beginning of the street, to find the shop labelled with a simply plaque.

  This Starbucks is inside a traditional building, with many small rooms for you to sit on the tatami mat and pillows.

We sat down in this room.

  We walked northwest toward Yasaka Shrine.

  We walked west into town and then took a small alley north, and down narrow streets, until we came upon a one man ramen shop called Ramen Nishiki.

  While the food was just fine, I enjoyed watching him fill all the roles in the shop.  He did a bit of a dance each time he shook water off of the noodles.  It is something that he must do so often that he just got into a groove of doing it a certain way.  While he wasn't looking, a young Japanese woman patron mocked the way he did it, which irritated me.

  Afterwards, I took Jimmy to the Chao Chao Sanjo Kiyamachi gyoza shop that I went to previously.