Japan 5.4: Revisiting 2017's hiking mishap and eastern Kyoto

  I returned to Nishiki Market, with my camera in tow.  I would have loved to take pictures of some of the vendors, but I always feel odd about taking pictures of people without asking for consent before each picture.  One vendor was sloshing around shaving cream in a bucket, to try to attract customers to get a shave.  I would have loved to take a picture of that.  Instead, I stuck to products for sale in the marketplace.

  Returning to the shopping street, you run into Nishiki-Tenmangu Shrine, nestled right in the middle of the shopping corridors.

  I took pictures of interesting storefronts heading north.  

  I decided to redirect east and south to a curry soup restaurant called Omiya Seiemon.  This curry style soup originates in Hokkaido.  The chef and server tried to mime the method of eating, which involves submersing your rice into the soup.  It was absolutely fantastic.  I went back the following day as well.

  The next day I decided to end up at my failed hike from 2017, to retry it in time to catch a veiw of the city during sunset.  I took the train to Keage Station, and then walked along the waterway towards Nanzenin.

  The temple was small, but serene.  Just down the stairs I found the Suirokaku Water Bridge, an aqueduct that I briefly took a picture of in 2017, and then the rest of the Nanzen Temple Complex, which I walked around briefly back then.

  Next, I began walking toward Okazaki-jinja Shrine, dedicated to rabbits.

A beautiful residence I encountered along the way.

A small shrine on the side of the road.

  Just next to the hike is Ginkaku, the silver pavilion that isn't silver.  I tried to visit this before my hike in 2017, but it had already closed.  It was designed by the grandson of the man who created the Golden Temple, Kinkakuji.  The silver temple was meant to be covered in silver foil, but it never was.  To get there, I walked part of the Philosopher's Path again.  I saw some interesting homes this time that I had not caught the first time around.

The entrance to the non silver temple.

This was from a viewpoint along the sliver temple walking path.

  Thirty seconds north of the temple began the path toward the hike.  This time, when I looked for it online, there was a picture guided explanation of the trail.  Some of the trail was recognized in my memories.  Once I reached the bridge that I had missed, and caused me to go off road back in 2017, I found a sign there.  I do not believe that this was there the first time, because I most certainly would have reached the correct hiking location had it been!  I tried to look up my original pictures, but could not find a picture of the bridge location(which makes sense, since I overlooked it the first time).  I made sure to pack a backup battery to charge my cell phone in case I got lost this time around or needed the extra battery for the flashlight in the descent.

  This last picture was of the final ascent to the overlook.  The hike overall was actually a bit longer than expected.  It was mostly uphill, fairly well manicured with one rocky location that didn't point toward the next direction of the path.  Luckily I had the photo guide to help with that. 

  At the top, it was extremely cold and windy.  At first, there were many hikers viewing the sunset.  As the time went on, they disappeared, leaving myself, one other photographer, and an older man who was doing pullups on the small shrine at the top.  I waited until lights began turning on in the city and then forced myself to leave a little earlier than I would have preferred.  I just wanted to make sure that I could see my way back down.  It was only to the very final section that it was pitch black and I needed to use my flashlight to guide me.  

  While it was pitch black, I ran into two young men, also using their phone flashlight to guide them.  They asked me if they were going in the right direction for the hike that I had just done.  They intended to go all the way in darkness.  The footing for a lot of the hike was a bit iffy, so fairly dangerous, and their phone flashlight was pretty weak, but I couldn't say anything.  I did point them to some of the photos used to guide through the hike, to help them out.

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.