We started the day by walking from our hotel to the Chion-in temple. Sprawling grounds, quiet and calming.
A rare photo of me where my face is not out of focused. My husband struggles to grasp the basics of using a DSLR…
From Chion-in Temple, we cut across the Maruyama park to get to the shopping streets around the Kiyomizu temple.
One-eyed monster.
This gorgeous little pussy with liquid gold-coloured eyes was the centre of attraction in the park.
Besides aesthetics reasons, do these bamboo tubes serve any other purpose…?
We walked into the Yasaka Shrine, a Shinto shrine along Gion, and caught the tail-end of a wedding procession.
The bride is so pretty. She looks like Haruka Ayase, the lead actress in Dr Jin.
I have no idea why I am so fascinated with the Kanji characters on these lanterns.
She makes washing the floor look classy and elegant, doesn’t she?
We ate our lunch – hot soba – in this beautiful traditional restaurant.
I am not sure if this is Ninen-zaka, or Sannen-zaka. Hoardes of people were thronging these streets during the weekend that we were there. No matter how lovely these streets are, I wanted to get out of there. I felt horribly trapped by the crowds. Needless to say, we never made it to Kiyomizu Temple. We walked a bit more before heading back to Gion.
Sticks of piping hot grilled mochi. I cannot appreciate this. Give me a stick of gyutan any day…
Maikos. Just ask them politely if you could take a photo of them, or with them, and they will usually be happy to oblige. That’s my experience.
Queues everywhere.
That’s Okutan, the other famous tofu kaiseki place in Kyoto. We went to Tousuiro.
I wish I could plant a plum blossom tree in my HDB flat.
In Japan, you can spot an ice-cream shop from a mile away. They always have this big plastic ice cream cone on display outside the shop. I have seen white, green, pink and yellow ones.
Nope, we definitely didn’t make it to the Kiyomizu Temple.
