Thursday, June 27th 2013 - Kyoto, Round 2

Today we wanted to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine grounds. It is famous for having approximately 10,000 torii gates (literally!) and a lot of stone foxes. It sounded like a bit of a hike, so our plan was to get up early and catch the first bus out there before it got hot and crowded. Turns out it is very hard to convince yourself to get up early when you are on vacation. We left around 9:30. We stopped at a conbini to get a few shrine-viewing pan because every day before this, we say that we'll just grab some conbini food when we get to the shrine and there is never a conbini near the shrine. We decided to be smart this time (so of course the first thing we saw off the bus was a Lawson).

Fushimi Inari is at the foot of Mt. Inari, but the bus ride was only about 20min. The admission is free and there are many shops selling cute fox goods if you so desire. The million-billion torii gates starts almost immediately and everyone wants to take their picture in the tunnel of gates. Do not wait in line to take a picture here. The entire mountain is torii gates, you will find numerous other picture opportunities if you plan on hiking the whole path. Which you should. It is a unique and beautiful Japanese experience and it counts as exercise! It is not for the weak of heart or leg, however. It is on a mountain, remember, so a large part of your experience involves stone steps. It's the original stair climber. When we completed the trail (and prayed at approximately 6,000 fox shrines), Mc found a sign that said the total trail is about 8K or around 5 miles. That's right, five miles of stairs. For our dear friends the O family, I'm sure that is nothing, but for the Mc family it was an impressive feat and we were definitely glad we waited to do that one till that last day.

On our way back down to the bus stop, we stopped at a little restaurant called Nezameya and I highly recommend it! It is right across the street from a big hashi (chopstick) shop, closer to the bus stop than the shrine on the south side of the street. Not only do they have an English menu and delicious, reasonably-priced food (we ate for less than 800¥ each), but it was founded in 1540 and not a lot of Americans get the opportunity to eat in a restaurant that has been in business for 400 years. I had oyakodon (chicken and egg over rice) and Mc had tamago soba (egg and noodles in hot soup) and even though it was quite warm outside, the hot food was very good.

We were pretty tired after our hike and the urge to take a nap was strong, however there was one more shrine I wanted to go to and since it was already 2pm I was worried it would close soon. So we rode back to Kyoto station bought our shinkansen ticket back to Tokyo for the next day, and hopped on the bus to the Sanjusangendo.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Buy your Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket in advance if possible. The ticket counter agents speak great English and if you chooe to go the reserved seat route (about 600¥ more per person), then you can guarantee yourself a window seat - be sure to ask to be on the Mt. Fuji side!

Sanjusangendo is just about the only famous shrine that is within walking distance of Kyoto station. However, it's not a lovely walk and it was very hot, so we decided to make the most of our all-day bus pass. This shrine is my favorite. It's a huge building (sanjusan means 33 and gendo means the space between architectural pillars) filled with 10,000 hand-carved statues. Because they are all hand-carved, each one is unique. It is quiet and peaceful and you are not allowed to take pictures inside which forces you to just enjoy the experience. As we left the main hall, the afternoon sun was streaming through the windows and the quiet calm was the perfect way to end the day. Because we weren't allowed to take pictures, this temple is one you are going to have to experience for yourself.

When we got back to the hostel, we did take a short nap before trekking out to have dinner in a restaurant our last night in Kyoto. We went to Donguri, which I chose because Mc had not yet tried okanomiyaki. Okanomiyaki is difficult to describe; it's basically a big dinner pancake you cook yourself on a griddle. They all have the same base - cabbage, egg, and batter - and then you can order different types of other ingredients. We chose a seafood one and a beef one. Unfortunately, at this chain they do not let you cook your own okinomiyaki, they bring it to you cooked and slide it onto your table grill to stay hot. This was disappointing as I wanted Mc to have the experience of cooking it himself at the table like I did the first time I had okonomiyaki. However, he still got to try a new food. (I recommend the seafood variety and it's always better with a beer.)

Okonomiyaki at Donguri

Off to Tokyo tomorrow to visit our friend IB!

Wednesday, June 26th - Nara

This morning I was awakened by the sound of rushing water. Not being a light sleeper, at first I thought someone showering and then I thought that maybe the hostel was flooding. It took a moment to realize that it was raining. I was hoping that maybe it was just morning showers, but sure enough, when I consulted weather.com it was rain with 100% chance of rain. The hour by hour stated that it would rain until 1pm, at which time it would change to heavy rain.

We had wanted to take a "relax day" while in Kyoto, meaning that you set aside a day where you don't have to be up at a certain time and you just dink around all day doing stuff like laundry or travel writing. We had planned to take our relax day on Thursday, however given the weather I woke up my handsome husby to see if he wanted to move it up to today. In the end, we decided to forge ahead with our plans to see Nara today, despite the downpour. We are Oregonians after all and I figured that at least the temples wouldn't be crowded (this turned out to be wildly inaccurate).

We had our breakfast of random conbini pan (mine turned out to be bread with soft cheese in the middle and walnuts on top, Mc ended up with what he thinks was a Hello Kitty-brand cheeseburger) and I had left over lemon tea while Mc drank his Darth Vader coffee jelly. We grabbed a couple of the numerous umbrellas the K's House has set out for you to borrow and took off for the train station. The train station is maybe a 10 min. walk and we were drenched from the knees down by the time we got to the station. We had to stop halfway to get cash out of the ATM at 7-11 (which does accept US debit cards and even has a handy English option, in case you were wondering).

Yes, cafe jelly means there are jello-bits in your coffee. Mc claims it's quite good, actually.

At Kyoto Station we looked at the train line board trying to see the best route, but we didn't see a line that went directly to Nara, which the internet had led us to believe did exist. So we decided to ask. Kyoto Station has a very handy train information desk where they speak very good English. The lady there told us that the train to Nara left in 6 min. (Actually, the conversation went more like, "Ohayo! What is the best way to Nara?" "JR line." "Yes . . . which line." "Nara line." "OK, but where is it?" "Ah, go through this gate, then upstairs turn left, it is #8, [glances at watch] it leaves at 10:04." She said this last part very nonchalantly, as if it it was inconceivable that we wouldn't be able to make a train when we had 6 whole minutes to find the line and get there.) Thus began Mc's first experience running for the train. He was a champ; he didn't even knock anyone over and we got seats with like 30 seconds to spare.

The express train to Nara takes just under an hour. Once we arrived we saw that it was pouring in Nara as well. We made our way to the information office (which contained a bizarre 3 foot statue of a monk-looking guy with deer antlers) and asked how to get to the Todaiji Daibutsu (big Buddha). The Todaiji Daibutsu is what the Kamakura Daibustu was modeled after. The one in Nara is a little bit bigger and his house didn't blow away in a typhoon (although it did burn down twice). His house, in fact, is the largest wooden structure in the world. Since I love the Kamakura Daibutsu so much, it only made sense to visit his brother, especially when I found out how close he was to Kyoto. The lady at the Nara information desk got out an English map and then traced the road to the Daibutsu with a red pencil. Mc and I looked outside and then at each other and I asked, "Isn't there a bus?" "Oh, you want to take bus?" We looked outside again and said, "Yes," wondering briefly if she was unable to see the downpour out the window or if she thought that foreigners preferred to swim to tourist attractions. She directed us to bus #2 which picks up right outside the information office. Nara does not appear to have an all day bus pass, and it costs 200¥ to get to the Todaiji Daibutsu each way.

The big Buddha and the building he is housed in are both incredibly impressive and totally worth the trip to Nara. Admission is 500¥. This big Buddha is in a totally different pose from the one in Kamakura, he has one hand up and his eyes are looking at you. Mc and I bought a candle (it's another way to pray or make wishes) and as Mc picked a candle from the unattended candle box and lit it, looking around at this extremely old, paraffin soaked building he looked at me and asked, "Really? They're just going to let me light a candle in here?" To which I responded, "Well, it's only burned down twice." (A note about Japan: Everything is made of wood and any sight you go see is a 500 year old impeccable replica of the 1,000 year old original that burned down at least twice. It would seem that, like when a kid kicks over an ant hill, the Japanese just get right back to building it the exact same way in the exact same spot of the exact same stuff. Although that's not totally true - the ants must have gotten tired in the case of the Todaiji Daibutsu as his current house is but two-thirds the size of the original. Anyway, everything in Japan has burned down.) This Buddha is also flanked by two large and impressive guardian statues. While I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, I still prefer my fellow in Kamakura.

Todaiji Daibutsu building (those specks are people)

Todaiji Daibutsu

Nara is also famous for having a lot of shika (deer) wandering around the huge park. I was worried that we wouldn't get to see any because of the weather, and it turns out that was silly. There are deer everywhere. (Due to a legend about a god riding a white deer to visit a family in Nara, deer here are protected and have done as they please ever since and have developed quite the attitude.) There are stands along the path to the big Buddha selling shika senbei (deer crackers) for 150¥. Apparently the deer are pretty tame. Of course we needed a picture with a deer and on our way back from the big Buddha, we stopped to buy some shika senbei. In my mind, the picture would be me kneeling down near a shika (Japanese deer are very small), maybe wrapping one arm around it as it nibbled delicately at a cracker while sharing my umbrella. What happened was a gang of shika saw us head towards the shika senbei stand and followed us, flipping a coin menacingly in the air. Once I had paid the lady and unwrapped the senbei, I looked up to find myself completely surrounded by shika armed with antlers and I think I saw a chain and a lead pipe. Holding an umbrella and a stack of senbei and a camera while a shika has his head in my purse (in the off chance I snuck a cracker in there when he wasn't looking) was difficult at best. Mc had to free me of the shika in my purse rather forcibly before I could hand off the camera to him for a picture of me essentially being mugged by adorable deer. As soon as the senbei were gone, the shika gang spotted another easy mark and were off. We definitely got pictures of deer, but I doubt they were very cute.

Deceptively cute shika

We thought this sign was hilarious . . . at first

After that, we decided to call it a day. Our shoes were soaked through and the umbrellas were only really working to keep our heads mostly dry. Once back at Nara station, we were looking for a conbini so we could get a lunch for the train when Mc spotted a MOS Burger. MOS Burger is the Japanese version of McDonalds. MOS stands for Mountain Ocean Sun, although I have no idea how that relates to fast food. They are 2nd only to McDonalds in Japan. Their unique feature is that they offer a few sandwiches with pressed rice as the bun. Much to my disappointment, they no longer offer the yakiniku (beef) version of this. So instead I got the tobikiri with cheese set (set is what we would call a meal), while Mc ordered the W thousand yasai burger set with onion rings, 2 to be exact, and his first neon green melon soda. They have a new menu item which appears to be a taco on naan bread topped with nacho cheese, which was very popular among customers eating around us.

After we got back to Kyoto, we bought stuff for dinner in and just dinked around the rest of the evening. The highlight was going to Family Mart and getting a pizza-man. Man is the Japanese word for soft white steamed buns filled with a variety of things. The Chinese call them bao. In Japan you will find them stuffed with yakiniku, beef stew, curry, a number of delicious options. However, like many things in Japan, some of the flavors are seasonal (only available during certain times). My favorite was always the pizza flavor and I was ecstatic to see that they are in season while we are here! Mc got one too and declared it delicious.

Tomorrow is our 2nd dose of Kyoto history. Until then, back to dinking around . . .

Tuesday, June 25th 2013 - Kyoto, Round 1

Kyoto is full of temples and shrines, so many that it can be a little overwhelming trying to decide what to see when you're there. It should also be noted that most of the shrines/temples are pretty far apart, so you can't see them all. Mc and I scanned through the Lonely Planet Japan pages on Kyoto that I had copied and noted any places that had a unique or interesting-sounding feature. Then, since our hostel had free Wi-Fi, Mc got online and started looking at TripAdvisor reviews. Unfortunately, every review stated that the shrine/temple they were reviewing was the most beautiful and scenic with lovely gardens. What we took from this was that all the temples and shrines are beautiful and we basically couldn't go wrong and went back to our original list, cross-referencing points of interest with locations on the map.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: When you arrive and you pick up some information from the information desk, always always look at the calendar of events. If there is a local festival or event going on while you're there, go. Local festivals and activities are so much fun and will make your travel experience unique. The last time I was in Kyoto, I went to a fire-walking festival that was incredible.

The only thing going on while Mc and I were in Kyoto was a flea market at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. We decided to go first thing in the morning before it got hot. (However, since the sun comes up at like 4am, you can never really get up early enough for it to not be hot, but we gave it a shot.) In Kyoto there is a Kyoto City Bus 1 Day Pass that you can buy for 500¥ and is a great deal. You can use the pass all day on both the sight-seeing buses and the regular city buses and the boundaries reach even to the far away shrines. You can easily pick one up at Kyoto Station (they also sell them at the front desk of K's House) and they work sort of like a Suica card - there's a machine on the bus that you send it through.

When we got to the flea market, it was hot. Individuals had set up covered stands and set out tables with various goods, or things were just laid out on the ground. There was fabric, antiques, knick-knacks, toys, collectibles, it was a lot like a giant garage sale, minus the baby clothes and furniture. Mc spotted a stand selling scrolls (a Japanese scroll is a painting or kanji mounted on a silk backing so it can be rolled up and stored when not displayed) and remembered that I had told him that the one thing I regretted not buying in Japan the first time was a scroll. I was skeptical, assuming that they'd all be really expensive, but we stopped and took a look. The people who owned the stand had cleverly taken a picture of each scroll and put them in books by type - animals, landscapes, kanji, etc. We looked through the landscape book and we found 2 that we liked that were under $100, I was shocked and wondering what the catch was. When we pointed out the first picture that we liked, a man found the corresponding numbered scroll in a plastic bin, hung it on a hook at the back of his stand, and dramatically let the scroll drop. It was beautiful, a mountain scene with one lone fisherman in the foreground mounted on gold fabric and was 6 feet tall. The couple beckoned us over, encouraging us to take a closer look, and we noticed it had tiny rust-colored age spots on it. We decided to look at scroll number two. It had no age spots, was smaller and mounted on light pink fabric, and was also lovely. It was a difficult decision; I liked the first painting more, but the second one was cleaner . . . and I would be standing there still trying to decide if I didn't have my amazing, decisive husband who also liked the first one better and didn't care about age spots you can't see unless you're very close to it. The scroll was 6,000¥ and 70 years old and was our 1st anniversary present (1st anniversary = paper) to each other. We continued on and the flea market was super long. On our way back, we looked for the scroll stand . . . and it was gone. I'm sure that we just missed it, but I'm sticking with the story that we happened upon a ghost scroll stand.

We also went to the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, which was lovely, and since this was the closest thing to a festival we were going to get (festival season in Japan doesn't usually start till July) we also got some of the food - a taiyaki (fish-shaped cake filled with custard cream) and these little round versions of okonomiyaki, both delicious.

Kitano Tenmangu

Walking through the chenowa wreath to get rid of misfortune and pray for good health

We decided to head to Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion), which is SUPER famous because the main building is entirely covered in gold leaf. As we walked onto the grounds we spotted a soft cream stand and Mc got to try macha (green tea) flavor this time. Definitely the least favorite so far. Kinkakuji is beautiful, be prepared to stand in line to take your pictures in front of it, and there is a marked path that you follow around the grounds. Admission is 400¥. 

Kinkakuji - it looks yellow here, but it's covered in gold leaf

Is there any other way?

When we were done, it made sense to us to head to Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion), which is not entirely covered in silver leaf. Apparently, they had intended to do it up all silver and went ahead and named it, then didn't. Surprisingly, the admission is more than Kinkakuji - 500¥. It's still worth seeing, the rock gardens and shrine grounds make up for the lack of sparkle on the building.

Ginkakuji - not-so-Silver Pavilion

We ended the day with Kiyomizudera. If you only have time to see one temple while in Kyoto, go to this one. One of the cheapest admissions (300¥) with the most to see and do. First of all, it's way up on a hillside so there is a great view. Secondly, when you arrive and wash your hands, there is a section of the shrine where you pay 100¥ and a man will hand you a bag for your shoes. Then you are directed to hold onto a handrail and go downstairs. Within a minute, you are submerged in complete darkness as you come to a level, concrete path. There is zero ambient light, so definitely do not let go of the handrail and accept the fact that you will get stepped on by the person behind you but this is evened out by the fact that you will step on the person in front of you. There are no more stairs after the first ones, so don't worry about that. After a while, you will see a beam of light ahead. There is a single light in the ceiling highlighting a rotating carved stone. Because there was a light, I turned to look at Mc, but the light is such a tight beam that I still couldn't see behind me. When it's your turn, you are supposed to turn the stone while making a wish. Then behind the stone is a curtain and you're back out into the light. It sounds skippable, I didn't think I would want to do it when I read about it, but it's an amazing experience, Mc's favorite of the trip. 

Kiyomizudera

Entrance to stairs down into the dark

Also on the same grounds is the Kyoto Jishu Shrine. This is the love shrine where you can pick up lots of omamori (good luck charms) for love and marriage, pray to the love gods, and do the walk of the love-fortune-telling stones. If you can walk in a straight line from one rock to the other with your eyes closed, your love will be realized. Mc did it perfectly (with many impressed exclamations of "hehhhhhhhhhh!" from the ladies watching), but I maintain that's because his love is realized. I did it when I first came and of course found Mc, but there was a 5 year gap so your love will be realized . . . eventually. 

There are many sights and photo spots and a lovely walk that takes you to the Otowa-Spring where you wait in line to drink the spring water from which Kyomizudera gets its name. The ladles used to catch the falling water are sterilized in the ultra-violet oven, but even then you're supposed to drink the water out of your hand, not the ladle. 

view from Kiyomizudera

After that we headed back. Some important notes for visiting shrines:
*Most of them close at 4pm, so keep that in mind if you want to do things like going down the dark stairs.
*Expect to spend at least an hour (although usually more) at each shrine. There is actually a lot to see as the grounds around the main attraction are generally large and beautiful. So if you think you're going to hit 10 shrines in one day, think again.
*None of the shrines are that close together, or that close to the bus stop for that matter. So with waiting for the bus, walking to the shrine, looking around, then walking back, waiting for the next bus, and then the bus ride, each shrine takes some time even though the buses run very often.
*Admission fees are anywhere from free to 1,000¥, so be prepared for that. It is easy to break any size bill in Japan, they ticket window person will not even bat an eyelash if you pay for a 600¥ admission with a 10,000¥ note. Don't forget to save some change for tossing into the shrine boxes before you pray. If you have ignored my advice about learning the change and have a ton of coins in your pocket, now is your chance to unburden yourself.

We thought about trying another night walk in a geisha district, but we were tired and Mc said, "If we see a geisha, ok, but it's not like it's a monkey," meaning that we rounded out the evening with a delicious conbini dinner and a solid round of watching Japanese commercials (I highly recommend this activity. They have beer commercials in Japan with the same frequency that we have car commercials in America and they are hilarious - Hard day of playing soccer and working out? You should probably have a beer . . . ).

Monday, June 24th 2013 - Shinkansen to Kyoto!

Monday morning we said good-bye to the N family. S had to to work (in Japan, teachers still have to report to work most days in the summer) and take A-kun to daycare (N-sensei was staying home with Y-chan who was still a touch under the weather). So we all got up early and hugged and Mc and I made them promise to visit us in America when Y-chan was old enough. I miss S a lot, but am comforted by the thought that we will continue to communicate through letters/packages (and I have already sent the kids more Pop Rocks) and the knowledge that they are planning on visiting us some day.

We took the train from Higashi-Omiya to Tokyo Station so we could buy shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Kyoto. Kyoto is one of the old capitals of Japan and is the home to approximately a million-billion ancient shrines. If you go to Japan and you have the time, you should go to Kyoto, it's good for your culture. When you go, you will want to take the bullet train because Kyoto is far and the shinkansen is FAST and you can take a plane anywhere but the bullet train is only in Japan. Buying tickets is easy as the ticket people in Tokyo Station speak pretty good English, so no excuses! When you buy tickets, you have the option of paying extra for assigned seating, which we did because 2 hours is a long time to stand up with your luggage if you can't find a seat.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: When you visit Japan from another country like the US, you are eligible to buy a Japan Rail Pass. You have to buy them in your home country before you leave on your trip. You pay a set fee for the pass and then when you arrive in Japan you can use the pass like a Suica for pretty much all the useful trains, even the bullet train to Kyoto, as much as you want for 7 days (or 14 days depending on which pass you buy). However, we discovered that in Japan they don't really do the "buy more, pay less" thing. If you see a double pack of something, it will be exactly twice the price as the regular amount. They have sales in Japan, but besides that, everything pretty much costs what it costs. It does not generally save you much to buy more (which is a foreign concept in the US). So make sure before you go through the process of obtaining a Rail Pass that it's worth it. You definitely need to take at least 3 big trips to make the 7 day pass worth the cost (for example, one of your airport trips, Kyoto, and Hiroshima). Mc and I don't travel that way - I don't like to cram a lot of big trips in a few days because then you can't ever get a feel for a place - and so after some careful research (and a lot of hypothetical train mapping on jorudan.com http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/) we discovered it would not in fact save us any money to get the passes. It's an awesome deal if you have a short amount of time and want to see things that are not close together. Here's the website if you want to look into it further http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html

The shinkansen is awesome and another reason to go to Kyoto! We were on the N700 (which goes 170mph), but we later discovered while looking at train goods (of course they made the shinkansen into a cute character with tons of products, quit pretending to be surprised) that one of the trains is named Dr. Yellow! Why do any of them have boring names like N700 if names like Dr. Yellow are an option?!  Anyway, taking the shinkansen is like riding an old-fashioned murder mystery train (except super-modern and less death). There are bathrooms and smoking cars, ladies who push food carts down the aisles, and a real train ticket guy in a fancy uniform complete with gloves who comes along and punches your ticket! OK, it's a stamp, but he makes a punching motion with it . . . Anyway, I love the shinkansen and I believe Mc is a fan now too.

Kyoto station is HUGE. When you arrive, find the information desk. Be careful, because there are several - one for train information, one just for information about the station itself and the attached mall, etc. - so make sure you find the one for tourist information. We didn't know what we wanted to do yet, so I just walked up to the man at the counter with a big smile and asked if he had any information in English for Kyoto and Nara, which he did. Before we ventured out of the station, I went to the bathroom. As I walked back to Mc, a woman came running after me and I realized I'd left my purse in the bathroom and the woman saw it and chased me down (did I mention how safe Japan is?). After that, we hauled out the map the hostel had emailed us before we left and started off to find K's House.

Mc found K's House on tripadvisor.com and the reviews were excellent. Even though it was a hostel, it offered private double rooms so we went ahead and booked it. It was pretty easy to find, a 10 min. walk from the station. As hostels go, it was good - it was very large with 2 communal rooms with kitchens, there was always an English speaker at the front counter, they had a restaurant/bar next door, the rooms had A/C, and the shared bathrooms had consistent hot water. However, our room was extremely small, just a touch wider than the bed, and the walls were very thin (I could clearly hear our neighbor having a looooong conversation in French at 2am). But it was cheap and we're not fancy and so it was fine for our 5 day trip.

Once checked in, we unpacked a little (very little, there was zero room for extraneous things outside the luggage) and started to read the literature we'd picked up from the information office as well as the Kyoto pages I'd copied from our Japan travel guide. It was late afternoon, but the day was not over, and we decided to head to Ponto-cho, which I read was a geisha district and a lovely night walk. In order to get there, we needed to take the subway from Kyoto Station to Shijo Station. There are only 2 subway lines in Kyoto; east-west and north-south. However, the underground area goes on forever. We got to our stop with no problem, but finding the ground level again was another matter. There was definitely a point at which I mentally prepared myself for a life underground and wondered if the mole people were an accepting bunch. We eventually surfaced at a shopping mall. Usually, Mc is pretty good with directions and a map, and if we had just walked out of the station he would have been set. But since we walked so far underground, when we finally found ground-level, we were a little turned around. So Mc picked a direction that seemed right to him and off we went. We happened upon the Nishiki Food Market entirely by accident, which ran into the shopping arcade, and both were pretty cool. We saw Nishiki Tenman-gu Shrine, which was an odd shrine that had a few animatronic features that I found more spooky than anything else.

Having found the shopping street on our map, we headed off in the direction of Ponto-cho. Then we came to a major street and looked at the map and we were not where we thought we were. So we set off again. And again. We did this for a while, looking for a geisha-style area. What we finally figured out was that Ponto-cho was not a street, but a sandy path by the river. Eye roll.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: What you read in travel guides may not match what you find in person. It's OK. Roll with it, most of the time you find neat things along the way. Or, if it's a total bust, it usually turns out to be a good story.

Once we found what we were looking for, we started to look for a restaurant for dinner. We found one down a little alley that claimed to have an English menu (I forgot to write down the name, but it was down the first alley past the start of the path) and we went inside. It was only 6pm, so it was too early for the Japanese, but we were starving and they were open. We removed our shoes and sat at the bar which was . . . um, let's see. Have I mentioned the holes in the floor in restaurants in Japan? OK, so the floor is built up high and then there are rectangular pits built into the floor. Then there are low rectangular tables slightly larger than the pits set on top of the pits. This is so you can still sit on the floor on zabuton (floor cushions), but you can put your legs under the table (instead of sitting on your knees). So the bar we sat at was like that - we sat on the floor with our legs in a pit at a bar that the cooks were standing on the other side of. That might be hard to picture, but it's the best I can do.

Anyway, they brought us an English menu which was a touch vague. We got the "Kyoto style 3 plates" and "fried sticks - cheese, fish, pork . . . " (the ellipses was included in the menu) and Mc got a beer. Kyoto style 3 plates ended up being a long dish with 3 sections, one had daikon (white radish, Mario used to throw them in SuperMario 2) with mentaiko (teeny fish eggs), sweet pepper, and tofu with vegetables. Oh, and all of them were topped with a small pile of teeny-tiny fish called whitebait (most people don't even notice that they're fish, but if you look closely, you can see their itty-bitty eyeballs).  It's always good to try the local cuisine and we have no regrets, but no new favorites either. The fried sticks were a much bigger hit - a plate with several sticks delicately deep-fried; pork, fish, quail eggs (which were amazing; still soft in the center), sweet potato, zucchini, and a wedge of brie cheese. Since we were the only ones there we chatted a little with the cook and had an extremely pleasant time.

Kyoto style 3 plates and fried sticks

After dinner, we went back to Ponto-cho and walked along the river. Ponto-cho runs behind a large section of expensive restaurants. There were several couples sitting along the river, including an adorable school-girl and school-boy sitting very close together on the a bench, holding hands. In Japan, several of the rivers are paved, so the path was not terribly scenic. But I was in Kyoto with my love and could not be happier.