Kyoto, Japan

DAY 5

SITES: Kiyomizu Dera, Ninenzaka, Other shrines..

2018-08-12, 11:15, JASON

BUDGET, STAY: Ryokan

Temple, temple, shrine, shrine. Go to Japan for the first time and you'll get your fair share of them. It's not such a bad thing, though. They're well-laid out and quiet. The weather is nice, no pollution in the air, clear blue sky, and the air has a sharpness to it sine it's the winter. So, we stroll around Kiyomizu Dera first.

We've become slowly obsessed with taiyaki, a fish-shaped dessert cake usually stuffed with green or red bean. Some modern variants with matcha are also sold. Everywhere we go, if there's a taiyaki shop, we'll split one. The crispy, bread-like shell mixed with the soft and sweet (not so sweet) texture of the redbeen make it a great snack. Here's our food diary:

After that small street food detour on the way up to Kiyomizu Dera, we finally make it up.

After exiting Kiyomizu Dera, you walk through a small village (another shopping street) which is filled with samples. I kid you not, we pretty much stop here for "lunch" and then are on our way. Most of the samples are desserts and the (I don't know how to call it) small mochi-skin with a bit of red/green bean or peanut paste in it. They're kind of like the 雪皮月餅 - the snow-skin mooncakes. Whatever they're called, they're the best. I also recall you could do sesame seed tasting with different spiciness levels..

The walk back to the ryokan brings us across this small little museum which is quite cute (see the picture below). At night, we just grab a bowl of noodles are a random, local shop. Our vacation has really begun to revolve around the eating. There's many small ma pa style restaurants around us and going in not knowing what to expect is probably one of the most exciting parts of being here. Afterwards, we do a small stroll to the local sento and wash the day of us.