#1: Breakfast~ Egg Salad Sandwich and coffee
Visiting Kyoto today~ First stop for today is the popular Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for its neatly lined red torri gates. It’s free admission, unlike some shrines or temples that usually cost about ¥500-600 to enter, which makes people want to visit it even more; and the shrine was indeed really, really crowded! I reached at about 1030hrs (on a Monday) and the place was already full of people, especially at the torri gates area - it was so impossible to take a nice photo with minimal people, I just gave up waiting in the end. I guess you really have to be there super early like 0800hrs to make it possible to take a nice no-people-gate photo.
Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社
24hrs (daily)
#2: Fushimi Inari Shrine main entrance
#3: Fushimi Inari Shrine
#4: Fushimi Inari Shrine
#5: Fushimi Inari Shrine
Fushimi Inari Shrine is the head shrine of all the other affiliated shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto God of Rice and Sake. At the back of the temple is where the thousands of red torri gates are, which leads to Mount Inari standing at a height of 233m. All these gates are donations by individuals and companies, and the size of the gate determines the amount being donated, from ¥400,000 all the way to over ¥1 million. Before the gates, you will first see and go through 2 rows of smaller and shorter gates, these are donated by visitors. The shrine also features lots of fox statues as foxes are seen as the messenger of Inari (God of Rice). Around the shrine, you will find lots of aburaage (fried beancurd) dishes as it is said to be foxes’ favourite food, such as Kitsune Udon (udon topped with fried beancurd) and Inari Sushi (fried beancurd stuffed with sushi rice).
#6: Fox statue at Fushimi Inari Shrine
#7: Ring the bell and make a wish~
#8: If you happen to get a bad fortune reading, tie it into a knot and leave it in the temple, only bring good fortune back with you
#9: Fushimi Inari Shrine
#10: Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the best place to take pretty autumn leaves photos!
#11: Autumn leaves~
#12: Autumn leaves~
#13: Autumn leaves~
#14: Autumn leaves~
Next, to cafe Walden Woods that has a really nice aesthetic white concrete concept design. The coffee and pastries here are really good! I got a latte and a canele - a kind of French pastry flavoured with vanilla and rum, that has a custard-like texture with a dark caramelised exterior, yums! Following after, to another shrine, Heian Shrine - finally an attraction that is not packed with people! This shrine was for the city’s 1,100th anniversary, and is dedicated to the spirits of the first and last Emperors who reigned from the city. “Heian” is the former name for Kyoto. It is the top ranking Shinto shrine ranked by the Association of Shinto Shrines. This shrine has strict security, photos are only allowed for exterior buildings. You can take a peep at how it looks like inside the shrine, but no photos.
#15: Got a yummy yakitori from Lawson along the way
Walden Woods
0900-1700hrs (daily)
#16: Walden Woods
#17: Walden Woods
#18: Walden Woods
#19: Walden Woods
#20: Walden Woods
#21: Walden Woods
#22: Canele and latte
Heian Shrine 平安神宮
0600-1700hrs (daily)
#23: Heian Shrine
#24: Heian Shrine
#25: Heian Shrine
#26: Heian Shrine
Then, to another cafe, Blue Bottle Coffee, a coffee brand that originated from California, it started out as a mission to provide freshly roasted beans to counter commercialise and badly roasted beans. With wide support from customers, it quickly expanded across America, Japan and Korea! This place is packed! And the weather was being a joke to me! Upon ordering, it was scorching hot, so I decided to order an iced latte. After waiting around for about 15mins for my coffee, the sun was gone and it became freezing cold! 😰😪😒 It was too cold for me to finish my cold coffee...
Blue Bottle Coffee ブルーボトルコーヒー 京都カフェ
0800-1800hrs (daily)
#27: Blue Bottle Coffee
#28: Iced Latte
#29: Kamo River
#30: Kamo River
#31: Pretty Starbucks beside the river
#32: Japan's convenience food always look so yummy and tempting! Crabstick salad and Beef, Pork and Egg Onigiri Next, to Uji, the matcha district of Kyoto! It is said that matcha powder from Uji is one of the BEST quality! You can find lots of amazing matcha food creations here, and they don't just stop at sweet treats! Since I arrived in the evening, I didn’t had time to explore and try all as most shops are close by 1700hrs. Also, the sun was about to set and the temperature has quickly dropped to a freezing 12degC, it’s too cold to walk around the streets with me dressed for a 25degC! Managed to try some matcha gyoza and takoyaki from Tako Q (蛸Q), and matcha potato croquette from Hariyoshi Meat Shop (お肉のはりよし). The matcha gyoza consists of a pork and cabbage filling, wrapped with matcha gyoza wrapper, and served with matcha salt (matcha powder + salt). It was really good and not oily, unlike most gyozas, just that it looks green but there was no matcha taste 😂 The matcha takoyaki consists of a matcha batter, and is topped with matcha takoyaki sauce - looks green but taste exactly like takoyaki sauce, no matcha taste 😂 The croquette on the other hand, do have a mild bitter matcha taste.
Tako Q 蛸Q
#33: Tako Q
#34: Matcha Takoyaki
#35: Matcha Gyoza
#36: Matcha Beer, super cool!
#37: Matcha Beer explanation
Hariyoshi Meat Shop お肉のはりよし
0900-1730hrs (daily)
#38: Hariyoshi Meat Shop
#39: All the different types of croquettes, fried upon order!
#40: Matcha Potato Croquette
#41: JR train ticket to Kyoto Station Lastly, I headed back to Kyoto Station, to Kyoto Ramen Street on the 10th floor. This street gathers 9 best ramen brands from all over Japan. If you can’t decide which ramen to go for, look out for the information board at the entrance of the street. There are many difficult kinds of ramen broth paired with different types of noodles. I went for Bannai Shokudo’s signature Chasiu Ramen, which is topped with plenty of chasiu that you can’t even see the noodles! The portion was huge and the oily pork belly slices does make it a little too much to finish towards the end.
Bannai Shokudo 坂内食堂
1100-2200hrs (daily)
#42: Bannai Shokudo Chasiu Ramen, look at that amount of chasiu - 13 slices!
#43: Yummy!
Here are the 9 ramen brands: - Tsunatori Monogatari, Sapporo (miso broth, thick wavy noodles) - Bannai Shokuden, Kitakata (shoyu broth, flat noodles) - Taishoken, Tokyo (tonkotsu broth, thick straight noodles) - Men-ya Iroha, Toyama (black shoyu broth, thick wavy noodles) - Menya Hanabi, Nagoya (Mazesoba - dry ramen, thick straight noodles) - Masutani, Kyoto (shoyu broth with pork back fats, fine straight noodles) - Kinsei, Osaka (dashi broth with shio, thick flat noodles) - Ramen Todai, Tokushima (tonkotsu-shoyu broth, medium straight noodles) - Hakata Ikkousha, Hakata (tonkotsu broth, fine flat straight noodles) *Ramen terms: - Miso: fermented soybean paste. - Shoyu: Japanese soy sauce. - Tonkotsu: pork bones. - Dashi: normally bonito flakes and kombu. - Shio: salt.
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Exchange Rate = SG$1 : ¥79.30
Day 3 Expenses Lawson: - Tuna Mayo Onigiri ¥120 - Egg Salad Sandwich ¥228 - Coffee ¥138 Fushimi Inari Shrine: Magnet ¥400 Lawson: Yakitori ¥130 Walden Woods: - Latte ¥500 - Canele ¥250 Blue Bottle: Iced Latte ¥520 (after tax ¥561) 7-11: - Pork and Beef Onigiri ¥200 - Crabstick Salad ¥198 - Fish Burger ¥188 蛸Q: - Matcha Gyoza and Matcha Takoyaki Combo ¥950 (6pcs each) お肉のはりよし: Matcha Croquette ¥160 JR Train, Uji > Kyoto Station: ¥240 Bannai Shokuden: Chasiu Ramen ¥970 TOTAL: ¥5,233 = SG$66
Previous Expenses: SG$1,933.35
Current Total Expenses: SG$1,999.35