Japan Day 10: Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Yokai Street, Shinkyogoku, Sake Insider Tasting

Because of how awful I felt the previous night, we decided to take it easy, first visiting Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, and walking along Yokai Street to hunt for Yokai. They were very cute. Each Yokai represented the shop and what it sold. One of the shopkeepers explained to us that a festival was going to happen on October 19th where people dress up as Yokai and parade down that street. Too bad we were going to miss it.

After, we walked along Shinkyogoku where I got a haori and ate lunch. We ended up in a small restaurant where I had a simple rice bowl with egg, and gauged how I felt. Kotaro-san from the Sake Tasting Experience had messaged us that it was unfortunate we could not go yesterday, and invited us to go that night instead. Of course, we were happy for the invitation. After lunch, we had ice cream melon pan for dessert.

We returned to our AirBnB for a rest, and thank goodness it finally rained! The rain helped with the heat, and my head, and after a bit of rest, we jet off to our Kyoto Insider Sake Experience to have some sake.

This was such a fun time! We tried 7 different types of sake. 3 of which were differently made. Unpasteurized, unfiltered, and aged. The aged sake was absolutely delicious. It tasted like roasted almonds! We had it with ice cream and it tasted exactly like vanilla ice cream and bailey's! We found out that we like Junmai nihonshu (Japanese sake), but I like them tasting less polished and more like rice, while Moose likes them lighter and fruitier. We even tried the different sake with different food pairings! Kotaro-san was a great teacher, and it was a fun group. We made jokes, and laughed a lot. It was a good time, and we went home feeling great.

(Complete photo album here)

Comments

Japan Day 6: Nara Deer Park, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Todai-ji, Dotonbori, Namba Yasaka, Osaka Castle, Shinsekai

We travelled to Nara, early morning, and walked across the giant forest park to Kasuga Taisha shrine (and was not prepared to climb up stairs again), and met (and were screamed at) by many deer along the way. We fed them cookies, and prompty ran away when we didn't have any more to give them because they definitely do eat any dangling straps or clothing. When they ask for cookies though, they're very polite, and they bow at you! We passed by what seemed to be the central area, as there were a ridiculous amount of tourists running around harrassing deer, and being harrassed by deer. Good on you, deer. It's good that the deer can defend themselves. We saw different kids of deer. Cute, spotted, female ones. Teenage bucks play fighting. The younger ones don't seem as used to humans quite yet, and Moose got head-butted by what seemed to be the Boss Deer. We then went to Todai-ji to visit the Great Buddha. He's massive! There's a colu...

Japan Day 1: Asakusa Temple, Kanda Myojin Shrine, Akihabara, Harajuku, Shibuya

We begin our adventure to Japan. We flew Singapore Airlines, and I really hyped them up to Moose because I knew they had amazing food and service. We had Japanese meals on the flight! Curry and soba noodles! We landed in Narita Airport at around 7, activated our JR Passes and took the JR line to the nearest station to our hostel, Bakurochou Station. The train floors are so clean. We stayed at Planetyze Hostel . Very cool AirBnb. They have events going on on the main floor. One night was movie night and they were showing Howl's Moving Castle (in English!) We woke up at 5:30am as we were very excited to see Japan. Out first stop was Senso-ji and Asakusa Shrine. We purified, and prayed. We got our omikuji. I got The Best Fortune while Moose got Bad Luck Fortune and I tied it up on the rack for him. It was really nice seeing the area without people, and seeing the locals start their day. It was very quiet. I found myself whispering when I spoke. We experience...

Japan Day 7: Mt. Kurama, Kurama Onsen, Ramen Factory Kyoto to Make Ramen

We began the day with breakfast, and a lovely travel to Mount Kurama where one of the trains we rode had seats facing the window. Had we gone to Japan a little later, I'm sure the foliage would've made for a beautiful train show. When we got to Kurama Station, we knew the truth: it was freakin' hot, and humid. Getting to the mountain was easy peasy, but getting up the mountain made me want to die. Eventually we got to the main temple, patted ourselves on the back, and decided we needed to reward ourselves by going to Kurama Onsen, so we took the cable car down and saw the devastation of what I'm assuming was from the recent typhoon. We walked to Kurama Onsen, and thought how strange it was that it seemd like the town was still asleep at 11:00am. At Kurama Onsen, a gentleman helped us press the appropriate buttons for a ticket, towel, and hand towel (that we could take home). The onsen was gendered, so we gave ourselves 45 minutes to simmer ...

12 Days In Japan

Search This Blog