Exploring Northwestern Kyoto - June 3

We started off the day by going to Ryonaji Temple. Let me say now that if this is the only place we had seen in Japan the entire time that we were here, the trip would have been worth it, this is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever seen. Well at least it was peaceful until we got mobbed by a group of about 40 junior high students who were on a tour and all wanted to practice saying hello, but after they left it was peaceful again

We then went up to see the Golden Pavillion, a temple covered entirely in gold leaf. We stopped by at a small restaurant for a bowl of Udon (noodle soup), and caught a bus for Nijo Castle.

Nijo Castle is SO SO cool. If Nijo Castle had to battle any european castle, Nijo would win. But besides the amazing fortification, the most stunning part was the beautiful screen paintings and wood carvings which covered nearly every inch.

After Nijo-jo Castle we looked at each other and realized that although going to Starbucks would be a very 'american' thing to do, that they might have options in Japan that we wouldn't be able to experience in the states. So we found the nearest starbucks...foolish us, we thought that they would understand our super long coffee orders...I ordered a 'coffee-jelly frappacino' which has coffee-flavored jello cubes at the bottom of the cup and coffee frappaccino on top. Sean tried to order a tall non-fat no whip mocha, and ended up with just a mocha. Still it was fun to sit outside and watch the world go by, see our first geisha, and enjoy this amazing city.

We wrapped up our coffees and started walking for the train station when we found this fabulous open air market, pedestrians only, going on for about 1/2 mile, and not in any of our guide books or maps. It was a jumble of restaurants, shops, and groceries. We stopped into a grocery to buy our breakfast for the next day. We were nearly to the end when we saw this mom buying this fish shaped pancake for her son, and we just knew that we had to try the fish too. We each got one, Sean's had a hot custard filling, and mine was filled with a sweet bean paste.

Now for perhaps the most interesting part of our day, our dinner. Rev. Taka who runs the guest house recommended we try a restaurant called Kitchen easy easy. We walked in to find a tall bar with 10 bar stools as the only seating, and the Bob Marley loving owner/chef/comedian behind the counter cooking up wonderful things. To our left was four college students, and to our right a local who just wanted to finish his beer. The chef's name is Akira, and after realizing that we didn't know what we wanted made us a platter of incredible things, fish, pork, eggplant, pea salad, things that looked like onions but didn't taste like onions, and the best green tea we have ever had. This guy is nuts, and the college students were friendly and were giving us recommendations of things to go and do and see. We could barely eat we were laughing and talking so much. What a wonderful finish to a wonderful day!