Kyoto day 2: Downtown

Our plan today was to explore the downtown area of Kyoto, which was just a 20 minute walk from our hotel. So we got up a bit late than usual and left at 10ish after a delightful breakfast of cereal (no sarcasm here, it is actually very nice to have some cereal). Our first stops were the Daimaru and Takashimaya department stores, which may sound pretty dull but they’ve both got amazing food markets in the basements with a massive array of Japanese cuisine. Amelia was still a little peckish so we got a large iced bun, sort of like a small panettone, and sat outside in the brisk weather to eat it. After here we went to an electricals store called Bic Cameras, which doesn’t really have much of a camera section oddly enough, to buy me an electric razor as my one has finally died. It’s been a long time coming unfortunately. 

With this successfully picked up we went onwards to Nishiki market, which is a long street with loads of food vendors, souvenir shops and just regular stores all open to the street. There were many tasters on offer so we had a pretty varied culinary experience wandering through there. The one thing we actually bought was a rice cake. Much more like the rice cakes we get at home but with a delightful sugary crust, but was pretty average if we’re being honest (apart from the crust).

From Nishiki market you wander into the Teremachi and Shinkyogou shopping arcades. These are covered, pedestrian arcades which run north south and are incredibly long. I read somewhere they cover about 7km in total. These have your much more ordinary shops than those along Nishiki market, but there were a few interesting ones thrown in there too. One thrift store took our fancy and Amelia actually bought a very nice, secondhand, leopard print dress. Super fancy. Super sustainable.

On our way over to Gion we stopped off and had a peek down Pontocho alley, which is where we went for dinner tonight. It’s meant to be beautiful at night so we’re saving it for then, but we did glimpse a couple of the elusive geishas (or we thought we did, there are a lot of tourists wearing kimonos and fully dressed up for photos around the sights in Gion so it can be difficult to decipher which is tourist and which are real). Once we were in Gion, which is the historic centre of Kyoto, we went straight for its ‘main street’, nicknamed Shirakawa Street. It’s meant to be the ‘most beautiful street in Asia’ however was decidedly average to my liking. Yes when the trees are in full bloom it must look amazing but they weren’t at the time so it just looked a bit drab. Vastly oversold. 

We’d been walking all day (as with everyday) so, with very tired feet, we headed back to the hotel for some rest and recuperation. After night had fallen we headed back out to the Yasaka Shrine, which is beautiful when lit up by the hundreds of lanterns there. I took some risky middle-of-the-road shops and with Amelia rolling her eyes at me we headed over to Pontocho alley for a delicious dinner of Gyoza, tempura chicken and rice, with a less traditional Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert.