Weather wasn't brilliant in the morning but forecast said it would get better, so I took my time and went down to the breakfast restaurant. Would that have been the first breakfast in Japan I would probably be happy, but I am a spoiled food brat by now again and after the near perfect breakfasts in Tokyo and Hakodate the one today was severely lacking. Part of that was that it was quite a bit "westernized", meaning they fried the scrambled eggs dry for example and left out the salt and spices from everything. Not worth taking a picture. But hey, they had fried mackerel, rice, Natto and miso soup. So not all was lost.
Weather had indeed improved but was still grey. So I decided for some indoor fun. Ninja and Samurai Museum first and Nishiki market after that. On the map they are around 1 km apart. Then I left the hotel and immediately wished I hadn't. THRONGS of people.The kind I hate. Nominally human beings with an anticipation skill of -10 (on a scale of 1-10) who are intrinsically unable to calculate collision courses between their suitcases and the back of my legs and happily bumping into you while not looking where they walk but discussing their relationship problems for all to hear. THAT kind of people.
Outside was a queue of approximately 50-60 people, many of them with luggage, who laid siege to the taxi stand and although there was enough room to start loading and entering 4-6 taxis (they have cars of different sizes) at once, they only ever loaded and entered the first one. Took very long and the queue was growing. So I walked away 100 m and called a taxi by GO app and it arrived after 30 seconds. Life can be easy sometimes when you manage to suppress the Lemming in your soul.
Taxi started and I had my first glimpse of Kyoto beyond the Station area. It is a strange mix of modern and old which got even more pronounced later. You get the feeling that every 5th or 10th house is a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. The following 3 pics were taken from the taxi and there were a lot more than only those 3 temples.
When the driver was as near to the Museum as possible. I realized the first mistake of the day. Nishki market area CENTER was a Kilometer away, but the "museum" was still inside the Shotengai. It was up a small stair on the second floor. 5 people at the entrance in Ninja garb.
"You have reservation?"
"Nope."
"How many people?"
"Ichi, one"
"You can wait one hour, then next English speaking guide. Tour will take about one hour."
"Tour?!"
"Yes, tour with 'experience'." (Showing me a prospect.)
"Ah.... Thanks, for the information. Have a nice day."
It wasn't a Museum, but a freaking mini theme park with some Ninja effects. Why do they call it a Museum then?
Ok, Since I was already in Nishiki market, let's have a stroll.
I am disappoint. The whole Shotengai is completely cateriing to tourists. Normally you have normal shops and tourist traps mixed. But here it was all traps.
This trap was at least a bit funny. You can put your feet into a basin where little fish are which nibble away at your dead skin cells. I tried this with my hand in 2019 in either Osaka or Hachinohe aquarium. It tickles and they seem to like dead skin. It's pure protein after all.
A temple in the middle of the shopping district.
A glimpse of the Buddha
Next door I had my lunch. Takoyaki, roasted doughballs with octopus pieces. They were edible. Not horrible, but I had better and the presentation is a joke. You normally have dark sauce, Mayo and Katsuoboshi (bonito flakes) as topping. But they tasted OK.
The next three pictures were taken from the exact same spot. I just turned around a bit for each.
That's typical for the area I was in today. You walk 10 meters or turn a corner and are in a completely different look and feel. Was strange. All in all I walked around 2 km in this Shotengai area which consists of several parallel long streets and their connections.
Finally I sat down in a chain cafe to plan the next steps, and since I am able to learn from experience I didn't order a coffee but a matcha iced slush.
A bit sweet for my taste but not bad.
I found an item of interest on Google maps. Around 2 km away, "Gion Corner". "Art museum" and "traditional Japanese art". I connected the last two things in my mind which was the next grave mistake of the day. Anyways I started walking and took some nice and some interesting pictures on the way.
A small christian church somehow sneaked in. The guardian looks like a MIB, though.. She was really good looking. The photo doesn't transport this.
A temple along the way. I only took a pics of a few. It gets old pretty fast when you stumble over them every 20 steps.
Some had nice little gardens.
Some try to compete with high rise buildings.
A vending machine for freshly pressed orange juice.
A "Spaghetti Coffee House"? WTF?
Alleyway in Gion,
Crossed a river.
View on the other side.
A more coherent alleyway in Gion.
In Gion proper you have traffic policemen every 10 meter who give their best to regulate pedestrian and car traffic in a way that avoids collisions. Remember what I said above about anticipation skills and collision course calculation. Those policemen are probably there for that reason.
When I reached the Gion Corner I was severely pissed off. The Museum was a small exhibition of modern art (which I detest even more than colliding people). And the traditional Japanese art was a completely independent evening event where you pay like 40 € for a 45 min. display of one thing. Like a dance or Koto music and so on. May be worthwhile, may be not. I will never find out.
I had my fill for the day, was lucky to find a taxi only 10 m away and drove back to the station. If I could decide again, I would not come to Kyoto again, but instead go to a smaller city like Kanazawa. Or maybe Takayama. If you don't mind masses of people then Kyoto is definitely worthwhile, but for me it this day was more stress than fun and I don't even want to imagine the inescapable waves or even tsunamis of humans at the real hotspots like Fushimi Inari Shrine.
For the evening I decided to splurge and went to a high profile Sushi bar. That saved the day for me.
It was excellent. I bought the Tamahime set (Hime is princess. Tamahime was a well known noble lady in the Tokugawa Shogunate).
This consisted of starters, Sashimi, several side dishes, soup and dessert and the main stage was a bunch of Nigiri, chef's choice again.
I didn't take pictures of everything, since the Sushi pieces are served one at a time, made on the spot.
The starters. Hand made Tofu with a special sauce and squid with a mustard based sauce.
Simmered Abalone snail.
"White shrimp", a local specialty if I understood that correctly, with gold leaf.
Herring, plain and soooo good.
Seared white fish.
Thick egg custard with Abalone.
The dessert, simple milk eyes with a grape. It was so big, I first thought it was a fig,
My personal dessert. A nice sake.
They put the bottle in front of you. Nice design.
There was more, of course Tuna (tatar), unagi (eel), uni (sea urchin), salmon roe, several white fish, among them yellowtail, an excellent kind of squid (reef big fin squid), "normal" shrimp and so on. The rice had the perfect temperature as had the fish. The taste fills your mouth and the ginger to neutralize it for the next piece doesn't come in a sad little heap of thin slices but in large chunks and as much as you need (or want, I really like pickled ginger). All in all a very pleasant experience. Beside me was a Mexican guy from Cancun who had his first Sushi in Japan and he was blown away. The difference between Sushi here and in Mexico seems to be about the same as between here and in Germany. Worlds apart.
Smiling, tipsy and not caring about people for a while I went back to my hotel to catch up with the writing.
It is almost 1am now and I didn't decide what to do tomorrow. Sightseeing is out of the question, it will be even more crowded than today. I will give it a shot on Monday. It is said to be the most quiet day of the week So I think about either hitting the Aquarium (you cannot visit to many aquariums) or going to Nara and play with the deer running around in the streets. Will probably toss a coin after I wake up.
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