Japan Trip Day 3 - First evening in Kyoto

Previous post in this series is here..

It was close to 6PM when we got to our hotel in Kyoto. It was a massive hotel, the Miyako opposite Kyoto Train station.

We were formally introduced by Jr. to Uniqlo store in Kyoto. I have been to this store before once in bay area and once in Taipei. Didn’t understand the hype given the prices. Turns out the price is right for Uniqlo in Japan. The clothes are amazing and lightweight and fit me wonderfully! We promptly planned for a lot more purchasing at Uniqlo. After the intro shopping we were late for the dinner.

Jr. had already picked a vegan Indian place to dine for the night. So we took an Uber XL and went to the shopping area. We walked around the stores and then made our way to the place only to find it extremely busy.

We begged the owner at Vog and he said “if you can eat and leave in 30 minutes, will give you a table for 6. we have another party coming in 30 minutes”. We told him if the food comes fast we will eat fast.

We had an amazing meal at this place even if it was rushed. Towards the end he came and gave us another 10 minutes but by that time the food was licked clean off the plates. We were full. This place gets a two thumbs up from all of us!

We walked back to the Uber pickup spot. We were told by the little one that as penance for her not being with us, we should get her a branded shoe only available in Japan. We saw that there was a line for the shoe store a mile long and after a certain time they close the line. This had to wait for another day.

A short video of the. evening.

We made it back to our hotel and called it a night. The following day was going to be busy as well. We had already changed the plan for the day while on the bus.

A thousand gates - Stop 3 on the Osaka to Kyoto bus tour

The previous post in this series is here..

The last stop on our Osaka to Kyoto bus tour was the 1000 Tori gate shrine at Fushimi Inori Taisha.

Yet again, a beautiful place and temple where it is impossible to get any photos thanks to the 1000’s of people. 1000 is a lot of gates but for 6000 people walking around, it is still 1/2 a dozen people per gate.

Here are the pictures. The fox plays a crucial role in the temple lore.. so I got a fox mask prop from our guide for some photos.. It is also important to see what the fox has in its mouth.. a scroll means knowledge, grain means food, etc. etc..

I wanted to buy this panda drum they were selling but given our luggage weight passed on it. We did get some delicious chips (single potato cut and put on a stick and fried in front of us).. it was good!

I got one decent pano shot of the temple, covered in bits and pieces in previous photos..

A video highlight reel

After walking back to the parking lot it was a relatively shorter drive to the Kyoto train station where we all got our luggage out. Our hotel was right opposite the train station and we were able to get there quickly.

It was still close to 6PM when we got to our hotel. So we checked in and came right out to go see the shopping district. That in the next post..

The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!