Going Loco in Kyoto
Venturing out to another part of Japan is exciting on its own. Doing it on a bullet train from Tokyo is another adventure.
We knew our hotel was only a few minutes walk from the train station but that doesn’t take into account how long it takes to get out. When you’ve experienced 40 minutes to exit the Tokyo station more than once, as I have, you’d think this would not happen at any other train station in the world. Especially not one that is smaller. But no, Kyoto is still huge and can be confusing even when scrutinising our phone map as there are varying levels to these places.
After checking into our magnificent hotel, we went straight to the food court at the nearest shopping centre. We explored the menus of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Mexican and others then settled on some comfort food from Cobara Hetta; a huge nan to share between the two of us with mini portions of veg curries. And some freshly cooked upstanding samosas into the mix.
Another lunch was enjoyed at Santiago Guest House, a hostel, that saved us twice in one day. They served up some pizza toasties, after we visited a big shrine and there was no cafe to be seen until we walked to this place. Then saved me on the way back to the station as there was also no public loo to be seen.
The lunch to end all lunches is enjoyed on the way back from another tourist attraction, the Bamboo Forest, which was surprisingly short on public conveniences too.
Bread Espresso, is in a heritage building and while there were tables and chairs, when we got to the from the of the short queue, we were served on a low table where we sat on the floor. I loved it! But being Indian, I’m comfortable on the floor, the rest of my party less so. However, we loved the feast of afternoon teas we were served (eventually, they forgot to take our order/tell us we could order via our phone). They made up for this by offering us boxes and bags to take over our leftovers, which, for me, was nearly half of the fabulous food.
That didn’t stop us from having dinner later at our hotel, Rhiga Grand, who had given us a credit to use. This meant our fine dining dinner, mine was fish, as usual, cost just a few pounds.
Other dinners were enjoyed at Kyoto Tower Food Court where I had Dandan noodles, one of the best meals of the trip. And of course, there was a meal at the Muji Cafe - when we found it after walking up and down the street several times before discovering this MUJI was inside another shopping centre with no frontage
A memory in Kyto is the long walk through Teramachi Street. A covered walkway where the end is nowhere to be seen and it is filled with small shops, some independents mixed in with chains and high ends. Ever the storage nerd, never more so than in Japan, I popped into a little chain store expecting to see some home innovations. Immediately I walked in and saw the 4 egg pan I have been looking for for years. It enables you to make 4 perfect fried eggs in one go. The only thing is, a month before, the beloved sourced me one and gifted it to me at Christmas. I’m delighted to see it anyway!
However, a highlight of the whole trip has to be a visit to the Hario Cafe and shop (aka The Lampwork Factory) in Higashiyama, which itself was lovely to explore, as all the streets surround yet another huge shrine. Hario, for the non-coffee people, is the maker of much of the coffee equipment we see in coffee shops and indeed, have at home. Established in 1921, the Kyoto base is small and luckily we only had a short wait where we were able to potter around the shop while they cleared a table for us. Once we’d ordered our filters (they only offer filter or tea), I spent an age browsing the jewellery and coffee products, and back to the jewellery. None of which I needed but this visit warranted a memento, and while close to £40 is, for me, a lot to spend on earrings, after enjoying the coffee, I chose some unique earrings. I have worn them once so far, the last time I visited Faculty, our local Hario stockist coffee shop.
Coffees are enjoyed at Kurasu Ebisugawa on furniture street so that’s guaranteed to be a good walk of window shopping. The next day it was About Us, Vermillion Coffee around the corner from the big shrine and the Hario store to end the day. Plus the one at Bread Espresso on the way to Bamboo Forest.
We enjoyed a little beer at a Mikkeller bar too. This was a makeshift unit with a little room attached reached only by going outside and going back in and then balancing our drinks on upturned crates. It was an experience and and upheld our Mikellar holiday tradition.
I got lost in the station/shopping centre again when I wandered off to explore the shops in the adjoining shopping centre. It was only on the last night we properly explored it that we got the sense of how magnificent it is. Especially when you take the skywalk which gives you a property view not only of the station and we happened across all sorts of light illuminations.
The breakfasts we came across in Kyoto were basic compared to Tokyo but did the job. Both Lower East 9 cafe (small choice, fast service) and the breakfast set at Ogawa Coffee were highly affordable. On Saturday, we were catching a train back to Tokyo and as we were going to be with cases, planned a quickie McDs. But we missed breakfast time and were lucky to find something hot and seats at Chia Presso in the incredibly busy station.
I missed a trick by getting coffee before we went for the train and didn’t get to enjoy the Shinkansen coffee machines on the platform. Next time.
January 2025
Next: Tokyo part 2
