Advertisement
Published: April 11th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Precautionary back stretches backfire and I'm immobile and in spasm. Not great, but nothing a handful of nurofen zavance and a hot shower can't alleviate. It does delay us by a couple of hours, but the inclement weather isn't motivating us either. Jules is folding the washing and finds a cherry blossom petal has found its way into the basket of clothes. Both of our airbnbs have had parks/playgrounds next door and each has had a CB. For 355 days of the year these trees are bare but we are blessed to be here while they are in full bloom. By 10.30 the kids are going a bit stir crazy in the confines of our Kyoto apartment and it's time to brave the elements. Thankfully previous guests have left their umbrellas behind. We rug up and head for the train - glad I packed my Aldi rain jacket, love the Crane!
We cross the river in the wind and driving rain. It says its supposed to 13 degrees but it feels single digits. We are cold and hungry and head for the nearest food venue. It's a boulangarie and the menu isn't doing it for us. We scurry out the
door and spot a sushi train 50 metres up the road. Nailed it! This place rocks! The sushi is delicious and the plate colours let you know which have wasabi and which don't. Wasabi is not for me and I fall in love with a smoked duck nigiri. Jules gets into the raw fish (flounder and salmon I think) and is not afraid of the wasabi. The kids take to the smoked duck and just cooked beef nigiri. There's a Zip style hot water tap at each table and you can drink as much green tea as you like. I love a country that puts green tea at the top of the tea pecking order. It's warm and dry in here, the sushi is fresh and less than $2 a plate and green tea is literally on-tap - I don't want to leave.
But we do and head for the nearby Teramachi mall. Deaks convinces us that he can get a Katana (samurai sword) through customs and he spends his yen on a souvenir (blunt) version. We browse though many a shop and take refuge in a Tullys Coffee shop in order to use their facilities. We check out
the Nishihi food markets and there is some weird shit there. It smells great and bad at the same time. It's super crowded but very interesting. Would like to sample some of the random food on offer but we had way too many sushi train plates.
The rain has eased somewhat and we walk and catch a short subway to the Nijo-jo castle. We just make the 4pm cut off and enjoy wandering through the castle and gardens. This is 400 year old castle is one of many world heritage sites in Kyoto and parts of the Last Samurai were filmed here.
We catch another subway back towards Kyoto station to get some dinner and stuff up the tickets again. The gates won't let us out but we sneak through. What kind of example are we setting for these kids? We had another "I'm seven Dad, I'm seven!" moment when I tried to get Milla free entry to the Nijo-jo castle as a 6 year old. I think the ticket lady understood Milla's english proclamation but let us through anyway. I know I should just pay the 300 yen but that does equate to an extra supermarket craft
beer with dinner.
Weather looks like clearing tomorrow and I hope I can move when I wake up.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.358s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.076s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb