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Published: June 19th 2010
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Recently I had the opportunity to stay at a Machiya house in Kyoto. Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses that were super popular in Japan during the 1800s. There aren't many of them left but this company we stayed with has been buying them up around the city and restoring them so people can stay in them for a night or two. We went as a group of 11 and ended up staying in a really nice place called the Nishi-Oshikoji Machiya near Kyoto City Hall.
Because the trains take a while, I took the bus in with Phil and Mitzi to Kyoto early early Sat morning (7 am!) and arrived around 9:30. First on our list of things to do was to get pie. There is a great pie shop near the Machiya called Matsunosuke. The gang couldn't stop talking about how delicious it was so we decided that pie for breakfast was in order!
Let me tell you, it was amazing! I got the Lemon Ricotta Tart and it was like heaven in my mouth. Their specialty at this place is apple pies and biscuits/scones. I didn't realize the scones came with maple syrup at first. They were
pretty amazing hot out of the oven just as is but then they gave me this little container of maple syrup (REAL maple syrup from Canada) and I just about died. I'll definitely be going back!
When we were gorging ourselves on delicious pies we headed over to the train station to journey to Arashiyama. Arashiyama is this really nice area of Kyoto with a famous bamboo forest and lots of great scenery and temples. You can take this really cool open air train there called the "Sagano Romantic Train" so we of course took it! The views from the train were pretty amazing. We even had a special guest come sit with us - a guy dressed as an onii or ogre hahaha!
Arashiyama, I have to say, is pretty breath taking. I couldn't believe how cool it was to be surrounded by a bamboo forest like that. We took so many pictures! It was great!
Not far from the bamboo forest was Tenryu-ji Temple which means Temple of Heaven. The temple itself was okay but the gardens were where the really nice scenery was at. We walked along taking a ridiculous amount of pictures until
we eventually ran into a guy named Alan from California who was also an English teacher in Japan. Nice guy!
KJ, Mitzi and I talked with him for a bit before heading out to find some food. After all that walking we were SOOO hungry! There was this little shop along the street that seemed like it had some good eats so we went in and indulged in various soba and curry rice dishes :D Yum! Then it was off to my favourite part of the day - monkey mountain!
I'd heard about this place from a few of the other JETs in my prefecture but had never seen it myself. It was so cool! There were literally monkeys everywhere and you could feed them cut fruit and nuts. The baby ones were definitely my favourite - especially when they were scampering about! The views of Kyoto from the top of the peak were just incredible too. It's so worth the hike up!
All in all it was a pretty adventure packed day! We headed back to the Machiya for a quick shower/change before going out for a group dinner at a local izakaya. After that it
was drinks, karaoke and lots of purikura. I'd never realized how happening Kyoto could be at night with all the young people around! It was such a change from New Years! I can't wait to go back again 😊
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Heather
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I loved your post and photos of Michaya, the Hozu River, etc. They made me want to go there so badly! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share. Like maybe of the Matsunosuke pie shop, or of how to stay in one of the old townhouse!?! If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun on your travels! Heather