On the second of April I took a little trip to Kyoto with some old and new friends. Kyoto is only about an hour away by train and it's considerably cheap and since there's so much to see there it makes for a great day trip. Our goals for that day were:
- Get coffee at Omotesando Koffee
- Have a hanami
- Go to the Studio Ghibli store
- Visit Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺)
- Have vegan dinner (yay!!!)
I'm not the biggest coffee drinker out there but Omotesando Koffee is supposedly amazing. I shared a latte with a friend there and I have to say the taste was perfect for me. So for the coffee lovers: this store originally only existed in Shibuya in Tokyo but I think it got expanded since we have one in Kyoto now. It's quite difficult to find though, as it is tiny. There's no real place to sit either, but hey, the coffee is top notch and that's all that matters!
Kyoto was, as we had expected, packed with people on this beautiful day. We walked around the Gion area for a while until we came to the park we were looking for. It has plenty of food stalls with delicious foods such as Takoyaki (balls of dough with squid inside), Yakisoba (fried noodles) and Okonomiyaki (savory kind of pancake). Everything's very greasy and very delicious! We got our food and sat down underneath the cherry blossom trees for some hanami-ing!
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| Guy preparing my Okonomiyaki |
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| hanami |
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| hanami |
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| hanami |
After lunch we made our way to where the temple is located, but we stopped on the way at the Studio Ghibli store. If you have any kind of interest in Japanese culture you might know Studio Ghibli is one of Japan's most famous animation studios, having made feature films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
It's always really difficult for me not to buy anything there. All the merchandise just looks so magical and pretty but it's all pretty pricey as well. I'm proud to say I managed to stick to window shopping only ^^ A trip to the Ghibli store is always worth it!
It's quite a walk up to the Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) but once you're up there it's all worth it! The view is absolutely stunning! This must be one of my favorite sight-seeing spots I've been to so far in Japan. It's an old Buddhist temple founded in 798. The focal point of attraction isn't really just the temple. It is the temple's placement within the beautiful nature around it. It was especially pretty with the sun shining and the tree blossoms blooming, although I would love to come back one day to see it by sunset!
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| entrance to the temple area |
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| view of the temple |
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| sadly they were doing some construction on part of the temple haha |
Around the site are various little shrines where you can pray to different Gods for different things. You can buy little good luck charms and my favorite (although I've never parttaken in it) are ema (絵馬, literally means 'drawing horse'. The name has an interesting story behind it but maybe I'll post about that sometime in the future). I think I may have talked about these things before but anyway, they are wooden blocks you write wishes on and leave at the shrine. I really enjoy reading other people's wishes. That's why I love them so much!
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| ema |
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| ema |
After the shrine we were all pretty tired so we made our way back to the Gion area where the trainstation is. On the way we saw some geisha's. I'm taking a class on Geisha's this semester as well and I've been really intrigued by them. Let's be real, how much do we foreigners really know about geisha's? I'm pretty sure it's not much, and the things we think we know are most often wrong. That's why I'm so excited about this class I'm taking! ^^
There were some more yummy looking food stalls. I found a deep fried udon stand as well and as the girlfriend of a guy who calls himself Udon Otoko (udon guy), I had to give it a try. As expected: everything tastes great deep fried!
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| candy stall |
Last but not least, we went to this vegan restaurant in Gion! My good friend who, just as me, struggles with the Japanese food ingredients sometimes, found it and I gotta say I looooooooved it!
I can't deny that I've been struggling with myself when it comes to what I eat here in Japan. I decided last summer that I wanted to stop eating animal products as a whole. This, just because I couldn't really live with the idea that I was eating something that caused harm to animals, whether it is pigs being brutally slaughtered, cows forcefully kept a constant state of pregnancy so they'll keep giving milk, or chickens shoved into such cramped spaces their bones break.. I really have to control myself from going off on a tangent here.. I'm really sorry. It's just something I can't believe so many people simply ignore on a daily basis. I'm forced to ignore it here sometimes, because there are simply not that many vegan options here and because I can't know where the food in some restaurants comes from and I can't make a whole group of people change their plans because I want to eat vegan. And I haven't been a saint. Some days that just hits me and I feel really guilty and sick. I guess I'm just trying to say this is something I'm really struggling with. I feel very strongly about this so I'm really really happy to see that Japan is starting see some vegan options. It's a small start, but it's a start!! ^^
First of all, at this restaurant, there were so many things to choose from! As a vegetarian/vegan/I-don't-even-know-what to-call-myself-anymore-since-I-came-to-Japan it's really rare to have options in a restaurant, so to be able to have a full menu to choose from, I was overwhelmed! I went with the tofu burger because my friend recommended me it. It was amazing!!! I'm definitely coming here everytime I come to Kyoto!!
That is all for my day in Kyoto! Until next time ♥♥♥
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