Sep
23
Cycling in Kyoto Day 2
Day 2! We woke up with the sweetness of Shana-chan’s favorite bread! Melon bun! Slightly crispy, pretty nice to chew. Thoughts were flowing with more quips from Shana-chan, while eating breakfast by the Kamo River. We bought the bread at the 7-11 near our inn. God, you can just survive on 7-11 for breadfast, lunch and dinner. The variety of food they have there is huge! From bakery bread to microwave rice to pasta, and they all taste delicious! One of my favorite was the wasabi and mayonnaise sandwich. Wish they had that in Singapore. Perhaps I should just try and make one on my own. We rented bikes for the whole day to explore the city.
The sides of Kamo river are pavement for people to walk by to enjoy the scenery. There are grass patches in the river dotted with ducks! Green necked ducks and herons are pretty much what you can see here. Compared to the ones in singpore, this one has clear water! A nice place to sit and enjoy the cooling wind. Lots of couples there along the stretch at night. That’s one of the few places to pak toh for the Japanese.
We got lost for a while, till we reached Gion and saw geishas! Yay!
Then got lost around Yasaka Pagoda.
Take that! Girl pulling rickshaw! Go Girl power! Inevitably, we got sucked into a tourist trap and bought some souvenirs and a handmade fan got myself! I love those fans for their craftsmanship and detail. So beautiful and unique. I’m a sucker for handmade stuff excluding with fine appeal and beauty. On we go!
We saw more geishas on the way round the tower. They were having some kind of photoshoot for some magazine. And we just stole some shots from the photographer LOL.
We parked our bikes near Yasaka Shrine. Did some shopping at the shopping arcade near the shrine.
Snacking time! Bought roasted rice cake with teriyaki sauce wrapped in seaweed! Damn nice to eat!
Wandered into some nice place for a break from the sun for lunch!
Back to the bikes and wandered off to Nanjizen-ji for more unplanned side tracking. Big garden to walk around to see more green stuff.
Then on to the right track towards the path of philosophers. Nice long walk to the other end was about 30min. We just cycled through here fast. At the other end, please grab the ice cream if you can. It’s über heavenly good! Mango, matcha and ocha favors are good!
Our next stop was the silver pavilion at the end of the philosopher walk. Sadly and unexpectedly, the pavilion was closed for renovation. Our hearts broke a little when we saw the pavilion boxed up. We paid the entrance fee anyway to have a quick grasp of the concept of a Japanese garden. Lots of mosses to see. More green stuff.
More snacks to cool down! Kyoto has lots of traditional sweets resthouses for people to take a sit dig into the good sweet stuff, enjoy the scenery and relax. Do take time to try some of them! They are good!
Then more shopping along the streets. Spend like 300 sing so far on souvenirs. Cycled back the route we came from. More shopping again… LOL.
Dinner! Bought onigiri to have dinner by the Kamo river in front of this famous restaurant inn. Why we didn’t choose a restaurant to eat in? Well, that river is damn nice place to be at. Plus, we were both tired from all that cycling and eating. The night air is great, chilling wind, the calming sound of the water flowing, the occasional ringing from bikes passing by. Really made dinner a whole lot interesting!
Then back to the hotel for sleep!
Gallery for the Day 2 here!
