My last day in Ōsaka was also my first day in Kyoto and
it was also going to be the first time I was meeting my dear friend after almost 10 years. She was very kind and helped me booking a room at a hotel very close to
the Kyoto imperial palace.
 |
| I know- not the best picture - but I was in a rush |
Who says trains in Japan are always punctual? Well I used
to be one of those until that day when I took the train from Ōsaka to Kyoto - and yes, it was delayed.
But nothing to be worried about the journey was quite pleasant and all I was
doing was looking at the new things.
Something that shocked me a bit was the size of the stations
in Japan. Not all of them of course, just the ones in the big cities. Kyoto was
going to be the first experience and of course I got a lost big time and my Japanese
didn't help me as much as I'd have liked.
After wandering and asking random people inside the station for almost 30 mins I found my way to the Kyoto subway
line I meant to take. I got to the subway station then the hotel and my friend
was a couple of metres away. The hotel was very nice and comfortable but they
had what seemed to be a old radio player which honestly was a bit out of place - haha.
Finally met my friend and after almost 40 minutes of catching up
with our lives, we were hungry so decided to go to a restaurant nearby. The
restaurant was located in a little street some 400 metres from the hotel and it
had a funny sign outside, look below please.
 |
| Kyoto restaurant opening and closing times |
For those of you who had been in Japan before I'm sure
you have seen this already, but I didn't know that in Japan the day has 25 hours. That
was quite funny and I didn't know how to ask my friend without being offensive
why Japan has 25 hours. The funny thing is that when I asked her about it, she didn't know the answer. She just told me: "it's always been like this" LOL - After the first impression of the restaurant we got in
and sat in the bar.
I know what you might be thinking but we were indeed hungry and we didn't want to get drunk. Another of those moments I'm very grateful about
when I learn new things about the japanese culture. Almost all restaurants in
Japan have a bar but not the common western style (unless you go to a western
style restaurant). The bar in a restaurant is quite normal and this was not
going to be the last time I eat in a bar. (In case you're wondering yes you do
have normal tables like any other restaurant).
My friend told me what I wanted to eat and gave me the
menu and hehehe I couldn't do much since everything was in Japanese. The only kanjis I knew by then were
"niku" 肉 (meat) ; "sakana" 魚 (fish) but that's definitely not enough
if you want to order at a restaurant. So I let my friend chose for me, the only
requirement was that I wanted to try typical Kyoto food or Kansai food.
 |
| Cold sake in Kyoto |
 |
| Egg and Japanese Pickles in Kyoto |
 |
| Fried Mochi Rice - Kyoto Style |
 |
| Fried tofu Kyoto Style |
 |
| fried pork Kyoto Style |
 |
| Miso soup and pepper bamboo bottle in Kyoto |
 |
| Green Tea Ice-cream in Kyoto |
The pictures speak for itself, I don't have too much else
to say really. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of every dish but i
will ask my friend and update this post soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment