:3

Our third day in Kyoto was very exciting but unfortunately there aren't many pictures until the end so only those with the patience to actually read words will enjoy this part. I hope you all read through and appreciate my suffering as I type this on my smartphone and have to press backspace every other word, except I actually hit the m key and my error just becomes like thosmmmmmmmmm

For the picture book folk, just scroll down until you see pictures of food.

I overslept in the morning so by the time we made it to Kiyomizudera it was crowded as heck.



We didn't actually go inside the temple because my friend is a cheapskate who only spends money on food, but walked around it and went back down. I bought some matcha food items (Kyoto is close to Uji) and a hairpin. They had some reaaalllyyy nice pins that cost like $25 and I was so tempted to get one. But I'll wait until Asakusa because they have a shop there.



Sayaka and Kyouko got replaced by... Miku?


There's a famous series of dance performances held in Kyoto during the month of April. It's called Miyako-odori and the geisha of Gion dance at a theater. In May, there's a slightly less famous but actually more historic dance called the Kamogawa-odori (named after the Kamo River by the theater) that is held thrice daily throughout May.

Anyways, we went to go see it in the afternoon. We got nice seats with a tea ceremony attached, so we were served manju and matcha tea by maiko before the dance. By which I mean two people at the front were served by maiko and the rest of us got normal, pre-prepared tea. It was still nice because we got to see maiko up close. This whole theater was no-photos so this is why no photos.

One nice thing about the tea seats is that we got to keep the small plate that the manju was served on. It has 'Kamogawa-odori' written on the back in gold letters and it's quite pretty.

The dance itself told two stories: Genji Monogatari "Aoi" and Douchuu Sugoroku. Feel free to look those up. We were on the second floor since that day was crowded, so we missed the chance to catch the bits of paper that the maiko threw into the first-floor crowd. Oh well, I have my plate and my pamphlet.

After that we walked around Gion and got to see this cool exhibition of "kimono glass". They put old kimono in between two panes of glass and bake it, then you can use smaller pieces as plates, or larger pieces as tabletops, etc.





Beautiful but understandably expensive.

We had dinner at this restaurant that serves traditional Kyoto cuisine. It's set up in the summer so that you can eat out on a deck overlooking the Kamo River. That way, it's cool even in the hot summer, and if you get too cold from the breeze, the restaurant provides fuzzy blankets.



Seaweed encased in a gel that stretches like natto (THE TRAUMAAA), sea bream nigirizushi, roast beef, lotus root, eel.



Tofu with citrus flavor.



Sashimi. The squid was so much better than that garbage they sell in America. Also the best part of the meal.



Shioyaki. The head was bitter so I gave it to my friend lol



Nabe. Literally the best tofu I've had in my life. No exaggeration. I could eat that stuff forever.



Rice with baby fish, miso soup. The course with rice is always the one where you start to feel full.



Dessert: kinako uirou. Seems like matcha is famous with the tourists and kinako with the locals?

We also got to keep the pretty coasters (too bad mine has a tea stain on the back...) and we also got free tenugui as souvenirs! It was a good day.


On our last half-day in Kyoto, we visited Shimogamo Shrine to see the Aoi Matsuri. It's a festival held in the middle of the month and you can google more if you want to know, but it basically involves a giant procession of people dressed in pretty traditional clothes.

My friend has all the pictures because I don't have the ability to tower over all the Japanese people. I also sunk some money into a really cute omamori embroidered like a layered kimono.

After the Aoi Matsuri was Osaka.



A badly taken picture of okonomiyaki. The place we had this at thought we were Chinese tourists.



Yakisoba.



Someone we met on our journeys recommended this place for cheesecake. They had a very amusing ad playing at the store. I highly suggest watching it. You can find it here.

After eating way too much we went back to the place we're staying at, which has a bar attached, and had some free drinks.



Umeshu round 2.



I ordered a sakura cocktail too, which was pretty darn good. The bartender was nice and I got to practice some normal Japanese conversation with him (aka not "please sign here" "hai" "is this ok?" "hai" "have you decided what to order?" "hai").