After seeing temples and shrines all day around Kyoto, I checked out Gion, which is Kyoto’s most famous Geisha district. I didn’t actually go to any restaurants or teahouses with geisha (or geiko in the local dialect) though.
The downtown areas of Kyoto aren’t busy like Shibuya or Shinjuku, with Kyoto being the sixth most populated city in Japan. Still, there are people everywhere even during a weeknight.
We ate at an udon noodle (うどんぬど) restaurant where you stand in line and tell them which kind you want and what to add to it. Mine came with soft boiled egg and you could also choose any tempura you wanted, so I got shrimp. This was one of my least favorite meals in Japan, not that I had any other bad ones. I don’t think the restaurant was bad, especially considering it was packed, I had just never had udon and didn’t especially like the flavor. I’ll stick with ramen in the future.
Lastly here is a picture of a model of a tiger about to maul a small boy. I have no idea why this tiger was in this window display aside from “it’s Japan” but it was at a hat shop.
I spent one more day in Kyoto with part of my day taking a quick trip to Osaka. I did manage to see two more temples though, so expect more from Kyoto soon.
I’m enjoying the journal of your visit to Japan. I lived in Japan for several months over 30 years ago [Kobe]. I’m returning for the first time in a few weeks. You mentioned that you took a side trip to Osaka. I’d like to take an afternoon trip to Kobe, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take. I presume you took the train. How did you learn which train to take? Now it’s time for you to take a trip to New Orleans one day soon. H
I took the bullet train from Kyoto to Osaka since I had the JR pass, which gives unlimited rides. I highly recommend you purchase that if you plan on going a long distance (Tokyo to Kyoto or similar). For finding which trains to take, I used Google Maps. There is also an app and website called Hyperdia that you can use for train schedules in Japan. Enjoy your trip! I have never been to New Orleans, would definitely love to go some time.