Spring in Kyoto
We have been busy in our first few days here in Kyoto. From the first day when we had to go searching for any cherry blossoms to the next day, the cherry blossoms are beginning to pop open more and more. Every one has been incredibly friendly. I’d like to do more in depth posts about the goshuinchō books and our evolving travel journal system, but I’ll save that for later.
In the meantime (in the spirit of sharing a little before we get ready for another full day), these are some of the highlights of our time so far:
- Pokémon Center (of course)
- Ramen shop
- Heian Shrine and garden
- Goshuinchō (honorable red stamp books)
- Japanese children’s television
- Haru Cooking Class (this absolutely made our trip – it was amazing!)
- A tour of playgrounds
- Camera store (and an early birthday present for me. Eek!)
- Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine
- Umeboshi Shop
- Kiyomizu-dera Shrine (there’s a reason this is a popular tourist spot – it’s stunning)
- Conveyor belt sushi
- Taiyaki (street-food: warm, sweet fish cakes)
Sorry for such a brief post… We’re on the way out the door soon for more fun!
This list is glorious! Can’t wait to read more about your adventures! I bet Tim loved that umeboshi shop!
Honestly, all four of us were excited, but Amelia was beside herself. I think the shopkeepers were a little taken aback when the kids were so eager to try a sample!
street food… mmmm…. that cooking class looked awesome!
will there be a ryokan stay on this trip?
I hope you guys run into some delicious okonomiyaki
of the four of you, I think it was you and Amelia who are the biggest umbeboshi fans!
if you and Tim haven’t seen Jiro dreams of sushi, you must after that cooking class! Lydia knows all the main people in that documentary so it makes it that much more interesting since she ate there with alberto AND wrote a story about the famous fish market and went with one of the former sous chefs.
I think we stopped by the taiyaki stand every night except one – so yummy! And the kids were seriously disappointed that we didn’t squeeze in a visit to an onsen. But we’ll have to save it for the next trip! So much to see and so much to do!
the onsen – I almost forgot about the onsen! Yes!!! Amelia and Duke sure do know what’s not to be missed! How glorious that you all enjoyed it together so much! Tell me, are the toilets just as hard to figure out now as they were last time I was there? I swear you need a PhD in toilets just to figure out how to flush them which is fine if no one is waiting to use it… They are all so different! haha!!!
My friend Sam says he’s adding a new feature to his Midori app and I’m guessing it might be the camera function. He said the addition is very exciting so hopefully it will be up and running for the next time you guys go there!