Day Two Sunday, May 13th: Kyoto Airbnb with no address!
We both first awoke around 03:00 and then back asleep eventually with Randy wide awake about 05:30. For a first night that is pretty good for jet lag. Lana slept longer and was up around 06:30. Overcast skies, but around 19 degrees so relatively warm for so early in the morning. Some kind of bird making a lot of noise for a very long period outside - crow?
Still concerned with Macbook not charging, but gave up and checked my emails on my cellphone. I checked later and indeed my Macbook was charging so all good! Overall, the apartment was pretty quiet and comfortable. I spend the early morning updating our day one blog with assistance from Lana of course.
Some observations of day one Osaka Airbnb apartment:
By 10:00, we have exited our Osaka apartment and returned the keys to the proper box in the lobby. The rain is now coming down heavily. Being a Vancouverite and I say it is 'raining hard' you know it is coming down in buckets! Fortunately, to find the main train station Lana can utilize her Google Maps so we can walk to the station. Interesting that at a major crosswalk there are a number of guys dressed in white pants and jackets that offer safety much like school crossing guards. Wow!
In downtown Osaka there are two major train stations and we need to find the Hankyu Umeda station. We find the correct station and go to Information to ensure we find the right track for a train to Kyoto. The employee is very helpful with limited english and we are told to get to Track One. We will be travelling to Kyoto's Karasuma station which is about 42 minutes duration.
This is Sunday in Osaka/Kyoto so there is not much traffic or people around as we look out the train windows. Still pouring rain as we race along and stop at various stations prior to Kyoto. We are at the starting point of the train departure so get good seats and have a place for our luggage. A very cool thing about their train seats is you can flip them in the direction of the train! We see some people wearing the face masks that cover their mouths. No free wifi on the train! I am surprised. The houses and apartments are very narrow and small compared to North America. The train leaves the main station at 10:30 and we arrive at our Kyoto station around 11:10. From the instructions from our Kyoto Airbnb host we need to find Shijo station.
We follow the signs in the bowels of the train stations as they are connected and when we get up to street level we are at the correct corner of the major intersection so that is a bonus. I already know this is going to be a challenge as the host could not give me a street address. There was a red dot on a map and a picture of the apartment building and that is it. It is advertised as a 3 minute walk from station. It is absolutely pouring rain and I forgot my umbrella on the train as we left our seats quickly to ensure we got off the train in time with our luggage. I couldn't have timed this any worse as within about two minutes I am drenched.
It is raining so hard that the water bounced off the street. There are streams on the sidewalks and the streets themselves. Puddles all over the place. By the time we find our apartment building I look and feel pretty wet. The only way we found our apartment was based on the picture (thank goodness she sent one--Lana was able to navigate us to the correct building) as mentioned previously there is no damn street address for this place. How do they get their mail? I spend most of the day muttering about what kind of place doesn't have an address? The lock combo works so that is a bonus as we get our key. We are at the building by 11:30 which is well before check-in time. I had emailed the host on three separate occasions about needing an earlier check-in an no response so I took it that we could at least drop off our luggage and then explore Kyoto.
Up the elevator to eight floor. We think it is the smallest elevator we have ever encountered. Room for two people squeezed in and our luggage. Key works in the lock and as we enter we can tell that the apartment has not been cleaned. The guests from the night before must have just checked out. Within about 30 minutes there is a knock on the door and it is the cleaner. He doesn't speak english and Lana uses her Google Translate app to explain that we are early and just dropping our luggage and then heading out. Of course, not quite that simple as I need to change all my clothes before heading back out into the rain. We do communicate and I am changed with fresh blue jeans, shirt and windbreaker.
When I open my suitcase I discover that some of my shirts have been stained by the rain entering through the zipper on the corners. The zipper is rusty I guess as that is the stain left. Lana washes each shirt in the small sink and we hang them to dry. We are hoping the stains are only temporary and the shirts dry before we leave on Wednesday morning.
It is around 12 Noon and we are in luck very quickly. Just beside our apartment building is a hip looking restaurant so we figure we'll give it a shot. Everything is in Japanese so we aren't sure what the english title would be? It looks like it has a lunch special of chicken according to Google Translate? We sit down in the very small restaurant of two tables and a counter. We are greeted warmly by a younger guy (only staff) and we figure out we'll have the lunch bento box special of fried chicken. It is an all you can eat chicken special--the only thing available for lunch.
After about an hour and fully stuffed we pay for our lunch and head out into the cruel and wet weather of Kyoto. Within minutes we are both soaked at least the lower part of our pants. Fortunately, our host has two good umbrellas. It is not the kind of day to do much in the way of sight seeing so we decide to stay close to the apartment. Shin talks to Lana about a tourist shopping area nearby known as Nishiki Market so that will be our number one destination. First stop though is a nearby Starbucks so Lana can look for Starbucks cards. She discovers they are not free like in Canada/USA. She loads 1000Yen onto each card.
Yup, it continues to absolutely pour rain the entire day. We walk along the city streets and come across a pastry shop - Oreno Pan. We pick out three pastries to have for breakfast tomorrow in our apartment. Total for three pastries = 405Yen. They look delicious and two of the pastries we pick out are French; pain de chocolate and a croissant.
We find the famous Nishiki Market. It is super long and covered. Thousands of fellow tourists and locals all squished into the tiny main walkway between the stalls on either side. It is like our Vancouver Granville Island only dramatically larger and with more selection/variety. Very eclectic stalls and you can even buy clothing and shoes. Some stalls have samples. Really cool seeing Japanese foods, food products and knickknacks. We spend quite a lot of time here.
In the past, you would ask for a bamboo cylinder which would house hundreds of sticks with numbers on them. Then you would gentle shake the cylinder until two sticks stuck out. These two numbers would symbolize what fortune was bestowed onto you. You would take these two sticks and give them to the priest who would present you with your fortune on a piece of paper. Alas, now there is a miniature mechanical shrine that you place a dollar in and your fortune is dispensed via a tiny scroll which you then unroll to read your fortune. I can't read my fortune scroll so I take it to the window where a woman roughly translates it to be: a very good fortune, the very best one--work hard, practice everyday, I will be happy. Randy is skeptical and thinks she is just saying this to me because I'm a tourist. I will ask our friends to translate for me when we get to Tokyo :)
One of the places we stopped at during our walking adventure in Kyoto was a Lawson store. They are a giant chain of convenience stores which apparently in Tokyo are known for great food. We escaped the rain and went inside to check it out. Lots of food and other products. I used their washroom and recognized another unique Japanese approach. When you enter the washroom the sound of birds chirping occurs. This is to mask any sounds that may come out of the room. Also, very fragrant hand soap for washing. When you go to rinse off your hands in the small sink a light comes on from the spigot area. Wow!
We are back to our apartment around 16:30 and the rain continues to pour down. Randy updates the day two blog while Lana gets a nap in. In this apartment it is the Japanese tatami bed mats and not a bed nor mattress. We will sleep on the floor. We are already up to around 8 kms of walking and we still need to get out for dinner. We found a restaurant that specializes in okonomiyaki so that will be our dinner destination.
A really cool technology was in our room. I had already activated both my Macbook and iPhone on the free wifi. As Lana was trying to get on to the wifi a message came up on my Macbook asking if I wanted to share the wifi password with Lana's machine. I confirmed and she did not even need to enter the wifi address or password. Very cool.
My iPhone weather app shows our local weather as "Shimogyo-Ku, Kyoto". This is our neighbourhood in Kyoto. Around 19:10 we head out for dinner as Lana has awoken from her nap a little groggy. It is only lightly raining now so that is a good omen for tomorrow. Our clothes, socks and shoes are still wet though. During our walk we find some interesting restaurants and a local spa that does massage. The place we wanted to eat at was super busy and we didn't make a reservation. Plan B was a place that we had walked by and it looked intriguing. This very small nine seats at the counter is called Enya Nishiki.
There were two couples at the restaurant and given its size and very narrow space there is difficulty in navigating so you need to enter one of three doors directly to your seat otherwise you won't be able to get to your seats. Way too compact. The other couples are smoking cigarettes which is hard to get used to. Fortunately, given this is a bbq meat place with great cooking ventilation you don't get much of the cigarette odour. Eventually, a couple from Melbourne, Australia sit near us and we get to talking about Japan.
Back to our room in the dark around 20:15. Not raining now and the forecast is for warm and sunny weather for the rest of the time we are in Kyoto. Our walking mileage for today shows about 9 kms so a decent day of exercise. By 21:45 we are both pretty exhausted and looking forward to a decent night of sleep and waking up to sunshine.
Still concerned with Macbook not charging, but gave up and checked my emails on my cellphone. I checked later and indeed my Macbook was charging so all good! Overall, the apartment was pretty quiet and comfortable. I spend the early morning updating our day one blog with assistance from Lana of course.
Some observations of day one Osaka Airbnb apartment:
- heated toilet seat - yeh!
- complicated toilet controls on the right hand side - only in Japan.
- kitchen is hidden behind closet doors which gives you an idea of how small
- being back in Japan reminds us of how fortunate to be a North American where everything is relatively king-sized compared to Japan
- small apartment, but there is a washer/dryer
- host has been good about checking in with us during day one and early day two
- shower was good although very different controls than North America
We decide to get something casual for an early breakfast and out into the street we go. It is now raining lightly and very few people on the street. We find the 7-11 about a block down our street. We purchase our breakfast to take back to the apartment and Lana uses the International ATM inside for a withdrawal of Yen. Still raining as we make our way back and walk by our apartment building by mistake as it is easy to do.
Our breakfast from 7-11. This is a first by buying breakfast from a 7-11! The stuff below came to about 700Yen. The fruit in the packets were delicious! White peach and pineapple very yummy. Plus, Randy drank the liquid from each bag. The melon pastry was good and we loved the peas.
This is a picture of the Osaka street that our Airbnb was located. As you can see very narrow and full of overhead wires, hotels, restaurants, bars etc. Check out the umbrellas. The clear plastic is very popular here.
Yup, our breakfast destination this morning! Plus, an international ATM machine.
You can't go to Japan and not get a picture of a vending machine--this one has an additional compartment to handle plastic bottle and can recycling. They are everywhere! This one had a video screen on the right hand side.
Yes, no ducks please on this street sign. Lana says more animal discrimination :)
By 10:00, we have exited our Osaka apartment and returned the keys to the proper box in the lobby. The rain is now coming down heavily. Being a Vancouverite and I say it is 'raining hard' you know it is coming down in buckets! Fortunately, to find the main train station Lana can utilize her Google Maps so we can walk to the station. Interesting that at a major crosswalk there are a number of guys dressed in white pants and jackets that offer safety much like school crossing guards. Wow!
In downtown Osaka there are two major train stations and we need to find the Hankyu Umeda station. We find the correct station and go to Information to ensure we find the right track for a train to Kyoto. The employee is very helpful with limited english and we are told to get to Track One. We will be travelling to Kyoto's Karasuma station which is about 42 minutes duration.
This is Sunday in Osaka/Kyoto so there is not much traffic or people around as we look out the train windows. Still pouring rain as we race along and stop at various stations prior to Kyoto. We are at the starting point of the train departure so get good seats and have a place for our luggage. A very cool thing about their train seats is you can flip them in the direction of the train! We see some people wearing the face masks that cover their mouths. No free wifi on the train! I am surprised. The houses and apartments are very narrow and small compared to North America. The train leaves the main station at 10:30 and we arrive at our Kyoto station around 11:10. From the instructions from our Kyoto Airbnb host we need to find Shijo station.
We follow the signs in the bowels of the train stations as they are connected and when we get up to street level we are at the correct corner of the major intersection so that is a bonus. I already know this is going to be a challenge as the host could not give me a street address. There was a red dot on a map and a picture of the apartment building and that is it. It is advertised as a 3 minute walk from station. It is absolutely pouring rain and I forgot my umbrella on the train as we left our seats quickly to ensure we got off the train in time with our luggage. I couldn't have timed this any worse as within about two minutes I am drenched.
It is raining so hard that the water bounced off the street. There are streams on the sidewalks and the streets themselves. Puddles all over the place. By the time we find our apartment building I look and feel pretty wet. The only way we found our apartment was based on the picture (thank goodness she sent one--Lana was able to navigate us to the correct building) as mentioned previously there is no damn street address for this place. How do they get their mail? I spend most of the day muttering about what kind of place doesn't have an address? The lock combo works so that is a bonus as we get our key. We are at the building by 11:30 which is well before check-in time. I had emailed the host on three separate occasions about needing an earlier check-in an no response so I took it that we could at least drop off our luggage and then explore Kyoto.
Up the elevator to eight floor. We think it is the smallest elevator we have ever encountered. Room for two people squeezed in and our luggage. Key works in the lock and as we enter we can tell that the apartment has not been cleaned. The guests from the night before must have just checked out. Within about 30 minutes there is a knock on the door and it is the cleaner. He doesn't speak english and Lana uses her Google Translate app to explain that we are early and just dropping our luggage and then heading out. Of course, not quite that simple as I need to change all my clothes before heading back out into the rain. We do communicate and I am changed with fresh blue jeans, shirt and windbreaker.
When I open my suitcase I discover that some of my shirts have been stained by the rain entering through the zipper on the corners. The zipper is rusty I guess as that is the stain left. Lana washes each shirt in the small sink and we hang them to dry. We are hoping the stains are only temporary and the shirts dry before we leave on Wednesday morning.
It is around 12 Noon and we are in luck very quickly. Just beside our apartment building is a hip looking restaurant so we figure we'll give it a shot. Everything is in Japanese so we aren't sure what the english title would be? It looks like it has a lunch special of chicken according to Google Translate? We sit down in the very small restaurant of two tables and a counter. We are greeted warmly by a younger guy (only staff) and we figure out we'll have the lunch bento box special of fried chicken. It is an all you can eat chicken special--the only thing available for lunch.
English menu used for dinner. As you can see the english name is Tricolor yet when I check later on Google I can't find the place. Anyway, the lunch is very tasty! We really lucked out and the cost per person of 1,180Yen makes it even better. The guy is playing a radio station on the speakers and they are playing 80's English rock songs. Many are classics.
This is Shin who is the only employee for lunch. We get to talking as we are the only people there. No surprise given it is a Sunday and the rain continues to come down in buckets. Shin has a good friend who owns a Ramen place in Toronto. His english is not so good, but dramatically better than our Japanese. The dish he is holding is the chicken tempura. It is hot, juicy and very tasty. It is so good we keep on taking advantage of the fact it is "all you can eat."
Lunch bento box. Kyoto styled rice (herbs mixed with rice), chicken broth soup, green salad with sesame dressing and three types of salt (seaweed flavour, plain salt & togarshi) plus soy sauce with mustard and a light rice vinegar for dipping the chicken. Everything was super delicious.
After about an hour and fully stuffed we pay for our lunch and head out into the cruel and wet weather of Kyoto. Within minutes we are both soaked at least the lower part of our pants. Fortunately, our host has two good umbrellas. It is not the kind of day to do much in the way of sight seeing so we decide to stay close to the apartment. Shin talks to Lana about a tourist shopping area nearby known as Nishiki Market so that will be our number one destination. First stop though is a nearby Starbucks so Lana can look for Starbucks cards. She discovers they are not free like in Canada/USA. She loads 1000Yen onto each card.
Kyoto Art Center. We find this place based on signage on the main street corner. Very old building and entrance is free. In fact, there is nobody at the entrance. Good escape from the rain. This is a board at the entrance showing what is open. The main exhibit is called "New Mutation" which comprises two rooms in different sections of this art centre. In both rooms the walls, ceiling and floor are painted white. Quite dramatic. There is art work at various random spots. Some very striking art work and very relaxing. I find visiting art centres/museums as very meditative. This particular old building has very creaky original wooden floors.
Yup, it continues to absolutely pour rain the entire day. We walk along the city streets and come across a pastry shop - Oreno Pan. We pick out three pastries to have for breakfast tomorrow in our apartment. Total for three pastries = 405Yen. They look delicious and two of the pastries we pick out are French; pain de chocolate and a croissant.
We find the famous Nishiki Market. It is super long and covered. Thousands of fellow tourists and locals all squished into the tiny main walkway between the stalls on either side. It is like our Vancouver Granville Island only dramatically larger and with more selection/variety. Very eclectic stalls and you can even buy clothing and shoes. Some stalls have samples. Really cool seeing Japanese foods, food products and knickknacks. We spend quite a lot of time here.
Yes, cat hats from a vending machine! Seriously not a joke!!
Because, there is a second machine with even more cat hat styles to choose from!!
Tiny octopus on sticks with mini chicken eggs inside. Only in Japan.
Chef making okonomiyaki (basically a savoury kind of pancake). We love okonomiyaki and have found some places in Vancouver that serve it.
This is real wasabi! What we get in North America is not real wasabi but a green dyed horse radish powder. This is the real deal!
Yes, a Snoopy themed restaurant that serves character styled food!!
At the one end of the long and narrow Nishiki Market(pronounced NISH-ki) is a Shinto temple. These lanterns are at the entrance to the temple. Very weird having a temple located in a huge tourist attraction. Lana is smitten with the place.
Water purification fountain at the temple.
Tree at the temple where you can write your wish on a piece of paper and place it in a wood ball to hang where it will be carried up to the heavens. This temple has modernized!!
One of the places we stopped at during our walking adventure in Kyoto was a Lawson store. They are a giant chain of convenience stores which apparently in Tokyo are known for great food. We escaped the rain and went inside to check it out. Lots of food and other products. I used their washroom and recognized another unique Japanese approach. When you enter the washroom the sound of birds chirping occurs. This is to mask any sounds that may come out of the room. Also, very fragrant hand soap for washing. When you go to rinse off your hands in the small sink a light comes on from the spigot area. Wow!
We are back to our apartment around 16:30 and the rain continues to pour down. Randy updates the day two blog while Lana gets a nap in. In this apartment it is the Japanese tatami bed mats and not a bed nor mattress. We will sleep on the floor. We are already up to around 8 kms of walking and we still need to get out for dinner. We found a restaurant that specializes in okonomiyaki so that will be our dinner destination.
A really cool technology was in our room. I had already activated both my Macbook and iPhone on the free wifi. As Lana was trying to get on to the wifi a message came up on my Macbook asking if I wanted to share the wifi password with Lana's machine. I confirmed and she did not even need to enter the wifi address or password. Very cool.
My iPhone weather app shows our local weather as "Shimogyo-Ku, Kyoto". This is our neighbourhood in Kyoto. Around 19:10 we head out for dinner as Lana has awoken from her nap a little groggy. It is only lightly raining now so that is a good omen for tomorrow. Our clothes, socks and shoes are still wet though. During our walk we find some interesting restaurants and a local spa that does massage. The place we wanted to eat at was super busy and we didn't make a reservation. Plan B was a place that we had walked by and it looked intriguing. This very small nine seats at the counter is called Enya Nishiki.
There were two couples at the restaurant and given its size and very narrow space there is difficulty in navigating so you need to enter one of three doors directly to your seat otherwise you won't be able to get to your seats. Way too compact. The other couples are smoking cigarettes which is hard to get used to. Fortunately, given this is a bbq meat place with great cooking ventilation you don't get much of the cigarette odour. Eventually, a couple from Melbourne, Australia sit near us and we get to talking about Japan.
Hunk of beef fat used to grease the grill.
Our grill with outside skirt meat cooking. Lana was our chef. This restaurant takes pride in serving Kyoto beef. Although everyone has heard of Kobe beef, Kyoto is also well known for it's beef and is looking to build a strong brand for it's meat. Check out the link we imbedded.
Second meat order of chuck rib--the marbling was exquisite. The meat literally melted in your mouth!!
First meat order of Kyoto beef outside skirt and filet. This meat did not disappoint--buttery, tender, with a great full flavour--a little grassy--but exactly what beef should taste like. Although the portions were not huge, the meat was so rich that you did not need to eat a lot of it to feel satiated.
English menu at Enya. For drinks Lana ordered a Shochu grapefruit cocktail and I had a draft beer. The total cost of the meal was 5,800Yen. No tip and it was good value. The meal was excellent and we would recommend the restaurant.
Prepping our grill.
Back to our room in the dark around 20:15. Not raining now and the forecast is for warm and sunny weather for the rest of the time we are in Kyoto. Our walking mileage for today shows about 9 kms so a decent day of exercise. By 21:45 we are both pretty exhausted and looking forward to a decent night of sleep and waking up to sunshine.
Randy, if you have time could you please post some pictures of your apt? Especially the kitchen (open and shut). I love seeing tiny Japanese apartments!
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