What a difference a day makes. It rained heavily overnight and the impact on the gardens was instant. The cherry blossom petals are delicate, and the rain stripped a lot of the vibrancy from the tree. The river left us under no illusion that this is a valley – it turned from Sydney Harbour blue to Brown Snake brown.
We leave Hakone today so made the most of the garden in the early morning. There is something peaceful about the design of a Japanese garden with the running water and neatly pruned bonsai.
One of the features of the Ryokan style hotel is the traditional ‘yukata’ dress that is in your room and replenished every day. It’s a casual kimono that many people in the hotel (Japanese and tourists) wore all the time. From our research it’s more for the bathhouse so it seemed odd to see half the restaurant wearing it to dinner!
For our final traditional breakfast we were given a private dining room. No view, but bathed in cherry blossom pink! Once again, the food was amazing in every way. It’s been a great part of our Japan experience that’s pushed our texture and tastebuds well out of their comfort zone. Sometimes it’s good to have no idea and no choice!
We headed to Kyoto is on the Shinkansen. It’s funny how a ‘must do’ Japanese experience is also a basic, practical mode of transport.
There were express lines between our platform and the one opposite. The bullet trains fly through, and the first time one appears and disappears is quite a shock – we’re never this close to a vehicle moving so fast and so quietly. It’s impossible to capture the trains properly, but the expressions on the face of people who witnessed it for the first time were priceless!
Little things… the middle seat on the train is wider than the aisle or window seats. There’s always a way to make something appealing of if you think about it long enough!
You barely notice the speed of the train, except for how difficult it is to grab pics. There’s rivers, houses and fields racing past out there… who knows where.
Kyoto greeted us with blue skies. A short walk from our hotel were narrow streets with little old buildings. It seemed quiet for a Friday afternoon and had that inner-city residential feel, with a plenty of shrines tucked away on side streets.
Coffee has been hit and miss. Google reviews are unreliable, I suspect thanks to the high number of European and American tourists. We need to campaign for an ‘Australian review’ filter! The little place we found roasted their own beans so drew us in from far down the street. Coffee definitely passable in taste and price.
Our wanderings also took us to the Gion district, known for great restaurants. You can easily pay $200+ for Wagyu or Kobe beef here, and the prices just keep going up. This place had a 300g Kobe steak for 88,000¥ – how much better can a $975 steak actually be?!?! We are so incredibly spoiled in Australia..
So tonight we settled for a Japanese Korean restaurant near our hotel. Unexpected, simple, and warmly local. The lady who ran it seemed overjoyed to share her food with tourists!
The food tour of Japan continues!
Love M & A xx
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