Japan 2019: Second Full Day in Kyoto! (Pt. 2 Kinkakuji & Nikishi Market)
DAY 6 (PT. 2)
And we are BACK with part 2 of my second full day in Kyoto. I didn’t want to have too many photos/content (if I were to have both combined) or else it would have lagged the page… but anyway - after our small adventure in the Kiyomizu-dera area, we travelled by train and bus to reach Kinkakuji.
KINKAKUJI
You may or may not know what that is by the name but it’s also known as the golden pavilion. Again, as all attractions are in Japan, it was extremely busy during the middle of the day. So if you can, I’d advise you go as early as you can. You have to pay 400YEN to enter and see the actual building. I think the story behind the building was that it was struck by lightning and when they decided to rebuild it, they covered the top 2 floors with gold foil.
Honestly, I felt (and I think my sister and mom had the same thought) it wasn’t really worth it going here. We had to take a bus to get here, which was a bit out of the way because there wasn’t much to do in the area around. Sure, we were able to see this cool gold building and there were a few stalls selling souvenirs and food nearing the exit but nothing really that great. And the amount of people in such a small area? Not really my thing.
Would I recommend this place to people, honestly, probably not. Do I think it was cool to see it in person after hearing a lot about it? Yeah, sure.
NIKISHI MARKET
After we finished with Kinkakuji, we hopped back on a bus to take us to Nikishi market. Nikishi market sort of reminds me of Tsukiji fish market but not quite - both did have tons of vendors all around selling different things. Though, it also reminds me of Dotonbouri in Osaka with its long road of shops and street food vendors and then smaller roads and alleys with even more.
There was a lot of seafood here and some stalls had dine in options but were either really full or it wasn’t something that interested us. We tried a few things here and there, though nothing note worthy enough for me to remember (lol) and I don’t have pictures of anything. Though I do remember one place in this market, which is known for their soybean creations - they sold soybean croquettes and soybean donuts. My sister bought some of the donuts and they were actually pretty tasty but nothing revolutionary.
We hadn’t eaten much since the morning so we were looking for a place to eat - somewhere we can sit down and something we have yet to try. We did a bit of Googling and came across an omurice place: Pomme’s. Omurice if you don’t know is Japanese egg omelet - which is egg on top of rice - and it’s sometimes served with things on the side like curry.
Omurice is pretty popular. There are even some shops that specialize in and only sell omurice - like that one shop somewhere in Japan (I can’t remember where or who showed it but if you know you know) when you cut open the egg omelet, the almost cooked eggs on the inside just flows over the rice - looks SO good.
This place was a nice place to sit - nice and quiet. The omurice wasn’t anything special. If you imagine eggs on top of rice and stir-fry some mushrooms in a demiglace sauce - this is literally what it was. Though I will say Pomme’s IS a restaurant that specializes in omurice so they offer a large variety of omurice: with different sauces, different toppings and additions. I only ordered something really basic, so I didn’t expect to be blown away or anything but for the price (about 800-1400YEN depending on what you get)? I’d say it was pretty good.
After we were finished with our late lunch, we walked around the area a bit. My sister actually went to a Bengal cat cafe in the area, which she loved (she likes cats and she said the cats would just jump on your lap). We saw a Shiba Inu puppy cafe and decided to get tickets for that one instead since my sister already went to see the cats the previous year.
My mom didn’t want to go, she’s not a fan of dogs, so we dropped her off at a donut cafe right across called Koe Donuts. This place is actually pretty popular and had some really delicious looking donuts. Though my mind was too fixated on the deliciousness of the pon de ring donuts at Mister Donut that I wasn’t interested in any other donuts. [Fun fact: Mister Donut is actually in the parent company of Dunkin’ Brands - so Dunkin’ Donuts for Americans - too bad they don’t sell pon de rings, huh?]
BUT back to Koe Donuts - yes they looked so good. My mom got a donut and coffee and sat down here while we went to the Shiba cafe.
To our misfortune, we were grouped with a mom and her 3 kids. Absolutely no shade to moms and their kids but you can’t deny that kids (and they were 3 boys) around the ages of 5-11 are extremely annoying. They kept yelling and running around and scaring the puppies. Sorry if the mom is reading (thought how would she know??) but YES your kids were ANNOYING.
There were about 4 or 5 Shiba Inu dogs running around. So cute. They seemed to be scared though. Whenever they walked close enough for you to pet them, they would walk off when you tried to pet them. They aren’t as soft as I thought though - though their fur does seem coarse and rough…
For about $20, you were able to ‘play’ (if they didn’t keep running away) with the Shiba Inu puppies and of course, since it was a cafe, you got a free drink with your entry. I think the experience would have been better if you aren’t grouped with annoying kids who didn’t know how to control themselves and that kept scaring the puppies. My sister said the Bengal cats was a much better experience since they would actually jump into your lap. So, if you aren’t allergic to cats, that might be a better option - more worth it for your money.
I’d say the Nikishi market area is a great place to explore. They have tons of food shops and souvenir shops - I saw some great post cards which I ended up buying. For us, Nikishi wasn’t in our plans to explore. We hadn’t written it down or anything but I still enjoyed walking the streets.
I was sad since this was the last day in the Osaka/Kyoto region - which I LOVE. Though I was sort of glad to be going back to Tokyo because it was almost like a second home - I knew the area better and I was more comfortable there. Luckily Nikishi was pretty close to Kyoto Station, where we needed to be to take the shinkansen back to Tokyo.
Here is where I’ll end. Thanks for sticking along one of my favourite parts of my Japan trip. Stay tuned for the next blog post - I have Meiji Shrine, cat cafe, and the Yayoi Kusama museum coming up! Thanks again
-Thomas