08.17.2009 Johnny and I arrived in Kyoto in the mid afternoon. We stayed in Southern Higashiyama, at the base of the Higashiyama Mountains, which is thick with temples and shrines, traditional neighborhoods and shops. After checking into the hotel, we took a stroll to see Yasaka-Jinja and grab some lunch.
Yasaka-Jinja is a colorful orange hued Shinto shrine at the base of Maruyama-koen park. It's the guardian shrine of the Gion district. It is host to one of the most renowned Japanese festivals during mid-July, called Gion Matsuri. The festival started in AD 869 - during a plague that ravished the city- and was offered as a prayer of relief to the god Susano-no-Mikoto (son of the gods who gave birth to Japan).
We came here also to try to eat at Nakamuro-Ro, known for its tofu dengaku and its traditional cuisine known as Kaiseki. It's a restaurant inside Yasaka-Jinja that is said to be the oldest surviving restaurant in Japan, about 400 years old. Unfortunately it was closed this day.
Night walk through the floating world. At night, Johnny and I walked through Pontocho. It was once the city's red light district, between Kamogama and Kiyamachi-dori Streets. Beautiful narrow walkways lit by lanterns and lined with traditional wooden exteriors. You can still spot Geishas and Maikos wandering these streets, though the ones we saw were being chased by groups tourists and their cameras.
grilled sticky rice balls
Kyoto taxi cabs
Dinner at Issen Yoshoku. We followed the smells of something savory to a griddle on the street-- the entrance to this Okonomiyaki restaurant. A Japanese savory crepe filled with a variety of ingredients: meats, eggs, pickles, fish flakes, seaweed, heaped with red ginger and scallions and not sure what else, topped with a sauce that tasted like Worcestshire.
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