Took an early shinkansen from Tokyo JR station so as to reach Kyoto as soon as. This meant missing a great chance for brekkie at the Park Hyatt, and waking up way too early for my liking. I realised by taking the JR Chuo line to Tokyo JR meant I could not see the renovated station in its glory. Oh well.

No snags getting on the train. There weren’t that many passengers as Tokyo JR was the starting point. The size of my luggage was just nice to have it placed overhead but I was lucky to have the last seat in the car which meant I could place the piece of luggage behind me[1]. Missed Fujisan because I wasn’t seated in seats D or E, and I fell asleep.

As I expected the Kyoto cab driver wasn’t too sure where my hotel was (it was only added on Google Earth like recently). Thanks to the recently learnt adjective 新しい (new) to describe my hoteru… oh, who am I kidding – the Google Earth app on the iPhone, the driver brought me to the hotel without a snag. He was so apologetic for not being able to drop me directly in front of the hotel (there were roadworks and it wasn’t his fault!). Remembered nodding in agreement and going ne a few times pointing to the workers.

Check in was only at 3PM which meant I had a good 4 hours to kill after leaving my luggage at the hotel. Flying by the seat of my pants, I walked about downtown Kyoto to get to Nishiki Market and Teramachi Arcade. A revisit to this market on Saturday morning is a must before I get back to Tokyo. I then tried my hand in taking the subway and the bus, ending up in Kinkaku-ji. Quite easy, actually[2]. One thing struck me – where is the sakura? I could see only see buds which spelt ‘coming soon’.

After a quick rest and mandi style Jepun, I headed out to Gion only to get on the wrong subway train, but this meant I might as well drop by Musashi Sushi for my dinner as I was super famished (had no lunch whatsoever apart from green tea/vanilla soft ice cream in a cone at the temple). For 137円 a plate[3], I went all out and tried (apart from the usual suspects) chutoro (medium fatty tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), karei (flounder belly), meji (young Pacific bluefin tuna), fatty salmon, seared salmon with mayo and err onionsamon (onion salmon). The wasabi in the ika was also unforgettable. めっちゃおいしいな。

It was already night time when I reached the kaitenzushi place, hence I wasn’t expecting much from this night time walk in Gion. Before reaching Gion, though – I took a detour and walked along Ponto-dori, a narrow lane that is lined by eateries and shops decorated with lanterns. The atmosphere was somewhat similar to walking the narrow lanes in Sevilla. Stumbled upon a takoyaki place and it was nice of the proprietor to let me take photos, after ordering a pack to take out of course.

Gion was prettiest along Shirakawaminami-dori, and I wasn’t expecting to see any maiko walking around at this time of the day, but there was sakura in bloom by the canal (finally!). I wonder if I should come by again in the day time – but tomorrow will be packed with the trail around Kiyomizudera and Arashimaya. Perhaps a detour from Kiyomizudera may work but I’ll see about that!

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[1]The shinkansen doesn’t have a separate luggage rack like the Narita Express or British trains.
[2]Okay, I had help in the form of the Lonely Planet book for Kyoto.
[3]That’s 80p or RM4.40 a plate, yo.