Previously:
Kyoto is an old classic town in Japan that has a special place in my heart. Last few years ago, we went and stayed there for two nights. But for this trip, we only do a one-day trip due to limited time that we have. I just wanted to show my parent how beautiful this city is. But I highly highly recommend people to stay overnight or two or even more. There are many many things to do and see. Visiting temples and shrines, attending tea ceremony while appreciating their traditional culture, embracing the nature along that Philosopher's path, sampling plenty of delicious food and snacks, or even just strolling around the city would be so romantic.
However, we were rushing around this time trying to fit as much as we could in one day. We only got to visit Kiyomizudera, walk down the slope, and grab something delicious from Nishiki market. My post won't be much helpful for the insight of Kyoto but you can always visit my old post about Kyoto back in 2014 for more details around this charming city. Otherwise, for whoever has only short time here like me, this would give you some ideas of what can be done in a day, especially in this beautiful bright day like we had that day.
 |
| Kiyomizudera Temple |
 |
| Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka slope |
 |
| Lemon flavoured pickled cucumber 300yen/stick |
Weird snack!!! But we're even weirder whom wanting to try this. Alright, pickled cucumber maybe common to have it with some sort of noodle or in a burger. Hmmm... as a snack on its own, it is very unlikely. But there were a few people holding this cucumber stick and seemed enjoying it. That was it, I gotta try this!!!! Turned out that this cucumber was crunchy with the right amount of sourness and slightly have that lemon fragrant in it. It was surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable munching on this.
Matcha and Kyoto, they are inseparable, it's like milk and cookies. There are plenty of snacks and ice cream with Matcha or green tea flavour that you can find in Kyoto. I had matcha ice cream many times already but this matcha flavoured baumkuchen caught my eyes. This hundreds of layered Japanese cake was soft and not so sweet, slightly bitter but that matcha icing coated on the top was complimented the taste. It was yummm...
I was so happy to be able to find this shop. I have this place in my bucket list but as I came with old people and kids, made it harder to actually intentionally looking for all the food that I want to sample. But when we were walking from Kiyomizudera toward Hokanji Temple, I found this Kumono shop by chance. I was really excited.
We enjoyed our time here in Kyoto on foot. Although it took us longer moving from one place to another but it is allowed us embracing the beauty that this city has to offer. For a late lunch, we stopped at Nishiki market. Instead of having any proper Japanese meal, we went for the Wendy's burger. As that limited truffle burger was calling me in. I ordered the truffle melt beef patty set that comes with large fries and pepsi for 2,350yen.
I used to see somewhere in internet saying that "I don't need my burger to look picture perfect, but I want my burger to look messy and the cheese is melted and sauce is runny". Yes, and I couldn't agree more with this statement. It is just exactly what I have in front of me and take a look inside the burger too, how much truffle paste that they gave. Not only looks mouth-watering but it tastes even better than its look. Without any due respect, when I travelling to a different country, fast food chain is always in my itinerary. Because they always have a special menu that won't be available in any other places. So, tell me Octie Appetie reader, do you eagerly trying fast food in different country while travelling too?
Then, here we were, strolling along the popular market filled with lot of food and fresh seafood, namely Nishiki Market. To be honest, I want to have one each of everything but of course no money la... The most interesting one out of all was this grilled eel on stick topped with sea urchin.
 |
| Baumkuchen matcha flavour 320yen |
Kumono or cloud-shaped cake comes in two flavours only which are matcha and persimmon. We ordered only one set of them and went for the persimmon one as it's more unusual. For the drink that comes with it, we got a hot hojicha latte. The cake and drink set costs 1,580yen, I think it is quite overpriced. But the cake itself was delicious and light, very airy, it is more like a mousse cake with a small piece of sponge cake and coated with a relatively thin white chocolate. Very clever piece of sweet here. And they also made a great hojicha latte too.
 |
| Kumono Kagami-mochi mousse set 1,580yen |
 |
| Yasaka pagoda (Hokanji temple) |
 |
| Yasaka Jinja at Gion |
 |
| Kamo river |
 |
| Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine |
 |
| eel on skewer with sea urchin on top 1,500yen |
The eel was yumm. Sea urchin was fresh. But were they complimented each other? Hmmm.. I probably need to re-think it again. having them together was kinda gave me strange sensation. I had two bites of this and still confused, do I really like it! But don't mind giving it a go one more time. Or maybe the one with ikura would taste better though.
 |
| Wagyu beef black gyoza 1,100yen and pork gyoza 880yen |
Kiyomizudera
Opening hours: 06:00 - 18:00
Entry fee: 400yen
From Kyoto station:
Catch a bus number 206 or 86 and get off at Gojo-Zaka stop (about 15 minutes' bus ride plus another 12 minutes' walk)
Or catch a taxi, it will take approximately 20 minutes (we got a big family, so we ride taxi van and it costed us 2,200yen)
Wendy's First Kitchen
Kyowari-fu, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto
Ph; +81 75 253 0325
Open: 9:00 - 21:00
Kumonocha Kiyomizu Sannenzaka
Ph: +81 75 551 5570
Stay tuned for the next blog still in Japan:
