Kyoto, Japan

Getting To Kyoto from Tokyo

Before our trip, we bought Japan Rail Pass tickets from the Japan Rail Pass website. At Tokyo Station we redeemed our rail passes and took the Hikari bullet train (or shinaknsen) to Kyoto. Our trip took around 2 hours and 30 minutes to get form Tokyo to Kyoto!

Where To Stay

We stayed at Imu Hotel, a beautifully designed hotel located at only a 7 minute walk from Karasuma train station. The staff was polite, the design was clean and modern, and there is even a little shelf area outside where you can switch out your pillow for a different one with your preferred firmness level. The Japanese breakfast we had at their cafe area was absolutely delicious. The location is also close by many popular Kyoto attractions, including Nishiki market! We would highly recommend staying here!

Day 1

Walk Around Shijo-dori street

Shijo-dori is a busy street in the heart of Kyoto lined with shopping, food, fashion, and some street performers as well! We walked around the bustling street to work off some of the dinner we ate.

Kamo River

The Kamo River is a famous and beautiful river than weaves through Kyoto. Many restaurants have their balconies open for customers to dine along the sides of the river. The night glow of the lanterns lighting up the riverbanks was a calm and beautiful scene. We saw many residents and tourists sitting along the riverbanks at night, canoodling. We sat down ourselves, munching on some dessert mochi we bought on Shijo-dori street, witnessed a couple to our right crying and flipping through what seemed like a couple’s memory book, and a young man flirting with a couple girls to our left. The river was lined with couples back to back. The air was filled with romance all right.

Eat Omurice at Omura House

We had worked up our appetites after hours of traveling and were finally ready to eat! We had been looking forward to eating omurice (Japanese Omlette Rice) ever since we set food in Japan. We were tempted to try the famous omurice and meet the vibrant chef at The Youshokuya Kichi Kichi, but we realized reservations had to be made in advance and the price was definitely more expensive than we expected to spend. Instead, we found a local joint nearby a university, Omura House, which far exceeded our expectations. The place was filled with young and hip university students, which made us feel kind of cool. Service was quick, prices were very affordable, and the omurice dishes were mind-blowing. Our dishes were cleared by the end of the meal.

Day 2

Nishiki Market

Nishiki Market, known as “Kyoto’s Kitchen”, is a narrow and crowded five block long shopping street selling all sorts of hot foods, desserts, produce, and kitchenware. The place was so packed that I was constantly brushing shoulders with people who were walking by. Some favorite food items we tried included the seven-spice rice cracker (it was warm and SOFT) on a skewer, season sakura items, Tako Tamago (glazed and grilled bright red octopus stuffed with a quail egg), japanese omelet with pork inside, yuzu and honey drink, and fresh mochi! A great place to try all of Kyoto’s local street market foods!

Kinkaku-ji - Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Kinkaku-ji, the famous temple is completely covered in gold leaf, earning its name, the Golden Pavilion. It was transformed into the infamous building it is today by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimutsu back in 1397. Today, it stands as a Zen temple who is visited by tourists from all over the world. We walked in, paid the small entrance fee of ¥400, and got to see the unbelievably shiny building with our own eyes. The temple is encased in gorgeous greenery and stands on a still lake. I had never seen anything so regal in my entire life!

Eat Souffle Pancakes at A Happy Pancake Kyoto

Get your jiggly, fluffy souffle pancake fix at A Happy Pancake Kyoto! There was no line when we went (we got lucky) and were seated pretty much right away. I debated long and hard between all the options, and ended up ordering the pancakes that came with hojicha ice cream and matcha syrup. We poured the syrup over our fat stacked pancakes, gave it a jiggle, and cleaned the plate of its fluffy, cloud-like deliciousness.

Day 3

Kenninji Temple

The Kenninji Temple is a perfect peaceful first stop of the day. It is ranked third among the fie great Kyoto Zen temples. Constructed in 1202, it is considered one of the oldest zen temples in Kyoto! The entrance fee is about ¥500, and all visitors are required to remove their shoes before walking around. There is a beautiful painting of twin dragons on the ceiling of Dharma Hall, but my favorite were the green gardens and intricate patterns woven into the gravel. We sat here for a while and peacefully enjoyed the beauty of the place!

Tatami Styled Starbucks

The world’s first tatami-styled Starbucks is now open on the historic Ninenzaka street. Tatami is a type of straw mat that is often used for traditional Japanese floor covering. The two floor Starbucks offered three tatami-styled rooms on the 2nd floor that guests can enjoy after ordering their typical Starbucks drinks and snacks on the first floor. A fun spot to visit for a cool drink!

Kyo Chabana — Okonomiyaki

While okonomiyaki is directly translated to “Japanese pizza”, it moreso resembles a thick, grilled frittata/pancake that is filled with a variety of savory toppings and ingredients! A must try in Kyoto. We stopped by Kyo Chabana for our okonomiyaki experience. The chef was vibrant, friendly, and engaging! He was so warm, inclusive, and involved all his guests as he grilled your orders in front of you! He the all his restaurant guests that we were on our honeymoon and continued to joke with everyone as they ate. Some of the guests even poured him drinks as he continued to cook for us. The okonomiyaki itself was absolutely delicious!! This was by far one of our favorite and most intimate experiences!

Ippudo Ramen

There was absolutely no way we were going to visit Kyoto without trying the infamous Ippudo ramen! For our second dinner of the night, we dropped by and shared a bowl of Ippudo Karaka for ¥850 at a level 3 spice (a perfect medium level) with some fresh whole garlic on the side you can crush straight into your ramen bowl. We loved the ramen and thought it was quite scrumptious!! We would later find out that many of the convenience stores would sell Ippudo instant ramen — which we proceeded to purchase as future late night snacks. One of the waiters at the particular location we visited actually did a study abroad program at our alma mater, UC Davis! His English was super fluent and it was a sweet moment where we realized just how small the world was.

Day 4

Arashiyama bamboo grove

Tucked away in the far west of Kyoto, the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is one of Kyoto’s most well-visited and popularly photographed spots. The mesmerizing bamboo stalks tower over you as you walk along the paved walkway of the grove. The walk is quite and took us only about 10 minutes to walk through the bamboo forest. Try to arrive as early as possible if you want to arrive with the crowds at a minimum. We made this our first stop and walked around Arashiyama to grab some lunch afterwards!

Tenryuji Temple and Sogenchi Garden

The Tenryuji Temple and Sogenchi Garden are a World Heritage site and beauteous beyond belief. Some of the tree leaves were just starting to change color as fall was just around the corner. The Sogenchi Garden landscaping, designed by the famous Muso Soseki, was my favorite with a still lake surrounded by the forested Arashiyama mountains.

Kimono Forest

Right on the doorstep of the old Randen tram station, the underrated Kimono Forest is colorful and quite magical. This short walkway is lined with kimono patterned poles that light up during a night. It is definitely on the way to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and worth a quite 2-minute stop!

Day 5

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine

Anyone looking to visit Japan has likely seen pictures of the seemingly endless line of bright orange vermilion torii gates that make up the Fushimi Inari Shrine. The Shinto shrine is located in southern Kyoto and encompasses a beautiful mountain trail. Each torii gate is donated by either an individual or a company, whose names you can find inscribed onto the back. While we elected to complete the entire 2-3 hour hike to the summit of the mountain, the option to turn back at any point in time is available.

Katsu Lunch at Katsukua

We stopped by the restaurant Katsukua located at the 11th floor of the Kyoto Station Building in the Cube to try some Japanese katsu for lunch! We loved the experience of getting to grind our own sesame seeds to make the base of our dipping sauce. The experience is interactive and the service was super friendly!

Izakaya/Yakitori Dinner and Drinks at Torikizoku

Torikizoku was hands-down, our favorite izakaya place in all of Kyoto. We can comfortably say this because we came back to eat and drink here for three nights in a row, making it our perfect last meal in Kyoto. The restaurant is decked with white lanterns hanging from above and the chatter was lively. You have touch screen at your table to order drinks and food from. Our absolute favorite cocktail was the Yuzu & hachimitsu drink (I ordered multiple every time we went). We ordered multiple yakitori items (grilled chicken on a skewer) and our winner each night was a bowl of rice + chicken + green onions + radishes for only ¥321. We ordered 8 drinks and a full dinner for two for only ¥5126. Pretty worth it if you ask me.

Convenience store snacks to cap off the night - mochi donuts and a chicken katsu sandwich!

Tokyo, Japan

Day 1

We landed in the Tokyo airport early in the morning and got our cash (a lot of places are cash only around the area so make sure to have some on you), rented a wifi dongle, and hopped on the train out towards our Airbnb! We oogled at the yummy variety of snacks available at vending machines frequently available at variable intervals. The hot and humid weather encouraged Harry to buy a peach soda that soon became his go to vending machine drink. We walked a good 30 minutes from the train station towards our Airbnb with our luggages, which was actually quite a pleasant walk.

Since we arrived a few minutes before our official check in time, we decided to swing by a convenience store in the area to see what the hype surrounding Japan’s convenience stores! If you haven’t already heard, Japan’s convenience stores are nothing like the the ones found in the United States. The food selection is decked out with hot & ready-made rice bowls, onigiri, boxed milk tea to go, delicious pastries, instant ramen, and so much more. The most well known Japan convenience stores include 7-Eleven, Lawson, and Family Mart, but we stopped by a little one called Mini Stop near our place and we had SUCH an exciting time grabbing more things than our stomachs could fit and placing them in our cart.

Our convenience shop mini-haul included the following items:

1. 3 types of onigiri (spicy hot roe, red salmon, and fatty tuna with green onion)

2. Sweet grape drink

3. Two types of sweet custard

4. Egg salad sandwich — the bread was SO soft and the egg filling tasted SO fresh (this was one of my favorites)

5. Karage rice box with a soft boiled egg inside (which they kindly offered to microwave for us on the spot)!

Oh my goodness, the food was SO quality. Which is something I am definitely not used to correlating with convenience store foods. People were not exaggerating when they boasted about the quality of food you can find at Japanese convenience stores. While we ate tons and tons of amazing food all throughout Japan, some of our most prominent food cravings were items we had gotten at convenience stores. We came back to the different convenience stores to grab our favorite snacks multiple times a day and wow it was so worth it.

After our first food stop at Mini Stop, we dropped off our luggage in our cute and homey Airbnb, and then left straight to Suzukien Asakusa Honten get some matcha ice cream. This shop in particular had 7 types of matcha gelato named from NO.1 all the way to NO.7 to signify how strong and deep both the matcha flavor and color was incorporated into the gelato. We ordered a double scoop of the NO.3 and No.7 (because we just had to try it). The NO.3 tasted creamy, light, and quite delicious, while the NO.7 was definitely more bitter, but not in an overwhelming way.

We walked a bit further towards the area of Asakusa, to visit the Sensō-ji Temple, well known for the giant red lanterns hanging from its gates and the nearby Shinto shrine, a 5-story pagoda. We had a fun experience drawing an “omikuji”, which is sort of like a fortune thing. We shook this box a few times, which gives you a chopstick with a number, corresponding to these small wooden drawers with fortunes inside.

Next door to the Sensoji temple was a long shopping street lined with green overhanging vine leaves and red lanterns known as Nakamise-dori, with shops selling souvenirs, sweet and savory snacks, and other little crafts. We ordered some sweet glazed potatoes, mochi, and our FAVORITE was melon-pan! Oh my goodness, my mouth just waters at the thought of it. It is basically a sweet bun (topped with a crispy cookie dough layer on top) with ice cream in the middle. This was definitely an item we craved often and returned to eat. A MUST try!!!

Afterwards, we discovered that the Asakusa Shin-Nakamise (another covered street lined with a variety of shops) was literally right next to Sensoji temple as well. We walked through and noted down many restaurants we wanted to come back and try. It is a great place to walk through to find souvenirs (we found beautiful used bowls for only 100¥ or about $1 each), matcha dessert shops, and restaurants. A little bit outside of the market, we found a stand to buy some katsu on a stick and another place selling takoyaki (Japanese octopus balls) and couldn’t resist either.

For dinner, we headed over to the infamous Ichiran for some ramen! They are well known for the private booths where everyone can each individually with dividers on either side to allow intense focusing on the flavor of the ramen. This particular shop only had 10 of such seats, which were in high demand when we arrived. We decided we were on our honeymoon though and would just sit together at one of the tables in the open space. We headed down the stairs and waited in line to order at the bright red ramen vending machine which spits out a ticket that we bring to our table. At the table we get to specify on a paper the spiciness level, the richnes, how much garlic, and how strong we wanted the dashi (seasoning stock) to be. For fun, we also ordered a matcha beer on the side. When we got the ramen, we expected it to be all hype, but it turned out to be quite delicious! The broth was extremely flavorful and rich, the egg was cooked perfectly, and the noodles were a perfectly chewy consistency. A great first bowl of ramen in our Tokyo adventures!

As if we didn’t have enough to eat already, we decided to take a stroll over to “Hoppy Street” and walked into a random restaurant (we still have no idea what the name of it is) to down a couple of beers, snack on some mackerel, tried our first bit of nato (a traditional fermented soybean dish with a STRONG distinct flavor that may not be for everyone), and did some people watching as a lot of businessmen came out together to enjoy a meal after work.

With full bellies, we finally headed home to rest up and wrap up our first official day in Tokyo.

Day 2

• Little Nap Coffee Stand

  • To start off the day, we got our caffeine fix at Little Nap Coffee Stand next to Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, one of the twenty-three city wards of Tokyo. The shop was cozy and had only a few places to sit. The vibe was very chill and we the drinks were very delicious. We enjoyed our iced latte and americano while waiting for the rain to die down before we left to grab lunch!

• Genki Sushi: conveyor belt sushi

  • You cannot go to Japan without getting sushi, but one must have experience is trying the infamous conveyor belt sushi. After a quick wait in line (~5-10minutes on a Wednesday afternoon), we were seated in front of conveyor belts and an iPad-like touch screen where we could place our orders of up to three items at once. The digital ordering screen comes in a couple of different languages (including English) so you do not have to know how to read Japanese! You could get two pieces of nigiri for only ¥120 (SO worth it) and the quality for the listed price was MIND-BLOWING. We ordered a bunch of tuna, fatty salmon, scallops, yellowtail, and more. Each dish you order shoots out on the conveyor belt to your seat for you to grab — making the experience so much fun! Wasabi comes in little packets on the side that you can add to taste. There is also a little cup of powdered green tea they provide you on the side you are supposed to mix with hot water (which comes from a little spout at your table)! For dessert, I ordered the coconut ice cream (which came in an actual coconut shell) and it was honestly so yummy!

• Shibuya Crossing

  • Shibuya is most well known for Shibuya Crossing, one of the world’s busiest and most crowded pedestrian crossings. We hopped on an elevator to ride up to a nearby building’s Starbucks to watch the cars halt as crowds swarmed each and direction each time the streetlights turned green. We even decided to walk across Shibuya crossing ourselves, but the crowdedness made it a little difficult to enjoy the experience. For fun, we visited the Japanese Akita dog statue, known as the Hachiko statue, at the corner of Shibuya Crossing. The statue is in remembrance of a dog with remarkable loyalty to his owner. The sweet and sad story is of Hachiko who would wait for his owner at Shibuya station daily, and continued to wait for nine years even following his owner’s passing.

• Omoide Yokocho (Memory Alley)

  • Only a five-minute walk from Shijuku station, Memory Alley, formerly known as “piss alley”, comes alive at night with red lanterns hanging overhead and numerous small bars and restaurants lining the narrow street. While the area used to be known as a black market in the late 1940s, it was also known as for affordable drinks and yakitori (grilled and skewered chicken). Back in the day, since the area lacked restrooms, the road earned its name “piss alley” since inebriated guests would often relieve themselves in the alley. Today though, the area is well-visited, safe, and extremely popular with a bustling yakitori scene with cheap drinks all around. We stumbled into a random small yakitori stall and had the most amazing experience of our lives. The chef ushered us into a couple free seats in front of him, asked us if there are any foods we don’t eat/allergic to, and proceeded to cook a multi-course yakitori meal filled. He would first soak the skewers in a large flavorful broth, season the meat, grill it, and serve each one to us hot off the grill. The skewers included lots of meal and a couple of vegetable dishes too. Each skewer was SO flavorful and left us craving more. Next, we got a BOMB bowl of soba noodles, topped with tempura, for only ¥420. The quality was unbelievable for the price. It was OISHII DESU NE (aka yummy in Japanese)!!

  • Map of all the stalls in the alley: linked here!

DAY 3

• Tsukiji Fish Outer Market (tamago)

  • The Tsukiji Fish Market is a well-known tourist destination in Tokyo, known for its early morning tuna actions. While the old Tsukiji wholesale fish market closed and relocated to the Toyosu Fish Market, the Tsujiki fish outer market is still open and bustling with a mixture of retail shops, seafood, and traditional Japanese food stands. Here we tried some delicious tamago (a sweet egg omelet) for only ¥100, unagi skewers (freshwater eel), octopus fishcake, daifuku (sweet mochi with filling), taiyaki (fish-shaped cake filled with red bean paste) and mochi on a stick. We even bought a Japanese knife to take home for cooking! The variety of available street food was amazing, but the cost slowly adds up.

• Monjayaki Street

  • We again did not note down the the name of the place, but walked by and found a Monjayaki restaurant! It is very popular in the Kanto region and consists of a pan-fried batter with a more liquid-y consistency. The flour and water batter cooks on a grill in front of you and you use a little spatula to scoop some onto your plate. The batter mixture also included corn, squid, shrimp, octopus, mushroom, cabbage, and more (a total of 12 ingredients) and it was amazingly flavorful! It is Tokyo’s rendition of okonomiyaki, a popular dish from Hiroshima and Osaka.

• Ameyoko: Tokyo’s Candy Alley in Ueno

  • This busy market street sells anything from clothing to fresh fruit. We wandered around, bought a lot of matcha powder as souvenirs in this area. We also ordered some yakitori (octopus balls) from a side stall and stopped by a random yakitori restaurant for dinner. There was a lot to see and eat in the area and very enjoyable!

Day 4

• Ramen Street in Tokyo Station

  • I often get asked what the best ramen I had in Japan was. I often get a weird look when I answer the ramen from the underground Tokyo train station, but who can blame them? The ramen shops in this small area is located in Gransta, hosting numerous shops and restaurants, which connects the Yaesu and Marunouchi areas of the station. Each store we ate at is top notch quality. We did notice that the restaurants operated very efficiently as they consisted of many on the go travelers who wanted to eat quickly and get to their next destination. While we did not get to try the most famous tsukemen as Rokurinsha (the line was WAY too long), we did get to try one miso ramen shop (my personal favorite) and another tonkotsu ramen shop. You order at a vending machine outside, pay ahead of time, then get seated with your ticket!

• Matcha Dessert at Saryo Tsujiri

  • A classy place with a gorgeous view for some fancy schmancy matcha parfait desserts. There was even a variety of matcha items (and other tea items) outside of the store for some souvenir shopping!

• Meiji Shrine

  • A beautiful green walk with many things to see along the way as you approach the Meiji Shrine. It was beautiful and quite peaceful!

• Harajuku

  • Situated a walkable distance from the Meiji Shrine, we walked on over to the colorful and eclectic harajuku streett of Tokyo. The area is known for its colorful youth culture and fashion. Here we spotted colorful costumes, the huge rainbow cotton candy, and even visited a shiba dog cafe!!

Day 5

• Sushi Dokoro Shun (buzzfeed)

  • We stopped by a sushi restaurant we noted that was featured by Buzzfeed’s worth it videos. The place was a quiet, neighborhood restaurant where the owner knew his customers. We ordered the omekase and the fish was fresh and delicious!

• Yanagi Chaya: matcha desserts

  • For our last dessert stop, we grabbed some matcha ice cream and some green tea tiramisu at a pretty dessert shop, Yanagi Chaya, in Asakusa market that we walked by on our first day there. Super aesthetic and it hit the spot!