Follow the heart(s): Kyoto

June is rainy season in most of Japan. To beat it we used our Japan Rail Pass to head down for a whirlwind 4 day tour of Kyoto and Hiroshima.

Kyoto

Kyoto is a lovely city that until the 1860s was the capital of Japan. There are countless temples and shrines throughout the city and the city is nestled in a valley. The shrines get increasingly gorgeous the higher up the hills you go. Unfortunately there isn't a hop on hop off tour bus for the highlights - it would be an ideal city for it as the top sites are kilometres apart. We walked the first day and negotiated the public transit the second.

Kyoto is also a very touristy place and we found more English there than in Tokyo. Most restaurants and shops had at least some English. The local specialty is a Japanese beef (wagyu). Kobe beef is actually the most famous type of this, but we weren't in Kobe so we had the Tokyo variety instead!

Finding a restaurant was difficult due to the paradox of choice. there was a lovely narrow street that ran beside the river and had countless restaurants and shops. They were also super high end with entrees in excess of $100 a plate common. Fortunately there was cheaper fare to be had and we found a restaurant offering different parts of beef a la carte, which you cooked at your table. We tried Kyoto prime rib (tatekanoko), then added salted beef tongue (tantsura), beef heart (hatsu), artery (korikori), and trachea (urute). Tatekanoko and tantsura were fantastic, hatsu was quite good, korikori is an acquired taste and urute.... Well, it's crunchy and was not finished, we'll leave it at that.

Our accommodation in Kyoto deserves special mention. I've been booking on the fly, often the day before, utilizing expedia, hostel world, airbnb, etc. The only affordable option I could find for Kyoto last minute was a hostel called Pan and Circus. Believe it or not, I've never done the dorm style hostel before, having usually camped or stayed at B&Bs in Europe. I had some trepidation about what the experience would be like. I needn't have worried though as Pan and Circus was super friendly and some fantastic memories were formed made.

Our first night we met an Israeli illustrated who in his off season was travelling and was now on his 7th month, having previously been in India and Sri Lanka surfing. We joined up the next day for the Philosopher's Walk past the temples / shrines.

After an exhausting day after which we headed back to the hostel ~5pm to rejuvenate before finding a restaurant for dinner. We were sitting in the common area resting while others arrived. Our hostess Marian (sp?) made a special effort to introduce everyone as new people arrived. Soon Japanese ladies with minimal English tried to engage us in conversation. So began a delightful evening of conversation with the help of phrase books and apps. Talking of going for dinner together arose and I showed my handy allergy card to alert them to the challenges. At this two of the women offered to make food for us! We had a fantastic dinner of Japanese curry, and continued talking in the Pan and Circus bar until midnight.

The following day was a whirlwind tour through a bamboo grove and the Golden Pavilion before heading to Hiroshima late that afternoon.