Liz is over shrines and temples so today we are shopping. 

We started off the day at Cafe Étacion which is supposed to have one of the best bird’s eye view of the Shibuya Scramble, the famous Tokyo crossing. Well, maybe if you climb out the window and sit on the ledge! Nevertheless it was a pretty good view and the apple flavoured chai seed tea was a delicious start to the day

 

  
Liz needed food, what better for breakfast than pasta. She thought she’d ordered hot chocolate but ended up with cold Pepsi!  

Then shopping at Shibuya 109, floors and floors of fashion! And we visited every floor!Very happy with our purchases!  

 

A quick trip to the Apple Store,  then a cafe for hot chocolate, a slice of fruit tart and a time to recharge batteries, ours and our phones,rocking the Beatles music!  

Liz by this stage was pretty much over everything so we didn’t do much for the rest of the day.

I have discovered something about my usually laid back daughter in Japan, Liz who has been my rock up and down mountains, across Spain and Japan, is prone to attacks of map app rage any time she is holding a phone in her hand and trying to navigate. True both Apple Maps and Google Maps take a while to sort things out when you go off the route…..which we do often. But she is not a pretty sight, striding down the street turning the phone round and around and muttering that if we knew where the route was we’d jolly well go there ! Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to share. 

Anyway, despite the temper tantrum on the street we finally did find the restaurant we chose for dinner. How could you resist these words from the pamphlet  

 My heart sank when I looked inside, I wasn’t in the mood for sitting on the floor dining. But hey, how cute, there were little wells under the table to put your legs. I noticed that some people showed off and sat cross-legged on the cushion anyway!  

From the photo we assumed we would be doing the grilling ourselves, the hot plate in our table suggested that also. However the food came out already grilled and served in wooden boxes which sat on the hot plate and all we had to do was wrap in the salad leaves and eat. The asparagus and okra was to die for, the chicken was delicious, and we did indeed enjoy our feel, chewing and drinking.   

On the way home we stopped in at Starbucks which overlooks the crossing, enjoyed coffee and a much better view than the one from the cafe that morning.

   

Grey and rainy when we headed out today, we decided to take the umbrellas provided in our apartment, despite the fact that we are both quite bad at keeping track of our belongings. 

     

 

 
 I have been looking forward to visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine, the famous vermillion gates were the reason I wanted to visit Kyoto on this trip. And it didn’t disappoint.

  
  Heard on the steps of the shrine Wife: We need to get a map Husband: You don’t need to get fixated on the map yet. I bet that tells the story of their trip!

 

 There are thousands of gates, they actually frame the path all the way to the top of Mt Inari
Despite the huge numbers of people it was quite soothing and meditative walking through the tunnel of gates. 

 

 
  

  
I took my photos on the way in and enjoyed the walk back in silence. Many people talked constantly the whole time, more involved in their chat and in each other than their surroundings. I suppose they will go back to wherever they are staying and tick that off their list. 

  

Next stop, a cat cafe! We really wished Jess was with us. I can’t say the cats were dying to be patted, so catlike! 

 
In fact one of them bit me and then spent the rest of the time giving me the evil eye from its cube. 

  

I think they would much rather sit in the window and watch the world go by than interact with humans.   

Back in Kyoto we decided we were going to cook dinner that night, the steak and mushrooms we had seen the day before. Hmmm, now where was that butcher? I know it’s just  down from the crab restaurant, somewhere along here down this alley, or maybe this alley…..nope, gone never to be seen by us again!

Not having any steak we decided against the mushrooms and headed back to the apartment. Now if we just go down this alleyway and turn left we should be on the main road home……nope, not there, Google Maps had us going around in circles, until I finally found a landmark I knew, not that it was anywhere near where I thought we were! 

 

 
But as luck would have it we ended up outside the  Minamiza Theatre which we had tried unsuccessfully to find previously, and were able to get tickets for the Kabuki performance “one Stirmy just about to start – 3 and a half hrs, apparently short by Kabuki standards. There were a few intervals, including one quite long one where everyone, except us, took out out their bento boxes and had a meal. We shared a packet of rice crackers. 

Kabuki theatre had its origins in the 1600s, was originally performed by women prostitutes but the males in the audience got too excited so it is now performed by an all male cast

  
Kabuki performances are full of drama and emotion, very dramatic music, flamboyant costuming and over the top acting. The cast runs through the audience and target audience members with obviously bawdy remarks. One section in the middle was rather tedious where a beautiful young woman was baring her inner-most soul in a most dramatic way to her bff, obviously it was very heartbreaking but also very long and we had no idea what that was about. But other than that we could sort of follow the storyline, star-crossed lovers who meet one stormy night in a darkened hut ,went through lots of dramas, lots of characters got killed but eventually all was well in the end.  

We found out afterwards the main characters were  a wolf and a goat and much of the humour at one stage was about the wolf being conflicted about whether to love or eat his new found friend. 
Click to find out about Kabuki Theatre 

On our way home we stopped at a supermarket to buy steak and shiitake mushrooms and other veges for our dinner. Japanese cuisine, the type that we have tried anyway, is not big on vegetables 

  
It was delicious but the star of the show was definitely the mushrooms, we could have just had a plate of them. 

  
Another great day in Kyoto – tomorrow off to Tokyo and the Apple Store!

Really wanted to put Kyoto: Kulcha & Krabs, but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it! Think it was the thought of my mother tut-tutting up in heaven. 

We were hanging out for food and coffee this morning, having only eaten a couple of pieces of toast and Vegemite since lunch time yesterday. After a couple of blocks, yay! Starbucks! 

Coffee pangs satisfied we went outside to see a line of people forming in the banks of the nearby river. They were all kitted out with backpacks, walking poles, water bottles, hats, all ready for some serious day hiking. And the line grew and grew and grew until dead on 10:00 am they all set off along the river bank. I love the way Japanese people are so orderly and polite, no-one tried to push in, some just waited patiently by the river bank for the end of the line……they would have been waiting a while, the line just grew and grew. I don’t know where they were going, perhaps a trek through a bamboo forest.

  
We wandered through alleyways of shops, I bought a hat, Liz bought pressies, we looked at meat and mushrooms, very expensive, 

 

  

 and enjoyed the signs and ads. 

   

 Watched little old ladies off to play pokies and geeks off to play computer games

 

 
Went to a performance of Gear, a non-verbal show of mime and magic. Press the link to read all about it.  Amazing, don’t miss it next time you are in Kyoto. Loved  the young Japanese boy in the audience who was SO embarrassed because his teenage sister wouldn’t turn off her mobile phone despite the signs and announcements. Didn’t need to understand the language, body language said it all 

  
Yummy, yummy lunch at the crab restaurant. It looked very Japanese, lots of rooms , climbed lots of stairs, was relieved to find proper tables and chairs. I find sitting on the floor distracts from the meal for me! 

 

  

 

   
 
 

  

 
 

  

 
Loved the conversation behind us in the street where an Aussie guy was explaining football to his non-Australian friend. Rugby, organised chaos, AFL , you can run with the ball for a while and then bounce it, the latter said with a slightly derogatory tone. Not sure he really knew anything about either codes!

A fascinating night tour of the world of the Geishas (more in a later blog) and dinner at a diner. 

There was no English button on the machine and we couldn’t work out how to order anything. When a kind person eventually helped us, it turned out the grey boxes on all these dishes say Sold Out.    

 

Loved our first day in Kyoto!

After leaving Temple 88 we took a bus and train to Tokushima, the city where Liz’s pilgrimage began.  We decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights at the JR Hotel Clements, situated between the railway station and Starbucks. What more can you want!

  
When wearing the henro or pilgrim garb you quickly became used to being treated with respect and people went out of their way to help you. A gaijin is literally an ‘outside person’ or foreigner. Once we stopped wearing the henro gear I did notice that while people were generally helpful and respectful, we weren’t treated with the same deference. I kinda missed it!!

Next morning after coffee, a real, proper, delicious coffee at Starbucks we headed off to shop at Uniqlo, how exciting to shop at a Uniqlo in Japan.  

 

Next stop was a henro hut Liz had seen previously where we planned to leave our hats in the hope that someone would use them. That particular hut eluded us so we left them at a pilgrimage marker. Like her stick Liz was sad to say goodbye, it helped her through rough times, heat and rain. I hope someone found them and took them on another adventure. 

 

 
Lunch was pizza at a real cool cafe with funky animated pictures. 

   
[wpvideo rTVuFXVP] Off to the post office to send home trekking gear and make room for shopping

 

 
We had early dinner at a restaurant, very popular In Japan, where you choose and pay at a machine out the front, then eat inside.  I couldn’t go past the Pork!

   
   

   

Back to our room to tidy up and pack. Off to Hiroshima tomorrow