Japan Trip 2025 - Part 2, Nara, Kyoto

By Green Snake

Day 4, Nara (Sunday)

The 3 of us headed to Nara park. It's the place with all the deer roaming around. On the train, we saw Heijō Palace Site Historical Park. It looked like it was under some renovation.

We got some Sakura Burger. This place has great ratings on Tabelog. My friend got the regular burger with all the fixings and he really liked it. I got the premium burger and I thought it was good. I feel like I should have gotten some fixings on it (lettuce, cheese, onions, etc) or more salt. I love salt, maybe a bit too much.



We walked on Higashimuki Shopping Street. There was a small crowd of people at the base of the stairs of Tejikarao Shrine.There was a random cat at the top of the stairs.



We started to see some deer too. We went to Kōfuku-ji temple. We paid to go into the central hall and it was a bit interesting.





We saw a funny scene of a deer trying to steal this little girl's ice cream.



We passed by the Nara National Museum and saw a massive line for it.



We made it to Kasugataisha Shrine and I got a fortune and some deer Omamoris (charms). It's really rare to see animals on omamoris. I've only seen "deer" and "hello kitty." I put my fortune in the water, and it took a while but I could only read “big good luck.”



On the way north, we saw some gravel area and wondered if we could step on it to see a sign. We saw some Japanese people walk on the gravel and then we walked on the gravel to see the sign. We were worried it was some sacred area and they would put us in prison for 10,000 years.

Some deer snuck up to us and startled us. They are pretty sneaky. After walking for a while, We were able to finally find a vendor with rice crackers. The deer were starting to bite my butt and getting aggressive. I had to go into the store and the store owners shoo'd them away. I bought one pack for my friend and one pack for me. They really started to get aggressive. The owner said the paper is edible too. So I quickly feed them and left.







North, we saw this big hill to the east and people were just chilling with the deer. We made it to Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall) and paid the few dollars to see the big Buddha. There was even a small hole in the pillar you can crawl through for good luck. I was not about to get my big ass stuck in that and cause an international incident. I think it was for kids only anyways.







We went to Isuien Garden and Neiraku Museum. It was a small but a nice curated Japanese garden. They had swimming fish. Nearby, there were trees full of persimmons, just out of reach.







We headed back to Dotonobori. I suggested a random Izakaya recommended by a random person. The Google Maps pointed that the restaurant was in the middle of the highway. We figured it was underground in the nearby subway. We found it and waited in line for over 30 minutes.

It was Sushi Sakaba Sashisu (すし酒場さしす) “the hippo place”. We ordered sushi and it was fantastic. I saw something I've never seen or had. I've only read about this. Wasabi sushi. I think inside was some yamaimo (yam). Yamaimo is bland and crunchy, but it adds great texture and balance to things that are a bit salty or spicy or what not. I ate 2 pieces of wasabi and it hit hard. I ordered a whole set for myself. By the time I ate 4, I was coughing uncontrollably. It hits really hard. Amazing! 10/10 would order every single time. I ordered my usual booze and fatty tuna, which costs like $10 per piece in the states, but here it was a few dollars. Otoro is buttery and tender, with no fishy taste. It is like Wagyu beef, maybe better. I got the Uni. Was fantastic.





I tried a Natto (fermented soybeans) roll, for the first time. Terrible! It was not something I would eat normally. I hear Natto is an acquired taste. I had two big mugs of alcoholic sours.

Recommender from reddit: here

I went back to Round 1 and my bilingual friend tried to 1v1 in Gun Bullet X. He lost brutally! I got third place on the leaderboards. After this, we decided to part ways for the night.



I saw a salary man shuffle dance hard on DanceRush Stardom. I loved playing this game at my local Round 1 except the machine broke down over time. I went to the Gigo, and various arcades in the area.

I walked around north on the main shopping street. I'm not a big shopper and most of the stores were closed, but there were still a lot of people.

Back at the hotel, I talked with this Eastern European girl about Japan and places-of-interest. I saw her earlier in the trip in the laundry rooms, not sure which morning, I asked her about the laundry machines. The workers said there's soap INSIDE the machines already, which is new-to-me. She programmed in Java.

She gave me a squirrel doing yoga, from some Gatcha machine, and I gave her a dinosaur 🦕 and my business card, and some information regarding travel.

Day 5, To Kyoto (Monday)

Beautiful day. A bit chilly. We were headed north to Kyoto.

We chose this specific day because it was a holiday, “culture day”. And that meant there was a special train. We went to the Umeda Station and got some coffee and breakfast from Tully's 3F in the station. It had windows overlooking the train. I ordered coffee, which I chugged.



Then the special train arrived, the Kyo-train GARAKU. It has special designs and special seats, some with tatami mats. Also, there was a zen garden inside 👀. Also, the train had free wifi.





We arrived at the Kyoto-kawaramachi Station. An old Japanese man said I was strong in Japanese, because of the big bags I was carrying. I think it was about 40 pounds total? It was nothing. But on a cold day, it was making me sweat so I had to wear only a T-shirt. I asked my friend to fish out a copper American 2nd amendment coin out of my bag and hand it to him 🪙.

We unloaded at our hotel, and then began the trek east to Gion, a traditional area. We took note of the Kamo River. A popular spot to sit down and enjoy the river noise.

Overall, the Gion area was packed in the center, but around it, it was not bad. This place has a lot of Buddhist temples. They also close early at about 5pm. You may want to limit yourself to a few of them.

Kenninji Temple was nice. It had a buddhist zen rock garden, some nice plants, and statues.

We climbed up the slight incline, which was crowded, toward Kiyomizu-dera. It's the famous Kyoto temple on top of the hill. It was beautiful and scenic. The area overall was small.





We made our way over to Sannenzaka, a neighborhood. We had some coffee and matcha from the Starbucks. The Starbucks here had to comply with the architectural style of Kyoto and thus, looks very Japanese, even on the inside. Inside, they have a Japanese style tea room. We smelled some apple pies and thus had to eat some. At the Apple Pie Lab, there was no one there. But once we all ordered and sat down, people started crowding in. I got the matcha apple pie and it was fantastic.



We backtracked a little bit to see the Hōkan-ji, the famous multi story pagoda. We continued north.



We went to Kodaiji Temple (buddhist). A Chinese man liked my Snufkin hat and wanted to take a picture with it on. I said sure. We saw a mini bamboo forest. Some people like to carve their names on them, which is frowned upon. We went across the street to see the museum, which was small but interesting.

We went further north to Maruyama Park and rested our feet. We saw a big bird sitting on a rock, and a lake of Matcha (not really). We saw the stairs of Chionin Temple and decided to save that for another day. At that point, we finished part one of the walk. There was a part two, but maybe that was a bit too much for the trip in general.





We went west to Yasaka Shrine and they were holding some kind of ceremony.

We went to eat at MOS Burger since none of us had it. I had some tomato-ey burger and a fish burger, and fries, and a matcha shake. Fantastic stuff. We went back to rest at our hotels for a bit. Did you know you can unselect your floor in the elevators here?





Late at night, we saw the Japanime museum. Related to anime, this place has a lot of Original works, cells, autographed stuff, and more. It's a great place for anime and manga art fans. This one is bigger than the one in Harajuku, so if you see something you like, just get it here. I regret not getting a postcard here. Then we went into the B-SIDE Label. It's kind of a cool sticker store / museum. You're going to get something here. There's a larger store in Harajuku too.



We walked west through the Nishiki Market, full of interesting bites of seafood and meat. We went to (THIS IS) Shizen. A bit pricey but very beautiful ice cream with bean paste flowers. The worker spoke English well (with a cool British accent) and I gave the two workers dinosaurs 🦕. We finished off by going to Tsutaya Books. My friend bought a Japanese book, “I am a cat”. And then the Nintendo store. We met a nice person named Leo who was traveling from the UK. We talked about economics and conspiracies.







For dinner, we went to Shogun burger, which I think was great. The lady worker liked my Snufkin hat. I said I made it and said it was pretty simple. It's just one stitch again and again for a few hours. I wrote down etsy.com and “crochet patterns" for her.

We split up after that. I went to the nearby Bookoff to try to find a specific  Uma Musume (popular anime) figure of “Nice Nature”, which I didn't find. I also tried to find more language learning books, which they had none. I went to the local Round 1. I saw they also had a Gun Bullet X machine. On my first try, I got 3rd place! Looking around, they had some really strange arcade games.

I went home and did my laundry.

Day 6, Southern Kyoto (Tuesday)

My bilingual friend and I woke up and took a train to Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's the place with all the red Torii gates you've seen in all those Instagram reels. At the base, I got a fortune, and it was “big good fortune” and I bought a fox Emma (wish tablet). It was crowded at first, but as we walked toward the top, it got colder and less crowded. It took us almost 2 hours to walk up it and down. And that's with a lot of dilly-dallying. Made us quite sweaty. I'd say it was a great walk. It was about 3 miles.









On the walk down, I saw a black cat. I also saw a Japanese woman play with a white cat by spinning a cat toy in a circle. It was goofy 🥴.



We headed to Kyoto Station by train. Didn't get to see the stairs there light up, but we did eat at one of their Tonkatsu Wako. I bought the more expensive set. My friend got the normal set. I traded some Tonkatsu with my friend. His tonkatsu was a lot more tender, which was weird since his set was cheaper. I really liked this place.





We then went to the Kyoto Tower, and saw a lot of the city. They even have built-in free binoculars and you can get a full 360 degree view of the city. I recommend it.





We headed by bus to Nijo Castle.

We talked to an older Australian couple. We got off at the wrong stop when we got off at Nishi Hongan-ji Temple. It looks similar. So we got back on the bus and ended up at the right stop.

At Nijo Castle, which was a nice little castle. The internals of the castle were absolutely confusing and never-ending. It reminded me of the infinity castle from Demon Slayer.



We made a move to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. We quickly realized that we were too illiterate to read. Still, it was a nice little place. There are exhibits in English and you can still appreciate the art. If you get reservations, you can even get your face drawn in a really cool manga style. There was a fortune vending machine where the shrine maiden goes inside the shrine, comes out of the shrine with a fortune, and drops it in your hole. The artwork here was really nice. It's called the "Portrait Corner" and you need to arrive early.

(Portrait corner)







We went back to (This is) Shizen and met up with our other friend, and got more fancy ice cream. The maple leaf on the ice cream is actually not a leaf and is edible. We went to eat at Nishiki Market. I got some Otoro tuna slices (fattiest Tuna). Got some Kobe beef here, which was just ok. It wasn't quite the same as the Kobe restaurant we went to. I really recommend this place for dinner.





We showed our other friend the Japanime display and he really liked it.



We also checked out B-SIDE sticks.



We went east to the Kyoto Loft. I wanted to find animal paper clips.



For dinner, we aimed to get food at Pontocho Alley, a famous bar alley. I chose  Izakaya Fukurou Pontocho. We saw the sign and then went into the restaurant next to it. We took off our shoes, sat down, and we realized it was the wrong restaurant. Sushi Kizaemon had some excellent sushi though, so I enjoyed it. And they had Matcha beer, which I tried. It was really green and interesting. Of course, I ordered the wasabi sushi.



We walked around and there were people doing street magic. It blew my mind and I donated some money. We walked down the Kamo river and observed the groups of people there hanging out during the night.

Day 7, Northern Kyoto (Wednesday)

My bilingual friend and I woke up a bit early and headed out to see Northern Kyoto by train and by bus. As you approached the area, your train slowly becomes enveloped by plants. It's a sign you're leaving the city and entering a wild area. There were some "bear warning" signs but no one has heard of any bears. The place was Kifune Shrine. A movie named “River” (2023) was filmed here. (imdb). It's a fun movie about time travel and the movie all takes place in only this area. The train towards Kifune was moving forward as if it was in a tunnel of trees. I don't want to spoil too much. I recommend this movie.



Kifune Shrine is a small area up in the mountains. It's a nice area right next to this river and mini waterfalls. It's all really calm and scenic. At the time, there were zero crowds. Maybe because it's a Wednesday. I really recommend checking this place out.







We walked to the Middle Shrine. They would have an open box you can put coins in and just take a fortune. You put the fortune in the water nearby and it'll reveal your fortune. I got my fortune and it was “big good luck”. Amazing. We made it to the Rear Shrine. There was a vending machine with some  Frieren collab. Even in the middle of nowhere, there's a vending machine. I hear even Mt. Fuji has vending machines all over it.



On the way back, we saw the locations from that River movie. They were closed 😞.



We ate at Kifune Nakayoshi. I was really hungry so I ordered two meal sets. The tofu set and the Kyoto side dish set. The waiter took the order, went downstairs, and went up to confirm it was 3 meal sets for 2 people. Anyways, we ate all of that and it was great.





The side dish set had Narezushi, which was really cool. First time even seeing this really traditional sushi.

The trees here were odd since they just went straight up with no branches on the sides. We spent about 2.5 hours here.

We took the bus to Kinkaku-ji, Golden pavilion. It was mildly interesting seeing an old building covered in gold. Mildly crowded here, but seeing the gold glimmer in the pond was scenic. They had this challenge where you had to throw some coins in a hole from behind a fence. I was able to get a few coins in. They're really hustling us out here. Even nearby, they're selling ice cream covered in gold, and golden-pavilion-shaped treats. This was a small area, so we pressed forward.







There was this very fragrant plant with many orange flowers blooming in Kyoto. It was the Kinmokusei.



We went o GoGo coffee. I chugged my matcha and then we took a bus to Ryōan-ji. This temple was visited and loved by Steve Jobs. It has this famous zen rock garden where no matter where you go, you can only see some out of 15 rocks. That's life. 15 is considered the amount of days that pass where there is a full moon, or completeness. You can even sit down and meditate in front of the garden.



This rock garden had a really cool concept. But, we did not dilly dally too much and moved forward from this small area. There was this loaded persimmon tree. I was tempted to take fruit, but Japan's criminal justice would probably make me march like a robot for a year over $1. They don't play around here.

We took a bus to the Arashiyama bamboo forest area. We first stopped at Rilakkuma Tea House. I got and chugged my matcha. There's also a cafe on the second floor here but we had dinner plans. There's some Rilakkuma statues behind the store. They have limited edition location specific Rilakkumas here if you're interested.





We checked out the Tenryu-ji (buddhist) temple area. It was a nice little area with nice curated gardens and a pond with koi fish. There's even an indoor tatami mat sitting area. We eventually went out of there and into the bamboo area. The famous bamboo area is actually really small, but it is quite scenic.



We saw some loaded fruit trees just there in the residential areas. They're almost tempting you to pick them. But remember, I don't want to go to a Japanese jail. They actually make you sit there and think about what you did in silence for hours on end.

We just made it to the bamboo forest with 30 minutes to spare before the sun sets and we can't see anything.

We ended the trip by going to Togetsukyō Bridge and just watching the sunset. Lots of people were on the bridge too. I took a polaroid and it was a bit too dark for much to be captured.



We took a bus to the Yellow Deli. We met an couple who was from Italy. He said Italy has pizza, rome, and mafia. I said, “Rome? I love Rome.” and then I proceeded to talk about Roman ingenuity and brutality for about 20-something minutes in autistic detail. Their battles and brutality against Carthage, Judea, the Germanic people, the British tribes, Africans, etc.

I didn't have time to go into the Germanic tribe leader,Vercingetorix, and how they beat his people by building a wall around his fort to starve his people. And to keep his reinforcements out, they built another wall. So the Romans built an unprecedented donut-shaped fort. Anyways, the Germannic people lost, and the Romans captured Vercingetorix, stripped him naked, and then paraded him through Rome where he lived his life in a cage to rot and die. They started a fight with Carthage, invaded their fortress capital, razed it to the ground and then salted the earth so nothing would ever grow again. Then their attack against Masada, the siege against the Jewish rebellion in Ancient Judea. Masada was on top of a large plateau. The Romans built a massive dirt ramp up to that hill. Once they completed that ramp, everyone in Masada committed suicide. The Romans moved so much dirt that it still remains to this day. Romans were absolutely brutal. Still, I'll always root for them.

I would have rambled longer but the bus stopped.

The Yellow Deli restaurant chain is all over the world. My bilingual friend suggested it since his sister went to one, and he found out there was one in  Kyoto, for some reason. I ordered the Reuben Sandwich and it was really good. Textbook Reuben. And I got the Mango smoothie.



We talked with the workers there and even tried reading the child's learning book over there. We were reading really slowly and with difficulty.

We took the bus back home and we clunked out for the night.

I went to get a foot massage and it helped relieve some foot pain.

Day 8, Kyoto, Free Day (Thursday)

This day was a “Free day”. No planning.

I should note that if you're in this Gion area, you're not supposed to take pictures of the private road and people since the tourists were annoying a lot of the Geisha. Geishas (Senior) / Maikos (Junior) are traditional entertainers. They can sing, dance, play the Shamisen (Japanese Guitar), play games, etc.

My desire was to go to a Kaiseki meal. It's very interesting Kyoto-style Japanese haute cuisine. The problem is, reservations are a bit annoying. My plan was to go to a bunch of restaurants until I got into one. Due to the fancy restaurant and the Maiko meeting, I dressed up a little bit extra today and added my Snufkin hat.





I went to Gion Mizuoka. My friend walked me there and we parted ways. He wanted to go check out the neighborhood. I pointed out another of the Geisha districts south of us. They may be more Geisha there.

I went to this restaurant a bit too early, and I talked briefly with the male owner. I was able to speak elementary Japanese with him. I sat outside trying to make my origami Stegosaurus. Some time passed...

The female hostess was nice enough to give me explanations written in English on a piece of paper. While waiting for food, they let me borrow a fancy picture book about Geisha and Kyoto.

The tiger prawn sushi was significantly better than what you can get in normal restaurants. The color on that shrimp was a very brilliant orange. The foam soy sauce was new to me. It's foamed with egg whites to prevent staining on your clothes in the old days. The hamo eel has many bones and is labor-intensive to prepare. It had a nice smooth taste and added smokyness. The wagyu beef was fantastic, tender, and buttery. The grilled silver cod was perfectly marinated and moist. Narezushi was really interesting. It's really traditional sushi, that I had at Kifune shrine, which I really liked There was more stuff I couldn't explain. I ended the meal with Matcha ice cream (my choice). The food was beautiful, interesting, exotic, delicious, and pricey. In conclusion, I want more.

I asked what this small container was in front of me. They said it was fancy hand-carved toothpicks. I took one as a memento.









The black sesame crackers they gave me were unassuming but they some of the best crackers I've had in my life. I wish I could get more. You can look for “wabiya” stores in Kyoto and Osaka. They make it out of seaweed, mushrooms, and vegetables. It's absolutely brilliant.

More cracker info here: here.
Specifically the cracker I ate was: this

I'd definitely go back if I could, but for dinner.

Before I left, I gave them an origami dinosaur 🦕. I asked what the hostess wanted and she said dog. I had no idea how to make that so I asked if she wanted a green rabbit. She wanted a white rabbit, so I used the white side of a green washi paper and made a rabbit.

I went outside and went back east to the Chionin Temple, the temple just north of the  Maruyama Park. I got some choco strawberry ice cream and checked the place out. It was mildly scenic, and I went back down to the Kamo River, and sat down and tried to finish up my stegosaurus, by following instructions. This is about 4 times more complicated than my usual Brontosaurus.

It was beautiful here. There were a lot of kids just hanging out and people. I finished up my stegosaurus origami.





I went to the nearby Round 1. I played some of that Taiko drum game with that song “AiScReam”, which is a popular brainrot song.



I tried my luck at the Gun Bullet X game machine and I got the #1 spot on beginner and insane mode.

I also saw his Initial D arcade x minecraft collab. They were drifting with Minecrafts in the nether realm. Really goofy.I tried to get footage, but someone asked me if I was going to take the machine and I said Daijoubu (it's ok). I found some footage: here



Anyways, The Gang™️ made our way to the Maiko Meeting @ Maikoya.

⚠️Be sure to double check the address. Multiple places.

I met up with my friend and asked if he saw any Geisha in the wild. Nope. We get whisked through an outdoor maze into a private traditional Japanese room with low ceilings with a total of 4 groups of unrelated tourists.

The hostess (and also doubling as translator), began to explain more about the Maiko (junior) and Geisha (senior), and the training and what not. The Maiko, Satoha, comes out, radiant. Very soft-spoken. Initially, I misheard her name as Satou, which means sugar. There was a group photo segment. Due to Japan's privacy laws, I'm not going to post them 👻. And also, the venue requested not to make them public. There was some Q&A. I had a rearranged list of questions in our doc from before the trip began. Hmmm, we chose two.

Any Hobbies? Eating.
Favorite animal? Dog. Labradoodle.

Other groups asked equally if not more interesting questions:

• Makeup time? A lot
• Schedule? Super busy
• Vacation? A few times per year
• What sparked you to join? Meeting a Maiko as a child.

Then the next segment was the game segment: Konpira Fune Fune. There's an object on a table between you and your opponent. Basically, everyone is clapping to a tune that gets faster and faster. On the beat, you and your opponent have to tap the table or the object on the table.

Rules:

• If the object is on the table, you have to tap the object, palm down.
• If the object is off the table, you have to tap the table, fist closed.
• If you are holding the object, you have to return it after 3 times.

Here is a sample:


Group 1 sent 2 people, and they lost against the Maiko quickly. Group 2 sent someone and lost. My group was discussing strategy. Next person? Everyone was looking more reluctant. My group members didn't really want to do it so I volunteered as a tribune.

I was absolutely LOCKED IN running on pure focus and adrenaline like my life depended on it. After about a solid minute or so, with everyone clapping, the Maiko goofed up and I won. Everyone clapped and laughed as I stood and did my victory poses. I wanted to shake the Maiko's hand but I remember the Japanese judicial system and thought maybe that's a bad idea 🥴. I am taking no chances on that. As soon as I got up, I felt the adrenaline rush wind down and hit me hard and it gave me the shakes for like 10 minutes.

Since that segment went on forever, the hostess moved to the next segment. Next up was the dance segment, which was very nice.

Afterwards, the Maiko left, and we had even more Q&A. She said that most Japanese people will never ever meet a Maiko or Geisha. I wish I could have seen a Shamisen (3 stringed traditional guitar) performance. That would have been a rare treat.

Then we had to say our goodbyes. I gave the hostess the stegosaurus and two brontosauruses 🦕🦕 and two silver Harry potter coins for her and the Maiko. I really enjoyed the meeting. It was surreal.

Here is a relevant article about this specific maiko: here

Afterwards, we went to try to find Izakaya Fukurou Pontocho. We almost went to the wrong Izakaya for a second time. There was a sign that said “take the elevator behind the hallway”. Was it pointing to the elevator in front of us or the elevator to the far right? We went to the elevator to the right-end of the hallway and there was an izakaya with chicken pictures. But it didn't translate correctly so we tried the first elevator and there it was. We ordered sushi, ramen, and steak. I let the waitress know that my friend had a shrimp allergy, in elementary Japanese. On the way out, I saw a tray of Origami cranes. I ran out of dinosaurs to give that day.

We headed home but I wanted to walk a little bit more. On the walk around we saw a cat playing a musical saw.

Here's the cat's 😺🪚🎵 instagram, @mewsicalsaw: here

My bilingual friend and I got ice cream at the nearby Babbi. There was a German restaurant nearby that looked interesting named Munchen with amazing food displays.