We got a bit of late start and headed out at 10:45 am to walk the 1.4 miles from our hotel to Nishiki Market. Along the way we stopped into a shop and found a cute baby shower card for a friend and a small art piece to commemorate the festival that we planned to enjoy the next day. The shopping temptations are around every single corner, I swear.
We arrived to The Market…
…and quickly ducked into City Bakery to fuel up on coffees and pastries. Easy and tasty. On a less hot day I would recommend going out the back door and sitting in the courtyard area. (Not our photo.)
We enjoyed walking through the large and eclectic Market. In some ways it reminded me of our own famous market in Seattle.
Amongst the plethora of offerings we had sake, tempura, and craft beer. The craft beer was from Tango Kingdom Brewery and we enjoyed it at the back of Tango Table. Along with our beers they gave us a snack of these super tasty little fishes that I scarfed down very quickly. Scott had a rare moment of bravery to eat one from his bowl and hated every minute of it. I caught this event on video and will include it in a Japan compilation video that is forthcoming…
I had planned to sample many snacks today but for some reason I wasn’t particularly hungry. Maybe it was the heat. Leading up to the trip we watched several videos about this Market, and I thought I would be brave and eat one of the tiny octopus with a quail egg stuffed in its noggin. But during this trip I decided that I think I’m done eating octopus – not because they aren’t tasty, but because of my conscience (they’re too damn smart to be eaten by us stupid humans).
Exploring The Market also revealed the Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine where we each got amulets that we plan to attach to our packs during our pilgrimage trip next July. I selected Health and No Trouble. Very pragmatic.
My favorite stop in The Market (or maybe this little mall area isn’t considered part of The Market?) was B-Side Label – a sticker shop with hundreds (maybe thousands) of original designs by Japanese artists. There was a fun combo of stickers commemorating places we had/or would see on this trip along with some artistic and/or unhinged things. Here are a few of the ones I purchased as displayed in my journal.
When we were shopped out we walked the 1.5 miles to the Higashi Otani Cemetery. We love cemeteries and had learned about this one during our trip research. This place was epic. It was quiet and peaceful. It dates to the 17th century and has more than 15,000 graves.
Just above the cemetery is Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple popular for tourists to visit and a stark contrast to the peace and quiet in the cemetery.
Look at me insisting on a classic HILARIOUS tourist pose with Kyoto Tower.
We wandered down the adjacent shopping street, and had one of the popular pickled cucumbers on a stick (not fully pickled). Scott enjoyed, I thought it was overrated.
We caught a bus to Kyoto Station and found our way back into the food hall at Kyoto Tower Sando for a spot of dinner. Tempura for Scott and unagi for me.
On the walk back to our hotel we stopped in at Yebisu Bar for a couple of beers.
Kjar-ied Away 