Japan -03/31/- 04/08/2017

Kyoto-Arrival-4/54/2017

We arrived at the Kyoto station around 5:00PM and took a taxi to our apartment located in the heard of Gion, a district of Kyoto.

Gion is now the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in all of Japan.

Since it is still too early to have dinner we decided to check out the neighborhood known for its charming historic features: historic tea houses, willow-lined roads, kaiseki (Japanese haute-cuisine), wooden ryokan (Japanese guest houses) and shops selling local crafts and antiques.

Looks like locals are using rickshaw as mode of transportation around town.

Girls wearing traditional Japanese clothes walking the street close to our apartment.

Street close by our apartment.  It was raining a bit so I guess people are staying in...

This is kaiseki (high end restaurant) really close to our apartment.

The menu start at around $95 to $135 not including drinks.

On our way we passed by an artisan shop making tatami and products relating with using tatami.

Not sure if this is a restaurant or tea house but it looks really Zen.

In the back on the alley there is a sign for a coffee shop.

I noticed that restaurants in this area have signs illuminated by red and yellow paper lantern.

We passes by a colorful Japanese restaurant...

A modern ramen restaurant.  We tried to get in but the line was too long...

Shijo-dori street is a busy street that runs in the center of Kyoto from east to west through the commercial center of the city.

Lots of stores on this street.

Colorful lanterns lining the streets

Welcome sign

Dinner

I found this restaurant online and it got a lot of good reviews so we decided to give it a try!  The line to get in the restaurant was pretty long but we decided to wait to get in.

Fortunately, we only had to wait maybe 15 to 20 minutes before getting a table.

Grilled squid

Assorted yakitori

Agadashi tofu

Unfortunately, the food did not meet our expectation so I did not take a lot of pictures.  To make it worse, there were 2 guys seating close to us that smoked cigarette after cigarette during the whole meal. The fume bothered us so much and it was so annoying but we could not say anything because it is totally okay for Japanese to smoke inside the restaurant.

Next... Pontocho at Gion at night