Osaka and Kyoto

 On Wednesday, May 20, we took the ferry from Naoshima to the port town of Uno, where we had breakfast. Then a local train  to Chayamachi, transfering to an express train for Okayama, where we caught the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. From there it was a few stops to Yodoyabashi Station at the north side of central Osaka. I picked the same hotel as I stayed in last year, since it is in the business area and is very quiet at night.

We got to the hotel in the late afternoon so we had time after checking in to go to the famous Kuromon food market near the lively Dotonburi area in central Osaka. As I expected, Celene loved the food market, and we tried seafood and wagyu beef.

 Next we went to the craft beer place that I went to last year. I started talking in Japanese to a couple of people from Tokyo who were in Osaka on a business trip.  One of them was a big fan of hiking and craft beer, like me, and he recommended a hike and craft  beer place on Mt. Takao near Tokyo.

Celene and I kept walking around Dotonburi and it got more and more lively as the night wore on. After getting something to eat at a ramen place by the canal, we headed back to the hotel.

The next day I spent mostly blogging, reading, and doing laundry, while Celene went shopping. We went back to Dotonburi for dinner and found a great little Japanese style restaurant for grilled fish.

The next two days we did day trips to Kyoto, which was quite convenient since the Keihan line station was very close to the hotel.

Since Celene had never been before, I figured she should see the famous places even though it would be crowded. The first day we got of the train at Gion, the main traditional cultural area of Kyoto, and walked to Kenninji temple. Despite the crowds it is still one of my favourite temples. I took a picture of the same garden that I had done a drawing of in 2014.

Near Kenninji we stopped in a little place selling matcha called 'its me'. There were also hand-stitched napkins for sale and the woman working there said they were made by her 90 year old grandmother. Celene was very impressed and bought a couple of them. Just then the grandmother arrived, and the two of them were so happy to meet people who had just bought her work.

From there we walked up to the Kiyomizudera temple area. The crowd of people up the shopping street to the temple was a thing to see in itself.

We stopped for something to eat and then went into Kiyomizudera. Its a beautiful temple area, with great views of the temple with the city in the background.

Afterward we went to a craft beer place I knew from last year, called Kyoto Beer Lab. 

Then took the train back to Osaka and Dotonburi again for dinner. We found a little place that was run by a guy who was really into camping. There were pictures of his camping setups in different places he got to by motorcycle.

The last day trip to Kyoto, we got off the train at the Fushimi-Inari shrine, with the large shrine at the bottom and the rows of Tori gates that wind their way all the way to the  top of the hill.

There were lots of little shrines along the way, and a rest stop by a little lake next to a bamboo forest.

We spent a good part of the day at Fushimi-Inari, and then caught the train to the center of town again, this time to go to the Nishiki Market. Another super-crowded place. 

We stopped at a place for a snack, but otherwise just walked straight through. We had dinner by picking up food at the basement of a department store nearby, and going to the roof to eat.

We walked back towards the river, and by then it was starting to get dark but you could see the row of restaurants with terraces along the river.

We walked up a narrow street next to the river which had all kings of restaurants and bars. We stopped for a drink at a jazz bar called Stardust.

Then we walked back to the train station on the other side of the river, and watched the street musicians before catching the train.