Osaka

February 12, 2015

OSAKA/ TOKYO AUTUMN ITINERARY 2014: Shopping haul

February 12, 2015

Back in Singapore and sorting through all my gifts for people (and myself!). Too many to go through and most are food anyway, so I’m just going to pick a few of the ones I really like! 😀

The Arinco roll cooler bag I now use to bring my lunch out. Haha

Farmers’ Market finds- high quality green tea leaves and sesame flakes for salad toppings. It was really cool because they were pressing the sesame with a really old school machine right at the farmer’s market itself!

Assorted snacks from Family mart because I really like these panda faces.

Tea strainers I bought from Tokyu Hands. Really sad because the packaging had a picture of METAL tea strainers and I bought it thinking it was metal but they turned out to be plastic!

I really like buying Cure- Natural Aqua Gel for my friends from Japan because they love it and it’s more than half priced in Japan. Even comes with a free gift! How nice 😀

My favourite buys from Loft. A new wooden lunchbox and a new smoothie/ soup cup! So pretty aren’t they 😀

I’m a huge fan of Frixon pens because I like that they are erasable so I can use them for my organizer and make plans without worrying about having to cancel and make a mess.

Loads of stickers for my organizer. I like Sumikko Gurashi if you can’t tell. Haha.

This is the next big thing in Japan- the Ohyama Method Body Make Pad Premium Pro- apparently it helps you to ‘burn fat’ and straighten your posture by pressing a specific accupoint in your toe. I came to know about it because my friend wanted me to get one for her. I’m not sure if it’s working for her but if you are interested, I can help you ask her. Haha. It’s not cheap though. It’s almost $30SGD I think. They even have books published on this but my Japanese is so poor I gave up after struggling through the first page. I only could make it past the fact that apparently it lengthens some sort of tendon and this increases blood circulation or flow or something. Whatever it is, use these as tools okay! Nothing will ever be better than a healthy mindset, a good diet and some exercise! 😀

My new goal in 2015 is not to use any products with little micro beads in them because they pollute the waters and harm the organisms living in them. But my skin needs some exfoliating sometimes so I’m going to do it the old fashioned way HAHA. I actually bought 2 because I heard dry brushing is good for the body too but so far, I’ve been too lazy to try. The metal curve rod though, is great after a day of hunching over the computer! 😀

Bento cookbooks for lunchbox inspiration! 😀 I’ll modify it to suit the ingredients we can find in Singapore, then share it with you guys! 😀

And lastly, the cleansing oil I purchased from ‘Three’ cosmetics in Aoyama!

Phew! I am FINALLY done with the Japan trip! YAY!

Hope everything has been helpful! Do email me if you need any other sort of information! 😀

xx.

February 12, 2015

OSAKA/ TOKYO AUTUMN ITINERARY 2014: DAY 10: Last day! Healthy food at Revive Kitchen in Aoyama!

February 12, 2015

We had one last meal in Tokyo before heading to the airport and I was so sick of heavy eating already that I ~~nagged~~ persuaded my friends to eat at Revive Kitchen. I WAS DYING FOR A GREEN SMOOTHIE, DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS. Hahahaha!

Kudos to my friends who agreed though not without much skepticism. (These are the same friends I’m proud to announce have now (in 2015) bought their own blenders and are lean mean daily green smoothie chugging machines now too!) YES!

I love plain water. Mhmmmmm.

A green smoothie, FINALLY, FINALLY. *weeps tears of joy.

We are after all, still on holiday. Haha. Gluten free treats.

I dislike raw, cold soups and tomatoes so this gazpacho was not to my fancy AT ALL.

French toasts and lamb cutlets! Really unique!

To be honest, I’d say there were some hits and misses. I enjoyed the lamb coins with the bread, surprisingly, but the gluten free pancakes were strange and starchy. The best was the green smoothie but overall it was a decent meal and my friends actually enjoyed it though I think at that point I would have been happy just eating grass and a couple of bananas. Haha. I would go there again because I think the ambiance is nice and if I’m desperate for a lighter, fresher meal and crunched for time. If not for the time constraint, I would probably just buy all the amazing fruits in the supermarket and have a massively delightful fruit feast at home. 😀

And with that, it marks the end of my Osaka/ Tokyo trip. Would I be back in Japan again this year? You betcha. D and I have been making places to go back for our honeymoon in December but this time, we’ll be going to check out the onsens and ryokans! If you have any recommendation for any honeymoon- worthy ones; we are looking for private onsens with a view of snow capped mountains, then please mail me or drop a comment! 😀

Till then,

stay happy and healthy!

February 12, 2015

OSAKA/ TOKYO AUTUMN ITINERARY 2014: DAY 6- Of hiccups and other little things.

February 12, 2015

Day 6!

Today we left Osaka for Tokyo. The first part of our Tokyo
trip was an adventure in itself! For one, we went to the WRONG airport**
in the morning so we had to reschedule our flight and make our way to
other airport, effectively burning up the whole day. Fortunately it was a
very free and easy itinerary so everyone was quite chill about it.
(Super thankful for the best (and most forgiving haha) traveling
companions ever!) Instead of arriving in Tokyo in the morning as
scheduled, we only arrived in the late evening– totally exhausted.
Because my brother no longer stays in Tokyo, we’d booked another airbnb apartment in the heart of Shibuya (great location, really!) but the
house was wayyyyyy smaller than we thought/ could tell from its pics!

So
imagine 4 exhausted travellers turning up at Shibuya, walking past all
the swanky hotels, trudging up love hotel hill (haha!) and reaching our
apartment which was a dingy little place, opening the door only to find
that the place looked like it could hardly fit 2, much less 4 and to my
horror, was dirty beyond belief. 🙁 The floor was so grimy and the
mattresses looked very worn and old 🙁

If there is one
thing I really cannot take, is a dirty sleeping area that I’m not
prepared for. I’m totally cool if I have to sleep in the forest in a
tent and there may be bugs and stuff because at the very least, I’ll be
prepared to rough it out but I certainly didn’t expect to pay good money
and rough it out in Tokyo! I honestly wanted to just forfeit the
payment, pack up and suggest we shift to a hotel nearby. Fortunately for
me, the people that I traveled with aren’t the complaining sort. If
there is a problem, we would fix it. So we put on our Bob the Builder
hats and trudged determinedly to the nearest Don Quixote and bought
cleaning supplies. What an adventure right! I’ve never bought THAT many
cleaning supplies from a store in Tokyo EVER (Whoo! Experience! :D) And
as we put on some loud music and scrubbed away at the floors and shifted
the furniture to make space, I felt my longing to be back at Roppongi
in my brother’s swanky apartment slowly ebb away. By the time we were
done, we’d scrubbed the floor in time to the whole of Taylor Swift’s
album (we are tweens at heart haha), grimaced at the state of the rags
and grinned with satisfaction at the squeaky clean floors. Looking back,
these little hiccups are honestly what makes a trip, a trip and I’m
eternally grateful for grumble-free, super positive traveling companions 🙂

That night, we slept really well. Whether it was from pure exhaustion of the day’s events or from the food induced coma (HAHA), I wouldn’t know. But I like to think that the sleep was sweet because we’d earned it and we really happy that night 🙂

P.s I’m including the links to the airbnb apartment because I think that if you are a traveller concerned only about location, it still is a great place to stay. To be fair, the apartment owner also refunded our cleaning fees and tried to be as polite and accommodating as possible, so definitely no issues about that.

February 12, 2015

OSAKA/ TOKYO AUTUMN ITINERARY 2014: DAY 5- Osaka Fish Market Edo Sushi/ Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum/ IPPUDO Ramen & Osaka Aquarium!

February 12, 2015

Phew! Talk about long titles! Haha

Last day of Osaka today! Before we leave, breakfast at Edo Sushi! It’s located at Osaka’s version of Tsukiji so definitely worth checking out — amazing sushi without the insane queses! It’s actually pretty out of the way but it’s nice to get away from the bustling crowds once in awhile!

They only have 5 main sets but you can just point to any of the pictures to order ala carte as well. Most of us ordered set 2 and lots of sashimi on the side! 😀

Super thick and juicy pieces of sashimi! YUM! So delicately delicious!

The clam soup was DELISH. SO COMFORTING in the cold.

The place is really small and cosy. 🙂

After a hearty breakfast we went off to Ikeda to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum! We were so excited for this! I LOVE INSTANT NOODLES (but everything in moderation!), it’s honestly a totally cool invention and I was dying to make my very own and bring it home!

To get a glimpse of what it’s like, here’s a video for your reference!

Yay! We are almost there!

….

Our happy trek soon came to an abrupt end when we realised that The Instant Ramen Museum is CLOSED ON TUESDAYS!!! Hahahah. Oh well. The funny thing is, we KNEW about it and we made a note in our rough itinerary but we FORGOT about it. If you do go, please do tell me all about it so I can live vicariously through you.

So to soothe our sorrows, we decided to try our Ippudo Ramen next door!

Starbucks in Japan is fantastic, btw. Must be the milk. Or the air.

I’m pretty impressed with Singapore’s Ippudo’s Ramen standard actually. The difference is barely noticeable (both are good). The only reason why it might taste really fantastic in Japan is because it costs a fraction of the price it sells for in Singapore. So same standard but WAY cheaper = much more enjoyment!

My phone and camera ran out of battery right at this point so I also ran out of pictures for the day. Now if I may invite you to use your imagination to picture a series of cute seals, otters, penguins, cappybaras (!) whales, (ugly) fish and cool jellyfish, that was basically the rest of my day. HAHAHHA.

Transport was really cheap this day because we bought the Osaka (Kaiyukan) Aquarium Pass for Y2550. I highly recommend it if you are going to the Osaka Aquarium because it’s a whole day transport pass with admission to the aquarium. Admission is already Y2000 so you are basically paying Y550 for a full day of train rides. Didn’t bother with other travel passes in Osaka because we wanted to wander rather than take the trains within Osaka and most days we traveled only to a single destination and back. Hope this helps! 😀

February 4, 2015

OSAKA/ TOKYO AUTUMN ITINERARY 2014: DAY 4 (PART II)- What we ate + Best Korean BBQ in Osaka!

February 4, 2015

Didn’t want to ruin the Nara deer park pics with photos of our dinner because both Nara Deer Park and our dinner deserve their own posts! So here’s what we ate on day 4 (continued) and in my humble opinion, the BEST Korean BBQ in Osaka (disclaimer: I’ve only tried one other HAHAHA)

On the way back from Nara, we stopped by this store selling pork cutlets at the Nara train station and it was SO GOOD. I didn’t take a picture of it because it was GONE SO FAST. I don’t even know the name of the place but it’s a pork cutlet store near the entrance of the Nara station.

Anyway, we make our way back to Namba and because this morning’s Unagi don was SO good, we had MASSIVE cravings for good quality Unagi don so we went in search of a dedicated store selling Unagi. I mean, if a random store sells great unagi, a dedicated store specialising in nothing BUT Unagi must be out of this world right?!

Prices are pretty steep but we really wanted good quality unagi!

Ungai Tamgo! Decent but not crazy wow.

The ultimate unagi set with tempura and other sides! The soup was really good!

Surprisingly, this unagi set wasn’t as good as the humble simple little one we ate that morning from a random store 🙁 I mean it was good but it was … kinda on par with the simple one from that morning. 🙁 (I think my standards are too high in Japan haha) Perhaps it was just an off day for that store that day? We would never know but I left feeling like that money was kinda wasted 🙁

Anyway, we decide to go drown our sorrows in PABLO cheesecake which in my opinion, is also highly overrated. Or maybe it’s just impossible to appreciate a whole quarter of cheesecake each. Hahah. The cheese biscuits were not bad though!

We wander around Dontonburi Shopping District trying to find something appealing (read: hot and filing) to eat for dinner and stumbled upon this crowded little shop with bright red air vents!

Friend is obviously very happy. Haha.

Anyway! The food here is amazing! It’s so good we actually went back TWICE in our 5 days in Osaka! I’ll let the pictures do the talking in a bit but the beef here is of such high quality and the kimchi… it’s my favourite in the world! Watered down bland versions sold in foodcourts in Singapore, I’m looking at you >:( The kimchi here is lovingly coated with the red pepper paste and tastes fantastic on its own or grilled!

Kimchi was so good we ordered another bowl of it!

I know I said I don’t want to go back to Osaka and would prefer to stay in Kyoto but if anything were to draw me back, it’ll be this store!

STAMP OF APPROVAL x 10000000 times indeed! 😀

February 3, 2015

Osaka/ Tokyo Autumn Itinerary 2014: Day 4 (Part 1)- Kyoto’s Nara Deer Park

February 3, 2015

Since we saw monkeys the previous day, we figured today would be DEER day! This has got to be the highlight of the trip! Ever since I watched a youtube video of the ‘bowing Japanese deer’, I knew immediately that I would make it to Nara Deer Park somehow!

And make it we did! But not before brunch! 😀

Brunch was once again at Namba station before taking the train to Nara Deer Park!

After a totally satisfying brunch (the unagi don was fantastic!), we bought some bread from a bakery (because deer park = no food= FEAR. Hurhur)

This chocolate bread is my favourite! I love to bring it home and toast it so it’s crispy and hot outside and soft and full of melty choc on the inside!

WE ARE HERE!!

Long walk from train station to the park.

Deer are wild animals! They can kick, butt, bite or knock you down.

Mr Menace not sitting in the park at all but on the university grounds OPPOSITE the park. Wonder how he managed to cross the road?

We are sad because it was raining and we had to sit on a bench instead of go play with the deers. 🙁

Finally the rain has stopped!

There was a food fair going on in the park and the deer were just wandering around freely and poking their noses into things and conversations.

My first view of the deer!

At first I was super excited to see the stags fighting but after I realised that they no longer had antlers (shaved for human safety), I felt really sad. Like we were exploiting them for our own entertainment. 🙁

This guy was a deer whisperer man. Everywhere he went, the deer just obediently followed him and did whatever he wanted them to do. The deer could stand on their hind legs or spin around in circles and they were never rude to him. Most of the deer there can get very persistent and mildly aggressive because they want the biscuits. But not those around the guy! He smacks them if they get aggressive and they become really meek and gentle! Alpha male, much?

We love the sweet baby ones! 😀

Magic biscuits! Senbei for the deer!

They SWARM towards you the moment they see the biscuits!

How cool is it that we managed to take a group pic with the deer! I balanced the camera on a random ledge in the park and all I could think of the entire time was ” please don’t let a deer eat my camera”.

My friends cannot stop bowing. and bowing. AND bowing to the bowing deer!

It’s so hilarious!!!! I just stood there taking pictures of them and laughing. AHAHAH.

I’m not kidding! The deer really bow! (Okay, and me too haha)

THE SCENERY! GORGEOUS! Such a wide expanse of grassland for your to run and play!

Nara Deer Park is really a GREAT place to go especially in autumn when the leaves change, the hills are a-rolling and there are deer all a-roaming. I highly highly recommend it!

January 31, 2015

Osaka/ Tokyo Autumn Itinerary 2014: Day 2- Osaka Castle/ Pomme no Ki Omurice/ Harbs

January 31, 2015

YAY!!! It’s day 2 and we wake up bright and early and energized for a day of exploration!

BUT FIRST… FOOD!

(WARNING: This clique I typically travel with call ourselves ‘The Gourmet Bunnies’. It sounds atas but in actual fact it’s just because we like to eat. And eat we do– unashamedly, unabashedly, enthusiastically! So sit tight and brace yourselves! It may look like we eat an obscenely unhealthy amount but we are very nice people (who wouldn’t eat you) Hehheh. I may be vegsmoothiebunny most of the time but come holiday periods… HELLO WORLD! Balanced living, eh? Haha)

We walk to Namba station which is filled with food places and randomly enter one for breakfast.

The fake food displays are really helpful if you don’t speak Japanese because you can just use your phone or camera to take a photo and show it to the wait staff. Service is legendary in Japan, of course so no judgement there 🙂

People who smile while counting your change. Japanese people, you are so inspiring. Haha.

Mhmmm. Everything was delish, of course. With our tummies full and our eyes already searching for our next possible meal joint, we head to the trains and make our way to OSAKA CASTLE!

The place is gorgeous. The water so beautifully calm and the weather was perfect.

I love blue skies and foliage!

We like to ham it up for the camera. In public. Our skins are an inch thick. Must be all the food we consume. Haha.

Little ducklings on an excursion!

There’s a judo school within the premises as well and there was a competition going on- exciting!

The walk to the castle is beautifully scenic and full of… food. Haha

Ice cream in cold weather! Raise your hand if you love ice cream in cold weather too! The matcha soft serve was SO good. Not a fan of the Fanta Grape one. I dislike the drink as well.

And finally.. the castle itself!

The place was like a little museum which was really interesting. I like visiting museums and checking out biasness int he featured documents. Oooh, and the gift shops.

Evening was rapidly approaching so we left and made our way back to Namba. I had an Omurice craving so we went to Pomme no Ki for it!

I like places that you can customize everything! Pomme no Ki allows you to customize the size of your rice, sauces and ingredients!

My avocado and shrimp omu curry rice. SO YUMMY I am salivating as I’m typing this. T.T

Hashed beef which was insanely good as well.

Mentaiko Omurice

After which we proceeded to everyone’s all time fave dessert place- Harbs. Every single trip I’ve been to Japan (and I’ve been quite a few times now), I’ve been to Harbs. But this is the first trip that we went back to Harbs TWICE. And to be entirely honest, I don’t really like the place because I’m not a fan of cakes but my friends LOVE the place. The cakes, admittedly are pretty good and the ambience is fantastic but oh man… the sheer amount of cake was enough to make me feel a little green just at the mention of the store’s name. Haha.

Everybody has to order a drink! No problem though, their range of teas is SUPERB. Their green tea is out of this world light yet flavourful and so invigorating! I wanted to buy it back but they don’t sell it instore 🙁

Aged cheese cake. An (easily) acquired taste.

That night we rolled home but not before stopping at the convenience / road side stores (Namba is full of them!) and picking up Osaka’s famous takoyaki balls, gyoza, fried food (we live in the American District- everywhere sold beer and fried food!) and instant noodles.

Supper that night was made up of these happy things.

Chicken wing. Stuffed with cheese. Then deep fried to perfection.

Goodnight world.

xx.

January 31, 2015

Osaka/ Tokyo Autumn Itinerary 2014: Day 1- Flight to Osaka + Airbnb

January 31, 2015

I’m finally getting down to posting about my 2014 Japan trip to Osaka and Tokyo!

Lots of people have been asking me for the Itinerary but I’m really sorry I can’t mail it to you because we didn’t really have a plan per se. It was meant to be quite a free and easy trip so we just woke up each day and decided what we wanted to do! I hope these write ups of our days there will help though!

On 24 October, we took a 1pm flight to Osaka from Changi Airport!

Yay! Singapore Airlines allows you to choose your meal pre-flight so this sticker tells the stewardess that my meal is special! 😀 Singapore Airlines is a great airline no doubt but what is really amazing about it is its extensive menu customization. Upon booking, you can choose from a drop down list of lots of choices! There’s even raw vegan, low salt, suitable for diabetics, gluten free, kosher, etc etc etc!

For people who would like a normal inflight meal, they were serving soba and chicken. Yum!

Here is my friend looking very apprehensively at his ‘low salt’ option . HAHAHHA. My friends have been trying very hard to eat a little healthier and I’m so proud of them! My greatest achievement of 2014 has got to be the fact that I managed to persuade both of them to invest in their own blenders to make green smoothies for breakfasts! Yay to health!

The ‘low salt’ option turned out to be a really, really healthy meal! (HAHAHA so healthy that K was a little 🙁 HAAHAH It’s okay! We are going to the land of crazy good food!)

As for myself…

I ordered the Fruit Platter. It’s standard knowledge that airline food is heavy on the salt and flavour to account for the desensitization of our tastebuds due to the change in altitude. The air is already so dry, I didn’t want to risk being totally dehydrated out so I opted for the most water rich wholefoods I could find on the menu. I was a little worried they would soak the fruits in sugar syrup to preserve it or to enhance its taste but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were alright. Phew! It’s always a good idea to get one of each kind of meal when you fly with friends so you can share and have half the salty, flavourful food and half water rich, nutrient dense food!

~~~.~~~

7 hours later, we finally reached Osaka airport where we bought standard train tickets to Namba from the airport. From there, we walked (more like circled and circled and practiced my horrendously limited Japanese) to our Airbnb apartment (Ame#6 4min. to Nanba &Dotonbori) hosted by Genesis LTD!

We booked our accommodation late and it was right smack during the time of the Osaka Marathon 2014 so our hopes were not high but the apartment actually looked exactly like it was pictured. The apartment building was also incredibly new and the place was cosy. While the page states that it can accommodate 6, 4 of us were already an incredibly tight squeeze. The two girls shared a double while the guys each got their own pull out beds. I don’t know where else another 2 would sleep man.

All I ask for really, is a clean liveable place and I was really happy to get exactly that (and more). The host was also extremely helpful and friendly 😀

We arrived at the apartment close to 11pm and after everything, there was not much to do but to say oyasuminasai and crash into deep slumber.

zzzz.

November 13, 2014

Osaka/ Tokyo Itinerary Autumn 2014

November 13, 2014

Another reason for my hiatus was that I was away in Osaka and Tokyo for a week!

I know lots of you guys are planning a trip there as well so hopefully these pictures and suggested itineraries will help in putting your trip together! I also brought back a couple of maps and suggested walks/ guides from the Tourist Bureau in Osaka/ Tokyo which I’ll make available at the end of the entire post on Japan (I’ll be publishing a post a day!)! If you can’t wait till then, just email me and I’ll be happy to scan/ photocopy and email/ mail you the maps and guides!

Here’s an overview of my trip:

Day 1: Flight from Changi Airport to Osaka
Day 2: Osaka Castle and the surrounding area
Day 3: Day trip to Arashiyama Monkey Park + Bamboo groves (Highly recommended!)
Day 4: Day trip to Nara Deer Park (Highly recommended!)
Day 5: Instant Ramen Museum & Osaka Aquarium (no pictures coz I ran out of batt haha)
Day 6: Flight to Tokyo
Day 7: Asakusa + Kappabashi! (Highly recommended if you are crazy over kitchenware like I am!) + Tokyo Sky tree
Day 8: Roppongi (Joel Robuchon)
Day 9: Omotesando + Healthy food/ Cafe in Tokyo!
Day 10: Flight back to Singapore

As you can see, we did more of the ‘touristy’ things in Osaka and in Tokyo we basically just chilled, ATE and wandered which made up for a perfect holiday. Seriously, we ate so much, out of 700+ pictures we took, I think 600+ were food photos. Can’t wait to share though! And can’t wait to share my budget + reset meal plan once I came back as well. Really enjoyed for one week and came back to Singapore to EAT GRASS. Haha! NO REGRETS though! Although I think if I ever do go back to Japan, I’ll skip Osaka entirely and spend a week in Kyoto. Kyoto is gorgeous and beautiful and I’m totally bummed I didn’t spend more time there.

p.s if you are looking for more inspiration for your Japan trip, click the here to read last year’s trips to Japan! Hope it helps! 😀

See you tmr! <3

April 9, 2014

Japan March 2014: 1 Day in Kyoto- Places to Eat: Kyoto Hyoto “Dashi- Shabu” & traditional Kyoto style sushi at Izuju

April 9, 2014

First up! Hyoto for shabu shabu!

The pictures from their website are so pretty- mine totally don’t do the place or the staff service at all!
Here are screen shots from their website

Private seating is available for every dining group so it was a very cozy dining experience!

Do you love Japanese spring onions? I LOVE THEM. (so much that I finished this entire container and asked for another :/)

Blurry picture because I eagerly snapped this with my iPhone before stuffing it into my mouth 🙂 Look at all the gorgeous Japanese spring onions 🙂

Look at the gorgeous beef. It was melt in the mouth tender.

Aside from the set, we ordered a plate of roast beef salad to try as well- really good! Just that it was cold. I was almost tempted to dip it into the piping hot soup. Hehheh.

YUZU sauce. Another of my favourites!

And that concludes my shabu shabu meal. I love shabu shabu meals because they are so well balanced, yoummy and light. Makes me really happy! 🙂 This was a great shabus shabu place because of the service and ambience. Food wise, I think most Japanese places serve really good food so they are they are almost the same in that aspect but this place, they bow when you enter and actually kneel when you leave– not sure about you, but I’m not used to such ‘service!’ Haha!

Hyoto Kyoto Shabu Shabu

252-4, Kugikakushicho, karasuma-iru,
bukkoji-tori, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto, 600-8423

Phone: 075-342-2338

Opening Hours.
Lunch 11:30-14:00
Dinner 17:00-23:00 (L.O 22:00)

3 min walk from Hankyu Kyoto Line Karasuma Station
1 min walk from Kyoto municipal subway Karasuma Line Shijo Station Exit 6

* No Parking provided (although there are plenty of public carparks around the place)

_________________________________________________________________________________

Next up was Izuju- home of traditional style pickled mackeral sushi!

I would really recommend stopping at Izuju just to sample wht traditional kyoto sushi tastes like because it’s really different from the normal sushi. Kyoto is landlocked with limited access to the sea so traditionally, they preserve their supply of fish by salting and pickling it before turning it into ‘sushi’.

Can’t remember how much this cost but it was pretty substantial for a family of four. Izuju is famous for their inari as well 🙂

THIS was really the star of the entire dish. You remove the hard kelp around it and eat just the slightly glutinous rice with the preserved mackerel. It’s mildly salted so it’s not taste bud assaulting and the fish is tender and flavourful. Very good!

If I may be totally honest, the rest were just meh. Maybe I just wasn’t hungry anymore.

This was their winter style don which is SO PRETTY!!! It’s shredded egg and seafood on a bed of rice and the egg was done so well-just light shredded and fluffy. They have smaller orders of the subazushi (preserved mackerel) and inari for about Y1500 so you can order that if you don’t feel up to a massive selection 🙂

You can read more about the place here : http://kyotofoodie.com/izuju-best-kyoto-style-sushi/

GION Izuju
祇園いづ重
住所：京都府京都市東山区祇園町北側２９２−１
電話：０７５−５６１−００１９
How to Get There
By bus: Take 100 or 206 from Kyoto Station and alight at Gion bus stop.
By train: Alight at Gion Shijo Station (Keihan Line), or Kawaramachi Station (Hankyu Line)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Before my phone batt died, we saw a couple of ‘geishas’ posing for photos on the streets. Lots of people were jostling for a photo! I doubt they were ‘real’ geishas though as most of them don’t like to be pictured and are very private. Still, it was fun to check out their costume and watch them 🙂

We leave Kyoto and head back to Japan the day after and stopped by Nagoya to see sakura lined streets!!! Will share the pictures tomorrow! xx