Day 5 - Food Adventures in Kyoto

"That was the worst lunch."

"The worst. What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?"

Much less arguing today. Wake up and have hotel breakfast buffet. French toast rocks ---even in Japan baby! We decide to do a walking tour of the Higashiyama area of Kyoto. We figure out where to buy bus tickets and the little old lady at the counter is adorable. Lots of pointing and bowing again. Hop on bus to ride to start of tour outside the city.

The walking tour is ALL uphill but still totally fun. Tiny little shops everywhere and many gorgeous pottery boutiques.

Aaaaaah---such a nice change from Tokyo! Silence, silence, and more silence….eventually smashed to pieces by HEARDS of uniformed Japanese school children. Most are wearing yellow hats.

French Boy is obsessed by the school children's uniforms and takes about 20 photos like a crazy stalker.

Next: Temple temple shrine shrine, Temple temple shrine shrine, Temple temple shrine shrine shriiiiiine!

We see Kimono girls at Kiyomizu Temple. I shop for gifts in s store full of school children who must be hopped up from sniffing glue.

I buy plastic numb chucks and a Katana made out of Fabric for our nephews…which we eventually decide to keep so we can hit eachother with them.

We smack the crap out of each other all day and make kung fu noises as we walk from temple to temple.

At one of the temples we meet a nice old Japanese lady who is from Kobe, a city close to Kyoto. She wants to practice her English so we chat with her. She asks how we like Japanese food. We say that we like some of it…..but apparently we jinxed ourselves with that response.

We stop at a crappy restaurant for lunch at around 1PM. We choose our food from the photos on the menu. French Boy’s food arrives and it looks like someone barfed up chicken gizzards onto rice then cracked a raw egg over the top of it. He eats some of it anyway.

The French will eat damn near anything. I didn’t taste it. It was a bit too “fear factor” for me. I eat my tempura and slurp my noodles. I give French Boy the rest of my tempura.

Walk walk & more walking.

I buy little tiny Nekko wind chimes and then waving nekko from a guy in a shop that has cats roaming around his tiny store. It makes me feel extra lucky. We will be rich! We finally make it to the last temple of the day---and they are closing in 15 minutes.
We see a few things then agree to come back tomorrow. Jump back on bus to go to crazy shopping district for dinner. After lunch eating adventure French Boy needs real food. American food. We eat cheeseburgers and chili fires at Wendy’s ---and actually enjoy it.

After dinner we walk and look around until our eyes just cant take in any more! We go for coffee. Walk & walk to bus top. French Boy and I decide that its hard to tell the girls from the guys sometimes. Everyone is tiny with big 80’s hairdos. We catch the bus home. I wash my socks in the sink. French Boy snores. My feet hurt. Goodnight.