On our way down the hill from Kiyomizu-dera we ended up at Gon Dai Yuu Gojozaka for lunch, a nice two story noodle shop. I ordered Wagyu Niku-Udon which was 900 yen. It's a Japanese beef udon that I ordered cold which was a new way to experience udon for me. When your udon is cold [...]
Kiyomizu-dera is a independent Buddhist temple that was founded in 778. We went as early as we could manage on a Saturday morning. We wandered around up the hill looking at shops and sampling Yatsuhashi 八つ橋, along the way, deciding to do souvenir shopping on the way down. Most of the buildings of Kiyomizu-dera were built in [...]
I realized after I left Tokyo last summer that I had managed to not eat any sushi. And as a person who isn't particularly in love with sushi this was okay but not a good thing. I like sushi but in the US it's just too expensive for something that doesn't make me full. So [...]
When I was small, like super small, back when vhs and video rentals were a thing, our local Kroger use to sell movies and rent movies and amongst all the VHS's for sale I found "My Neighbor Totoro" and managed to talk my dad into getting it. It was the only copy, with it's case beaten [...]
One of the things I told my friend I wanted to do was to see the bamboo grove and soon found out she had a field trip there while I was visiting. First I was disheartened but her teachers gave her the okay to bring me along, so we got up early and caught the [...]
When my flight ended up being so delayed we were worried about fitting in everything we wanted to do. But after a quick google search discovered that Fushimi Inari-taisha was open 24 hours, meaning after our dinner of okonomiyaki we could just go and see it at night. Fushimi Inari-taisha is a Shinto shrine located right [...]
Located in the Kyoto Porta near the Kyoto train station is where I had my first real meal in Kyoto, お好み焼きOkonomiyaki. The restaurant had a long line but since we were only three people willing to sit at the bar and not cook for ourselves we were let in before people who had been there longer. [...]
There aren't as many holidays this year so when I saw a 5 day weekend I jumped to plan a trip. Due to Children's day we got Thursday off and then Friday and Monday as well. So I got in touch with my friend whose studying Japanese at a University in Kyoto to see if [...]
After dinner we headed out to Soul Train Vintage Music Lounge at 54-4 Itaewon-ro 27ga-gil. It wasn't what we were expecting which was a relaxed lounge with music and an opportunity to dance or sit and talk. Instead we found a small crowded space with limited seating and more people dancing drunkenly to the point [...]
Nathalie's birthday was recently so I met up with her and some of her friends to celebrate in Itaewon. Our first stop was Left Coast Burgers at 130-43 Itaewon-dong. I ordered the classic burger with a half side of fries. The classic comes with American Cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup and mustard. Which was [...]
