Tokyo -> Kyoto
Chirashi bowls for breakfast are the best.
Jetlag meant that I woke up at 5:30am. Oh well, I decided it was a good time to go try the uni-don in Tsukiji (pronounced Tsuh-ki-ji). I got the medium-fatty tuna with uni. (The medium fatty tuna was amazing, the uni so-so. I guess that's what I get for not spending a whole lot on both-- a chirashi bowl was about 3500 yen, or about $30). The market was still amazing to go back to the second time. Went back to the hotel, and pretty much passed out until about checkout time.... If you can stand being super duper warm while sleeping, I highly recommend thinking about staying at First Cabin Tsukiji. It's super close to the metro and the market, and had great bathroom facilities (seriously, the only Japanese bath I tried on the whole trip was here, and everything seemed to be a Shiseido product, and the women-only floors have things like face toner and lotion).
Spent this morning wandering a little bit around the Tokyo station area before I headed off to Kyoto. Fancy stores with modern and old scattered about.
Tokyo Station (there's a park they're going to put out front, that's what the construction is for)
Off to Kyoto!
There are a lot of interesting things to see out the window. I saw things like Costco (after passing the Nagoya station), Shiseido's manufacturing plant, Mt. Fuji (would have missed it if a nice lady hadn't come over and told me to look out her window on the other side of the train), the sea (it was pretty), and a lot of farms. You don't realize just how large Mt. Fuji is until you see it in person. My pictures don't do it any justice.
OK, so transportation is kind of confusing in Kyoto. If you get a day pass, it's only good up until midnight of that day, not 24 hrs. The good part is that it's reasonable-- a subway day pass is about 600 yen, which is the same price as if you took 3-5 train rides or so. There's a joint subway-bus pass that you can get, and apparently, there's another train line you can ride that's not JR. If your JR rail pass is activated (because you came in from Tokyo by train, like me) then you can use the JR pass to go places (like the very convenient Fushimi Inari Shrine stop).
So Fushimi Inari is beautiful. Peaceful. (Once you get past the 1000-gates, the crowd goes away. Once you start climbing to the top of the mountain, the crowd really goes away. If you take the right fork at the top of the mountain (it's a loop), you'll get to a very scenic vista point, which in my case was great because I hit that right before sunset. Dramatic lighting, for sure!
If you walk far enough up the mountain, you won't find nearly as many tourists as are near the entrance to Fushimi Inari.
As the lights began to turn on, the whole place took on this highly spiritual, eerie feel.
Off I went from there to Gion. Now, it was snowing pretty heavily once I was in Gion, and I'll admit that it's not a great place to walk around in the snow. (But I'd take snow over rain any day.) It's a beautiful district, with lots of fancy restaurants (none of which I tried, but if raw chicken, fugu, or kobe beef are things you want to try, there were a lot of restaurants I passed by that looked decent here). I was lame and ate a fried mochi stick instead. (Also, the famous green tea ice cream store is here, which I found out about too late.) (Which all things considered, was cheap and tasty, though I wonder if I should start seeking out some produce because lately my diet has been very carb and protein heavy....)
Once it started snowing (and sticking, like to the ground and to me), I decided it was time to head back to Kyoto station and grab some real food. Except I got distracted by all the options, and then I saw Muji, and ogled at the wide variety of food they offered (every other Muji I've been to outside of Japan mostly has stationery and kitchen/home/clothing things).
That is a lot of Indian curry.
I just ended up eating the backup breakfast food I had bought-- an onigiri (this time, some sort of mayo-fish salad thing), and a strawberry shortcake covered in mochi (the best cake ever made, available at a Japanese 7-11). Not a bad meal for less than $4!