My best friend lives in Shiga where is located next to Kyoto. I usually see her if we both go back to our home town at the same time. Once I visited her to Shiga right after she got married and moved to there, but it was almost 10 years ago… Suddenly I felt like I wanted to go somewhere, and I went to Kyoto. Luckily, she was free the day I went there and we could spend the whole day together. I left my place at 6:00am and took the 7:30am flight to Itami airport.From the Itami airport to Kyoto, I took a non-stop bus which takes me to Kyoto directly. The bus was arrived at the Kyoto station before the time we expected to meet. I found my friend and her baby boy "Haruto" around 10:00am.First we stopped by TOFU store "三田久" for buying a Ama-Yuba(Tofu skin curd). It was 5 mins from Kyoto station on foot.
I wanted to visit a few temples this time, and we went to Nishi Honganji first.Unfortunately, the weather was not good all day long, and it was raining a little bit when we got there. I wanted to see all buildings, but we went inside the main building and stay there instead.
Shoin(書院）
I don't know this building...but it seems it was used for the reception room when guests visited the temple.
Karamon gate(National Treasue of Japan)
The gate is pretty big. The little boy in the middle is "Haruto." You can guess the size of the gate if you compare with Haruto.
After we left the temple, we headed to the cafe "La Voiture" where is famous for Tart Tatin(French upside-down apple tart)
. On the way to there, we found the traditional Japanese confectionary shop "Kameya Yosinaga(亀屋良長）near the bus station. I wanted to buy something Kyoto as a souvenior, and I got some Japanese sweets there.
. On the way to there, we found the traditional Japanese confectionary shop "Kameya Yosinaga(亀屋良長）near the bus station. I wanted to buy something Kyoto as a souvenior, and I got some Japanese sweets there.
The cafe is very close to the Shrine "Heian gingu." We didn't have a time to see inside, and I just took a photo when I passed by.
Right after we paased by the shirne, the weather was suddenly changed... The sky turned black and it started raining, and it got worse and worse even we haven't reached to the cafe :( We all wet head to toes in a few min while we were running to the cafe. I supposed to buy the tart and leave the cafe, but we decided to stay the cafe until the weather gets better. We wanted to stay there until the rain stopped, but it never stopped after we entered the cafe.
The tart tatin was really good! The cafe seems very popular, and many people were kept coming and waited for the seats while we were eating.
We also went to Kagizen Yoshifusa(鍵善良房) that my another friend recommended me to eat at Kyoto. I ordered the Kuzukiri(葛切り）which is the most popular menu as my friend recommendation.
The container is very Japanese :)
Kuzukiri is a Japanese traditional sweets and it has no taste. It dipped in the syrup and eat.
I got souvenir for my father there :)
I only could stay in Kyoto for about 7 hours this time, but I had really nice time with my best friend. I should visit there in another season again!
