Late Night Picnics: Last of Kyoto

After our cycling tour, we had the option to stay and look around the town of Arashiyama where the tour ended or take the JR train back to the Kyoto station. Although spending more time in Arashiyama was very tempting, MM and I were set on having some sukiyaki at the Kyoto station and because our tour ended around 1pm, we were already getting pretty hungry. So, we took the train back to the Kyoto station and once again climbed (or, this time, rode the elevator up) the 10 floors to the restaurant floor and into Morita-Ya. The restaurant was a bit fancy and since it was on the 10th floor, the view outside the window was spectacular.

Perfect view of the Kyoto Tower outside the window

I don't know why I always expected sukiyaki to come with noodles and soup, but our order reminded me more of Korean BBQ where the beef was cooked in a hot skillet. Everything smelled so delicious, and like I said, we were already very hungry when we got there, so we finished the dish up really quickly. Just as I wasn't really a tonkatsu person or a ramen person, I wasn't really into sukiyaki prior to visiting Japan, but that has changed after this meal.

Sukiyaki

After lunch, we headed back to Gion to once again search for Gion Kinana - the ice cream shop we tried and failed to find the previous evening. This time we were successful! The neighborhood wasn't as creepy to walk around during daylight so we were able to walk down alleys that were dark and empty during our first visit.

Hanami-koji during the day

I learned about Gion Kinana from a blog which claimed that this was the best ice cream in Kyoto. When MM saw this on my list, she got pretty excited. I don't think she reacted the same way with the other items on my list, so I knew we had to find this place. The shop was at the corner of one alley. There weren't any images outside to indicate that we were entering an ice cream shop. The doors to the shop are also closed, there aren't any windows to look in and confirm that you're at the right place, so you just have to try to open the door and force yourself inside. We went up to the second floor to the cafe, and ordered an ice cream parfait each. Our parfaits came with 2 scoops of ice cream, some mochi, raspberries and a cookie wafer, Just thinking about it again makes my mouth water.

So delicious!!!!!

We were supposed to travel to Osaka the following day, but we still had unfinished business in Kyoto. During our cycling tour, Naoko, our guide, told us about the Inari shrine and soy milk donuts. So, the next morning, we woke up earlier to head over to the Inari shrine and then went to the Nishiki market to look for the soy milk donuts.

Inari shrine

The Inari shrine is known to be guarded by fox statues.

Fox statue :)

At the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, there are probably thousands of toriis (Japanese gates), each donated by a Japanese business as Inari was known as the patron of business. Also, the color of the gates are not orange, nor red, but vermilion!

Prayer Toriis

Toriis donated by businesses

After taking a million pictures at the toriis, we went to the Nishiki market to find those soy milk donuts for breakfast. If I remember correctly, the Nishiki market was just a stretch of food stalls in one street. We've walked a couple of blocks into the market, but still couldn't find the donuts. We could smell it everywhere, we just couldn't see it anywhere until we asked someone to point us to the right direction. The donuts smelled fabulous, but in my opinion, they didn't taste as fabulous. They tasted a lot like mini donuts we could get at a night market or a country fair. MM also had a cup of soymilk, and said that it wasn't anything special.