Kyoto Part 2

This picture was taken on the top of the hill of a very "traditional" street of Kyoto, near Gion, where our first house was. The street is actually filled with japanese tourists, so we got there quite early, only to find out that most shops do not open before 11h30. We ended up waiting hours to get to eat a snack. Got I was so hungry....

Hey there! 

Ain't it sweet sometimes, to take the time to write my blog? I feel so kind today, using my only day off to share stuff with you <3

Japan!

So we stayed a long time on Kyoto = about 600 picture's worth of time, at least. So I will be posting pictures on different posts, separating them with the days we spent over there, since posting them all at once would be abuse. There might be slightly more pictures than text however ha ha, as I don't know if I'll find interesting stories enough to balance with the amount of images...

Damn I am such a bad tourist. It's always like this. I enjoy visiting places, eating stuff and seeing new things, but I just do that: enjoy. So here I find myself, after each trip I do, not remembering the names of the place I've been and the food I ate. Isn't this ridiculous? 

Well that's just me. 

To situate the following picture, you might want to search for the number one tourist attraction in Kyoto. You know, the street of temples? On top of which there is a temple in the mountain, in which there are always pictures taken? On a sort of temple-balcony? Well that's where we were :) The weather was actually really shitty. Cold and wet. 

While I sort of like the light in pictures taken on rainy days, because of the weather we did not take as much pictures as we had wanted, and when we got at the famous spot of visit, we were too cold to bother even walking until there... lame? Well it's my body, I decide where I bring it. So you guys have no right to phrase your opinion out loud. That's how it works. 

So here my friends, is the picture of the entrance to the site we reached without entering. Isn't it like the most awesome tease of the world? Well maybe not. But I flatter myself thinking that it's a cool way of not showing anything, after talking about it in lengths. 

Doesn't remind you of a couple of girls in bars? That kind yes. Well I'm a picture tease, for lack of better term. 

One thing I liked about Kyoto is that most of the places have literally no English translation. It gives a feel of England, where there is only one language on posters and the like. In more "modern" cities, there usually is English translation or english numbers. Not in Kyoto. Most of the coffee shops actually have handwritten menus.

You ever notice how the depth in picture is always a fraction of what it looks in real? That's why there are two type of people I pity:

1. People who are satisfied with looking at other's pictures, without nurturing any thought of travelling for themselves. I mean, how can they ever feel even a fraction of the bliss of looking at a completely different scenery?

2. People who actually spend the money and time on a nice trip, but take SO MANY picture that they actually only see their trip AFTER, when looking at the pictures. Coming back to the same point: how can you be satisfied with pictures? Pictures should remind you of the feeling you had when you were actually there, not bring out new horizons in themselves.

  

Noticed how the tree on the right actually looks like a person kneeling?

Plum tree, who seems to want to bloom dearly... and failing at it

Brother in the rain

I love the Japanese concept of wish-making in temples. They always look so adorable. Ti helps that the japanese written language looks so much like a work of art in itself. My dad always admired Japanese: they could make identical drawings over and over and over... dah

Oh yes, I did it. I took a picture at the shrine of : let's become more beautiful :) Did not drink their water though, I felt like if it did not work I would be too sad. Not.

Beauty Shot

I love the fact that after getting all dolled up, people just let clients walk in around Gion in Maiko outfit. Makes it really pretty to walk around.

My brother and I walked by a pottery shop and took an appointment to make our own. I never thought it would be so fun! No actually, that's just hypocrite to say. I actually always thought it would be awesome to be a potter. I was not surprised it was so fun. Now that's more like it. Makes it a bit more boring to phrase like that ho neh? Anyways, isn't it like sUPER DUPER CUTE? I made a heart shaped tea cup! <3

You know how when you go on trips, you always try your hardest not to look too much of a tourist? Like, feeling awkward of taking too many pictures, while it is actually all you really want to do, deep down? Like not trying to do stuff that will make you stand out just like "all those stupid tourists"? Yah, I am sure if you travelled, that it must have happened at least once. 

This trip being my third time in Japan. I don't know, I think I had this turtle carapace preventing me from feeling like an awkward tourist. Japan felt a bit like a second home, with me being able to communicate alright and all... So since I brought my brother along, and he did not speak any japanese, I decided to just give in the need to be a tourist. I tried to do everything tourist do, that are cliché. 

So we went to dress-up~~ That was I think on the second day we got in Kyoto. There are many places where they dress you up, and if the weather is nice, they let you walk around, to get other tourists take pictures of you. isn't it wonderfully touris-tarded? It was quite a bad weather when we dressed-up, so we did not walk outside ha ha. But It also happened that we did not have a proper meal before going so it was a good thing we just left after the photo shoot, since my brother had a little sugar down and was feeling quite tired and dizzy. 

The place we went was at the beginning of the street... let me try to remember the place....sorry. Not coming back... I might update this blog and add a little bit more information on the places we went in the first days in Kyoto. Anyways, people were really nice and they had okay prices. I goot a complete dressup, make-up and photoshoot for $90 CAD, my brother had his for $50.

Would you believe my brother is 32 and I am 24? Yah, do not comment on that...

The first snack shop we went to on the first day shopping! Shiro-tama dango

It is the first time I get to eat something so pretty. They made drawings with kinako and we had to mess up the drawing to have the full taste. Felt so sad to kill my pretty maiko.

God, Matcha is really good in Kyoto. The first time I went to Kyoto there was one place we went to drink Matcha, but I was brought there with friends, so I don't actually know the name of the place, which is quite sad, since I really liked the tea. We went in the really touristic areas, so I don't know if we actually had the best taste we could get. I am very biaised when it comes to Japanese tea since I love it so much anyways...

Japanese traditional sweets: bliss

At night we went to a nice restaurant and looking for nice bars to hang out, but while we found nice bars, it was Sunday, so ha ha the places we found were pretty empty. Oh well, ume-shuu is good with or without people around. Plus, we get to talk to people around. Met up with people who worked in Café Independant, a very nice place in downtown Kyoto, situated in a basement with high ceiling. I loved the place because the high ceiling prevented the aire of the whole room to be saturated with cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoking inside bars really is a pain for the smell.  

I love Camelias. They are such pretty flowers. As odd as it seems, I actually had never seen one in real life. They are gorgeous flowers <3 even prettier than the drawings and accessories I saw that were made in its image.

Don't japanese just make you feel fat looking at them? But at the same time, why should we refrain from eating food that is prepared with such attention to details? I love well made stuff. Japanese people understood that when food looks good, it is already one step into good tasting food. Our eyes need to eat as well. 

At least mine do.