Kyoto has been my favorite city so far! I have loved the historical and cultural aspect to it a lot. There are so many temples as well and it offers a different scenery than Tokyo. The downside is the city is pretty spread out and it takes nearly 30 minutes to get anywhere. We had JR rail tickets and had gotten day metro passes but there are so many different metro lines our trains our passes did not work. It felt like we were constantly buying new train passes.
The Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is a dense cluster of bamboo trees about 30 minutes from the city center. It was quite a walk from the station but the walk was definitely worth it as it was lined with little cute shops selling souvenirs and food. I started saying which foods I wanted to try but then decided now was the time. I tried a matcha mochi with matcha paste inside and a giant strawberry that separated the two. Suyi tried the strawberry one of course since he is a big strawberry fan. They were both very soft and gooey in the interior. The mochi here is so good and I am on a mission to have mochi everyday. On the way to the bamboo forest. we stumbled upon the cutest bear cafe and store. It was a Rilakkuma themed cafe and I told Suyi that we must return here for lunch since I had already missed my opportunity to eat at the bear hot pot cafe in Tokyo. He of course agreed.
The bamboo grove was much smaller than I expected. The soaring stalks of bamboo towered above and you walked through the dense forest along the path. My favorite part was being able to see the sunlight through the dense trees. I had seen smaller bamboo forests but this bamboo was very thick. I couldn't even hold the entire stalk in my hand. This bamboo was also different as all the leaves were only at the very tops of the trees so you could see straight through the stalks at the bottom. The path was congested with tourists although I am sure during peak season it is much worse. I was trying to find a spot less packed with tourists but by the time I had achieved that, I realized the path had ended. So I quickly turned around to walk through it again. The garden was lovely, just a little small for how we had to travel to reach it.
For lunch we returned to the bear cafe. I was so obsessed with the cafe from the waiting room with the bear sofas and brown and white bears that matched them. There was a short wait which we filled our time by shopping at the Rilakkuma store down below. The little bears in kimonos were so cute there was no way we could resist. I also picked up a few souvenirs for my relatives that I found cute.
The food at the Arashiyama Rilakkuma Tea House was darling! I think it was the cutest food I have ever eaten! I was so obsessed. I had ordered the sushi platter and cream soda. The little rice balls came shaped as bears and were nicely tucked into banana leaves. Even the carrot was cut out in the shape of a bear! The egg was shaped like a little chick. On the top of the cream soda was a little brown bear marshmallow as well. Suyi and I missed the memo that we were supposed to stir the cream soda so we just drank it straight up not trying to preserve the little bear until about halfway through when we decided maybe we should stir it. The cream soda was by far my favorite thing on the menu. It was so good and tasted like ice cream once we had figured it out. I realized my mom used to make cream soda for parties so it was nostalgic as well. The sushi wasn't that great especially since it was cold but the cuteness made up for it.
We boarded the train to Osaka following our little adventure to the bamboo grove. The train ride was barely 30 minutes and we had arrived. Thankfully our hotel was very close to the station so we dropped our bags off and were ready to explore!
Osaka is a big city and has a vibe very similar to Tokyo. Everywhere you go there are people crowding the streets all dressed up in business attire. Skyscrapers tower above and the city is lit up with giant billboards. Dotombori is the most famous street market in Osaka selling Osaka specials such as Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. The Takoyaki was especially a big street food and we even saw a Takoyaki Christmas tree. There were so many vendors selling Takoyaki it was so hard to choose which one to choose so we settled on the one that had the biggest line hoping that meant it was better. We got 3 different Takoyaki octopus balls that each had a different topping. Our favorite was still the classic with mayonnaise and seaweed on top. It was very hot inside and compared to the ones I have had in the US, it was less done inside giving it a gooey texture. The takoyaki were definitely a hit and a must try in Osaka! What I loved most was being able to watch them make the takoyaki. They poured the batter and quickly kept rotating the batter so it became circular in shape. They definitely put on a show.
A lot of my trip inspiration and restaurant recommendations came from watching reels on Instagram so some of the places we saw in Dotonbori were looking familiar. One of them was a famous crab restaurant that had a giant crab on the outside. It is known for selling crab ice cream which Suyi was not down to try. There were also several vendors selling the famous Osaka 10 yen cheese coin. The cheese coin was filled with mozzarella so it didn't seem that Japanese to us and we passed. The area of Dotonbori was very well decorated. Each restaurant had giant displays of whatever food they were selling up above their storefront. There were many octopus reliefs for the takoyaki places and tempura squid and other fried foods for the tempura street vendors. It was a lot to take in!
By the time we had snacked our way through the street we decided to visit the Kuromon Ichiba Market. This market is known primarily as a fish market and they have all of the fresh fish and seafood on ice. The market has a nice aroma too given that it's a fish market. Here they sell fresh fish but also a lot of grilled crab, squid and octopus. I had really been wanting to try the grilled squid skewers but by the time we arrived, they were closing the market and it was barely 6:30 pm. For some reason the streets will be so crowded at this hour but shops close so early. Our second market was closed! Our luck is really the worst. We returned to the Dotonbori market as I wanted to eat Okonomiyaki which is a scallion pancake. We ended up at Okonomiyaki Bonkuraya Dotombori which specializes in Okonomiyaki. The restaurant was set up so that each table had their own grill in front of them to cook the okonomiyaki a little more. Okonomiyaki are usually huge pancakes but we decided to order a tasting menu of 9 smaller pancakes so we could try the various ones. The ones that came in our set included octopus, squid, garlic, scallion, pork, cheese, shrimp, Sriracha, and kimchi. My favorite of all the pancakes was the garlic one! The pancakes were very good and were a good break from our diet of ramen and sushi. In fact today we didn't even have any soup at all!
It was still early so we decided to kill some time by hanging out in the area near the hotel. We had seen a bright red ferris wheel on the day called Hep Five ferris wheel and decided that would be the best way to get a view of the city below. Plus it was cheap and near our hotel. The ferris wheel was perhaps the slowest moving object I have been on. At points we could not even tell if it was moving. It was a nice view when we got up towards the top though. I think the other observatories might have been in better locations for a better scenic view but it was alright.
Comments