kyoto unprepared
today was supposed to just be a day of travel. i had to check out of my place in nara by 10:00 am, and had to check in at my place in osaka no earlier than 4:00 pm.
the plan was to meet my friend tsukasa in kyoto and get lunch at his favorite ramen restaurant. i thought that was all we were doing. i thought i was just going to kyoto, getting lunch, and then heading back to bum around osaka with 80 pounds of luggage until i could check into my place in osaka.
i wasn’t just simply wrong. i was incredibly wrong. being on vacation has warped my mind. i forgot people normally work monday though friday, and that tsukasa had taken the day off work to show me around kyoto. obviously we werent just meeting for lunch and then going our separate ways. lunch was step one.
so, i checked out of my place and began the route to kyoto. conveniently, the way to kyoto involves changing trains at the train station in osaka that i will be staying closest to. so i bought a coin locker to store my gigantic ridiculous 50 pound suitcase in before heading to kyoto. i was a fool here, as osaka-namba station is very large and there are multiple coin locker areas. i did not take any effort to try to remember how to get to the coin locker i used. this will be annoying later.
then, still with my 30 pound backpack, i headed to kyoto. in my head, we were meeting at this specific station, demachiyanagi station, because tsukasa’s favorite ramen place was close by. i really should have coordinated this better. but i arrived at this station and bought a second coin locker for my backpack. once again, i thought this was gonna be like a quick lunch and then back to it, so i didnt really think about what was getting left behind by storing this backpack. i left behind my passport (bad, this is literally a crime that i maybe should not admit to committing here. hey, don’t tell), and my batteries / zoom lens for my camera.
well… kind of funny that my friend i was meeting with is a police officer and i was unknowingly committing a crime all day.
so now everything i brought with me except my camera, wallet, and the clothes on my back were stored in lockers 35 miles apart. but its fine, i’m just grabbing lunch and then heading back to get it all. right?
right?
tonkatsu
i’d like to mention a huge shout out to sony cameras, as the battery life on this camera has been exceptional. my camera last year easily chewed through at least one battery a day, with more intensive days going through 2 and a half batteries.
this camera kicks ass, i have never killed a battery in one day. kind of a waste that i have three. the most i have ever been able to do is drain a battery from 100% to 20%, and that was the nagano day with the monkeys. i entered kyoto pretty unprepared to have a full day of stuff, no backup batteries and no zoom lens. but the battery tanked it like a champion and didn’t die.
anyway, lunch. we went to tsukasa’s favorite ramen restaurant, called takayasu. this place serves tonkatsu ramen, which means it contains pork cutlets and broth made from pork bone. i have done no research and will still boldly claim that this is the most popular type of ramen. i have decided it is so.
this restaurant was excellent. the ramen was 10/10, and is served alongside a big piece of fried chicken and a bowl of rice.
as few may know, i am actively taking a medication that makes me not very hungry most of the time. i was still pretty full from last night’s kobe beef, but i will never turn down a “lets go to my favorite restaurant”.
the ramen was fantastic. i do think the spicy stamina ramen from the other night in nara might be better on its own, but the fried chicken here really takes it up a level. they apparently use curry powder in their fried chicken recipe, and this is the tastiest chicken i’ve ever had. absolutely next level chicken.
i felt bad, because this was a ton of food and i was not able to finish it all. i got pretty close though.
cat museum 2
our next stop required taking a bus, the first bus i have ever taken in japan. i have tried to avoid it, because i am not sure how they work and didnt want to hold up the flow of folks fidgeting with money or whatever. turns out its the same as trains, you just tap the ic card getting on and off the bus instead of entering and exiting the station.
it was only like an 8 minute bus ride, but it was mostly uphill.
we went to a small little building that felt like someone on the edge of kyoto where no tourists go really wanted to do something to attract tourists, so they just put a bunch of cat related stuff everywhere. it was very cute and i am glad i went, i mean no disrespect.
mt. hiei
from there, we walked about 30 minutes to the foot of mt. hiei.
we boarded a very fun stairs-shaped train (that i just learned is called a funicular) that goes about 2/3 of the way up the mountain.
once up there, we were treated to a beautiful view of kyoto from above.
after we headed back down, we stopped at a little picnic table for a bit because my feet were killing me.
tadasu-no-mori, shimogamo shrine
we took a train back to demachiyagani station, and then headed towards a nearby forest and shrine.
this place was absolutely beautiful. but it was a long day and my feet were beginning to hurt pretty bad. so i broke it off here and headed back to pick up my stuff. it was easy to locate the locker my backpack was in, as demachiyanagi station is not very large. so i grabbed it and headed back to osaka-namba station.
once i got to osaka-namba station, it then took me over an hour to find the locker containing my suitcase. the station is pretty big, and i got turned around a couple times. i wasn’t ever worried that i wouldn’t find it or anything, but this was on me for not even trying to make a note of where i had stored it.
osaka
luggage collected, i then had to spend 15 minutes trying to figure out how to leave the station without going up 50 stairs. i had a 30 pound backpack and 50 pound suitcase. didn’t feel like walking up a bunch of stairs to get out. finally found the elevator and headed up into the heart of osaka.
i took a cab to my airbnb and basically immediately crashed. i didnt go to bed, but i just laid down and didnt move for several hours. today was a day, for sure. in fact, i am writing this on the night of the 8th, about 24 hours later, and i have not done anything today. just been relaxing.
thats the post!
じゃあまたね!
