Just another day in Kyoto - coffee, temples, geisha and the best duck hot pot ever!

Trip Diary Day 10 - 7 April 2019

Check out Episode 7 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan

Georgia wasn’t feeling well this morning. She had a slight fever overnight. So we had a late start and did not get out till about 11. If you’re one of those up at sparrow’s fart type of travellers it must sound like we’ve wasted half a day. Sometimes though you just have to take it easy. The first thing we had on the agenda was find a chemist.

We found a pharmacy just around the corner and down the street from us in a truly local residential shopping strip. There wasn’t one single shop that said we’re in historic touristy Kyoto at all. Unfashionable clothes, restaurants and pharmacy. A big pharmacy like a Priceline or Chemist’s Warehouse back home. Plenty of medicines. If we could only figure out which was which? It wasn’t just because labels and brands were in Japanese even in the English speaking world we don’t have standardised brand names for drugs. In fact the brand is often used as the generic name. For example, Panadol. In Australia you’d know that is a standard over the counter pain medication. But it is a brand name. What would you ask for in say the USA? Or what about Ibuprofen? Is acetaminophen the same as paracetamol? Is Tylenol another name for Panadol? So not only were we using Google translate to translate from Japanese to English we had trouble converting American English to Australian English. The very helpful shop assistant pulled out a binder ring folder with pages of pictures and English translations for common things like head, cold, arm, foot, pain, sore etc. So we able to get some cough medicine for Georgia and Cold and Flu ibuprofen paracetamol for Michelle. If in doubt have all the drugs. Or was that what we used to say back in our clubbing days? Please don’t take medical advice from me.

% Arabica, Kyoto

Suitably medicated the first order of business for the day, even at this late stage, was coffee. It is always coffee. We caught a bus to Gion and then walked downtown to Daimaru. Daimaru is a large chain of department stores in this region of Japan. There used to be a big Daimaru in Melbourne but it closed almost 20 years ago. There were people everywhere. Sunday was proving to be as busy as a weekday. With the weather the way it was there was no wonder so many were out enjoying a beautifully sunny mild day. We surfed a wave of people to Daimaru and % Arabica. A coffee shop inside Daimaru. % Arabica is a small coffee stand, with a small narrow seating area, inside the entrance to Daimaru. Beautiful strong rich coffee. Precisely and elegantly poured. The best in Kyoto so far. Brandy had a lemonade - lemon juice and soda, and very sweet - just as he likes it. Georgia had a few sips of coffee too even though she was not feeling very well. About 430 yen for each coffee. Ah for the days of dollar yen parity back in the good old days of the mid 2010s when 430 yen would’ve been about 4 bucks. Now it was close to $6. The good news for poor travellers, thanks to Japan’s low inflation rate, is prices have barely increased. But our dollar has sunk like a stone. So I guess there is no good news for poor travellers especially if you’re from Australia.

Picnicking in Kyoto

We went downstairs to the basement supermarket hoping for a nice big extravagant gourmet food hall but it was just an ordinary supermarket. A typical Japanese supermarket though. Great produce and inexpensive takeaway food. We bought cheap bread roll sandwiches. 165 yen for chicken katsu and prawn tempura rolls. Water for less than 100 yen and long braided donuts for about 105 yen each. A cheap lunch for 1300 yen. To put those prices into context, we’ve had a couple of katsu sandwich shops open in Melbourne recently. A pork katsu sandwich is approaching $20 in Melbourne. Here in a supermarket in Kyoto we could get a katsu sandwich, every bit as good as the gourmet sandwich in Melbourne, and only pay around $2.50. So sure the coffee might be expensive but eating on a budget is extremely easy.

It was a perfect day for a picnic. % Arabica was only about a block away from the Takase river, the canal that runs parallel to the main Kamogawa River. Just of the off the main Dori was an alley with a small open concrete park and shrine next to the canal. Not a very big area, possibly the size of 3 or 4 parked cars. A few other people already there. A couple of older women bowed and made devotions at the shrine. We had a picnic next to the water and under the cherry blossoms. Sakura blossoms fell like flakes of snow in the gentlest of breeze. A crane or heron strolled along the canal looking for fish or scraps in the shallow water. Sakura petals floated by carpeting the water with pink and white blossoms.

After lunch we strolled down the canal. Criss-crossing the canal over cute bridges and filling SD cards with photos and video of sakura. At the other end of this stretch we had a pee break. Families picnicked under the sakura on the canal bank. A group of men in business suits picnicked on a pontoon tied to a bridge. Kyoto is wonderful during the Sakura season. Sure it gets crowded but if you’ve never been to Kyoto go at least once.

Kiyomizu Dera

We decided to go to Kiyomizu Dera. Basically the main big temple complex up on the side of the hill looking over Kyoto. We tried to find the bus stop for the bus that went up to Kiyomizu Dera but couldn’t so we grabbed a taxi. Only 690 yen. There were so many people up there. The walk up through the gauntlet of tourist shops was incredible. Thousands of people going up to the temple and down from the temple. It was worse then exiting the MCG after the Grand Final. People all over the stairs, under the sakura, around the buildings and temples. Taking selfies, posing with groups. Dozens of women dressed in kimonos. It was so very colourful, even on this very hazy overcast day. We could barely see the city below through the haze. There was an interesting yellow light through the haze though. The main temple was shrouded and covered with scaffolding so it wasn’t looking its best for photos.

Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka, old Kyoto

We went down through the strip of shops again, still packed with thousands of people going up and down, to Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka. The old traditional historic geisha streets. No geisha out today though, they would have been mobbed by the hordes. Apparently geisha stalking by people wanting photos is a thing. A horrible thing. The local authorities are planning to restrict access to some streets so the geisha will have some peace. Interestingly there is a Starbucks there now. Maybe it’s always been there? I’ve heard it was the original Edo period Starbucks. That would explain why it fits into the street so aesthetically. It was quite late in the afternoon by now. The sun was looking fabulous through the haze. A huge glowing ball setting between the temple towers. We descended past Kodaiji temple to Maruyama park for some more Sakura. There is a famous old weeping sakura there. There were lots of street food stalls too… hotdogs, octopus. Lots of stuff frying and grilling and looking and smelling so delicious. There were hundreds and hundreds of people in this park as well. It is extremely difficult to avoid the crowds in Kyoto these days. It was finally close to dinner time. Georgia was quiet. She was no longer complaining but definitely underwhelmed by entertainment in the park. Brandy was hungry and crying. Firstly because we didn’t buy toys - a samurai sword set with ninja stars - and then because we wouldn’t buy a hotdog because we thought it was too close to dinner. 6 PM is still reasonably early for us to start looking for dinner. You’d expect we’d be able to find something easily wouldn’t you?

Failing to find a place to eat in Kyoto

You’d think we’d know by now, Japan is not Spain. You can’t just rock up to a place and expect to get in. Our first attempt at a restaurant from our list of contenders began a night of failure. Try one, fail. Booked out. Continued on towards Gion. Fail again. Catch a bus down the main street to get closer to a kushiyaki, grilled food on skewers, place and a couple of izakayas. Fail again and again. There was ramen place nearby. We can always get ramen. We line up in a long queue just as a guy comes out and points to a sign just behind us saying closed. They’d run out so we just missed out. Long walk to another place - tempura bib. Fully booked. The first ramen shop we went to had another shop nearby, only a short walk away. Same deal as the first. This time the last people in the queue said they are the last people in the queue because, no soup. We caught a taxi to take us further up the map to a Soba place we didn’t get into the other night. Again we didn’t get in. We stayed in the cab and tried one more place. No luck. Finally the last shop on list was around the corner.

Mitsufuji, Duck Hot Pot

Mitsufuji is a Michelin BIB place specialising in duck hot pot. I jumped out of the taxi, slid open the door to the restaurant and asked if they could fit in four hungry tired travellers. Yes, but it is only duck hot pot she said. I said that would be perfect. Michelle was a little dubious about duck hot pot but became more enthusiastic as she thought about it. Michelle does love duck. She was starting to come down with a heavy cold too so hot pot might be the best prescription. The taxi cost 1010 yen.

Mitsufuji is a very friendly welcoming place. Both our hostess and waitress greeted us warmly. There was only one other couple there. The food is cooked in a hot pot on a cooker at the table. Our waitress spoke reasonably good English and was lovely. She is a uni student studying agricultural science. She explained our food and how to prepare it. We cooked some and she cooked some. While we were having the appetizers duck skin was frying in the hot pot to render the fatty skin down to liquid fat. Then she cooked a couple of small pieces of duck to have with salt. Then another small piece to have with radish and soy. The she poured the soup water into the pot and put in the shitake and vegetables. The vegetables were mostly Japanese greens and simmered for a while before we put in the sliced cuts of duck. And ate it. Fantastic. Ducklicious.

After all the duck and veggies and mochi like things were eaten our waitress put rice and onion in the hot pot where it became like a porridge - Japanese congee, also called okayu. Then we spooned it into bowls and ate it. Totally awesome comfort food.

Georgia lay her head on the table when we arrived and didn’t move till we left. The poor thing just wasn’t her usual bubbly self. Brandy shared some of our duck. He had a grapefruit juice but didn’t like it so move to OJ.

11500 yen. Not cheap but pretty reasonable considering. Earlier our waitress saw that I was videoing and asked if it was for Youtube. She watches Youtube to learn English, especially a channel by a young Japanese woman in Melbourne to who does it bilingually. Mika or Tika or something. My Youtube fu has let me down and I can’t find that channel but if you know it please let me know. Both waitresses said please mention Mitsufuji on social media. If you visit Kyoto and you would like to try duck please check out Mitsufuji.

They called us a taxi and spent 10 minutes with us trying to figure out where we were going. Then they went through the same process with the taxi driver who had arrived in a nice black van. Ipads were used to check maps. Once the driver was happy that he knew where he was going we were off. He spoke no English but like many Japanese taxi drivers they are very pleasant. I don’t think we’ve had a grumpy taxi driver yet. 1000 yen exactly even though we spent 5 minute before we got moving to figure out where to go.

While everybody was getting ready for bed I went to the supermarket and Lawson for some yoghurt. I didn’t like yesterday’s stuff. Brandy thought I was going back to the temple to buy his samurai kit so I bought him a card pack - Pokemon like but not Pokemon. The kids were in bed asleep when I got back. It was around 10 - 10.30 by then. I spent the next hour or so watching the day’s videos I’d shot. Then I wrote this blog. 1.23 AM. Time to sleep. Poor Michelle was very sniffly and snoring.

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Check out Episode 7 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

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