Ramen, Kyoto & Yakiniku

We hiked it up the mega hill to have ramen and gyoza at 'Bikuri Ramen', a cheap and tasty (such a great conbination) ramen place that I've been to once before with Claire.


Then it was off to Kyoto. The last trip Brendon was here, we didn't make it to Kyoto and I really wanted him to see it.

Kyoto station

Taking a photo of Brendon...

...and proof that he was checking out the Gyaru girls!

Fish sausage on a stick

We went straight to Kiyomizudera - pure water temple, my personal favourite. Being Winter, the leaves had all turned brown and left hundreds of twisted, skeleton hands clawing around the temple. I wish he was able to see it in Autumn in all it's fiery beauty or in Spring with the cherry blossoms that dance pink petals in the air. He still enjoyed it though. The view from the main verandah gives is always beautiful.

The water was very freezing cold

We did the touristy things like lining up to drink the temple's water and took heaps of photos. We checked out the 'Love Stone' and wanted to try it out but it was too crowded. We saw this one Japanese guy doing it and he was wondering off way off mark and walked into some people before crashing into one of the stalls, all the while his friend with him was laughing so hard. It was so classic.

We were thinking about going to Kinkakuji but decided not to as it was already getting dark and only getting colder. Plus Sue Yen and her brother, who is also holidaying in Japan and were in Kyoto that day, were on a bus heading there but were still stuck in the crazy Kyoto traffic. So we decided to head back into Osaka and do some shopping instead.

We met up with Sue Yen and Ivan later for dinner and went to a yakiniki place in Umeda. Even though we smelt like BBQ afterwards, it was so good.