Woke up very early, jet lag, and started out the day with a couple hours of work email. Once we finally pulled ourselves out of bed we headed off for a day exploring Kyoto. We started by visiting the Kyoto Imperial Palace and listened to the free audio tour as we walked around.
After touring the palace, Jacob was famished because I’m not a big breakfast person we headed out without eating. So we made our way to the Nishiki Market to get food and see the market. We started out by getting some food on a stick that was basically fish cakes with cheese or sweet potatoes (a lost in translation moment for me… not a fan of fish 🤦♂️), but Jacob ate it all. We wondered around until we found a nice gyoza and karaage shop and stopped to have a beer and share a gyoza and karaage set.
Eric and Nicole caught up with us in the market and we headed to have an actual lunch of Wagyu beef sushi and Wagyu set that we shared.
After lunch we wandered around the market, ate some takoyaki, had dessert crepes, and got our fortunes at the local temple. The fortune was handed out by a robot arm dressed as a dragon.
From there we headed off to Yasaka Shrine and then to our first speakeasies of the night Bar Alchemist and Bee’s Knees.
After some amazing drinks we followed the bar tender’s recommendation for yakatori and headed off to dinner at Yangi Koji Taka. The Yakitori was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone traveling to Kyoto.
We rounded out the night with one last speakeasy that really doesn’t have a name and only is lit by candles. Really enjoyable bar with a very nice host.
