Day 16 - Kyoto & Osaka

Well, we knew it had to come to an end sometime and here we are.  We spent our last day exploring Osaka after our final morning in Kyoto and a quick shinkansen trip:

With only an afternoon and evening to take in Osaka, we headed straight for gyoza at 551 Horai for a snack and then on to the Osaka Castle:

With some culture under our belt, we cabbed to Dontonburi to walk around the shops among the crowds and to get arguably the best thing Osaka has to offer - TAKOYAKI!!!

Giant crab in Dontonburi

Famous running man billboard

Takoyaki octopus sign

Cooking takoyaki

Mmmmmmmm

 After a quick nap, we hit the town again for a drink and then dinner at Yakiniku M, a place super famous for it's incredibly marbled beef - not kobe or wagyu, but a black-haired variety that they feed beer and massage to fatten it up and keep it happy!

Beef sashimi

Our order of a variety of marbled cuts

Super fatty and yummy :)

It's been a great day and we wish we had more time to spend here, but it's time to head home and not live out of a suitcase anymore :).  We can't wait to see you all soon!  Kanpai from Osaka!!!

Day 15 - Kyoto

Fair warning, I didn't take many photos today, but it was because I tried to stop and look around a bit more with my eyes instead of my camera.  This morning we all gathered in Sylvie and Henry's room for a traditional kaiseki breakfast.  We figured it would be a few courses, but had no idea the true extent of it until it was all laid out before us.  There were clams, a Japanese-style omelet, fish roe, fish cakes, red beans, plum wine, white miso with rice ball, and on and on.  I couldn't even capture the intensity of it, but here's what we started with:

It started out looking so harmless...

From there, we grabbed a cab to Kinkaku-ji, the golden temple, which was, well, golden.  Unbelievably golden and beautiful after the night's snowfall:

Our feet were a bit frozen from all the walking, so we stopped back by the hotel for a quick rest and warm up before heading back out to meet long-time blog guests Igor and Julie!!!  They also arrived in Kyoto today, so we grabbed a quick lunch with them and then walked around town for quite a while.  After a bit of shopping and temple-hopping, we found a lovely vista with a remarkable view of the sunset:

Hungry again, Igor, Julie, Andrew and I did a little bar hopping and then grabbed shabu-shabu for dinner (Sylvie and Henry had a nice low-key evening in):

Mmmmmm, shabu

Upon leaving the restaurant, we realized that Kyoto was experiencing more snow than we expected, so on our walk back to where our hotels were, we ducked into another bar for one last drink (or two) at a place called Fish Bar.  Surprise!  There were aquariums inside:

Reluctantly,  we bid farewell to Igor and Julie and trekked back to the ryokan in the snow and caught sight of a temple from beneath our hoods:

So sad to be leaving Kyoto tomorrow.  It's quite a magical place, especially in the snow, but we're excited to see what Osaka has in store for us before we head back to the US!!!

Day 14 - Kyoto

We slept in a bit this morning and after breakfast hit the road to the famous temple with thousands of orange gates called Fushimi Inari.  We were also not the only people with that same idea...apparently millions of people visit the shrines in this area between Dec. 31st and Jan. 3rd, so we joined in the shuffling again :)

Map of the temple

Andrew's black and white art shot :)

Front gate

Another massive crowd

Fox's guard the temple

Just in the knick of time, we left the temple and caught a train back to Gion for lunch and it started snowing!  It was really beautiful.  And cold:

We walked for quite a while in the snow from lunch back to our hotel, but then grabbed our bags and hopped in a cab to our new hotel for the next two nights - a traditional ryokan in Gion.  The place is magical - the rooms are lined with tatami mats and have wooden and paper windows!  It's really gorgeous and I promise to post more photos tomorrow, when the light is better for them.  For now, here's the front door, the entry way into the greeting area and our afternoon tea:

Tamahan Ryokan

Entry

Tea time!

Before heading out for dinner, we jumped in the onsen (traditional bath) to warm up.  (I'll post a pic of the cedar tub later.)  Dinner was a kaiseki meal at Gion Nanba.  Kaiseki is a traditional Kyoto-style meal of several small dishes, beautifully prepared:

The walk to dinner was still snowy and I thought this was reminiscent of the
bug swarm photo from Ubud (we've come full circle)

First kaiseki dish served in a porcelain crane

Stuffed once again, we walked back home and were greeted by the addition of beds to our room (previously there was just a table):

Tomorrow is our last full day in Kyoto, so we're going to try to make the best of it!!!