{"id":6122,"date":"2013-08-15T06:38:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T06:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=6122"},"modified":"2014-04-07T05:13:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:13:28","slug":"kyotodayone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/kyotodayone\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Kyoto…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kyoto – a city of temples, traditions, wooden buildings, and amazing dumpling houses, was quite possibly our favourite place of the entire trip.\u00a0\u00a0 The hotel we booked by chance – Hotel Brighton Kyoto<\/a> – was, with its beautiful interior and exemplary staff, most definitely my favourite temporary residence of the entire trip too. \u00a0\u00a0 Our generous quadruple room with all mod cons, included lovely traditional little touches such as complimentary matcha,\u00a0 and had the most fantastic views of ancient wonky roof tops as far as the eye could see…<\/p>\n

Stepping off the train<\/a>, the first thing we noticed was how much warmer it was here…\u00a0 Japan in general appeared to be in the grip of a heat wave and the temperature in Kyoto at the time was just unbelievable.\u00a0 The hotel’s beautifully cool roof top pool (which was surprisingly quiet) provided both a welcome reprieve from the heat, and ample child blackmailing material in return for daily temple inspecting quests!<\/p>\n

Kyoto is famous for its Hanamachi<\/a> (Geisha Districts), filled with Tea Houses, and of course the ladies that run them\u00a0 – the private but incredibly famous communities of Maikos and Geikos.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I really hoped we would get at least a glimpse of one or two during our stay, and that (without sticking a camera in their faces) I might just get a picture or three…<\/p>\n

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That first evening we ventured out to find dinner, and took to the narrow but gorgeous alleyways of Pontoch\u014d.<\/a>\u00a0 It can get a little busy here, but what happened next taught me a valuable lesson in patience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Suddenly aware of someone directly behind I decided that if they were in that much of a rush, they could just go around me, as I was busy devouring all the minutiae of my immediate surroundings.\u00a0\u00a0 Faster still they walked, until I felt like they might tread on the back of my heels at any moment. But just as I was about to step to one side to let them past, I turned to see who it was exactly in so much of a hurry, when the divinely dressed Maiko and her assistant swiftly disappeared into a restaurant –\u00a0 obviously running late for an appointment it seems.\u00a0\u00a0 I could have cried.<\/p>\n

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Never one to let something like that spoil the evening (much); we went on to have a fantastic Okonamayaki<\/a> dinner (all saved for a separate food post – you lucky things you!), and spent a happy half hour exploring Kyoto’s mesmerising streets (which I will forever remember for its lanterns, and tangled spaghetti of overhead wires) before returning to the hotel.<\/p>\n

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And then, just as we approached a zebra crossing (and quite possibly the last place you would ever expect to see something so beautiful!), the Eight Year old tugged at my sleeve and said “look Mummy, just look”….<\/p>\n

Although this photograph is not technically brilliant, and is definitely blurry, it also happens to be one of my favourites of our entire trip too…\u00a0 All these favourites add up you know…<\/p>\n

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