Shopping Day (#1?)

Katie here! Barrington's been eager for me to chime in on the blog, so here goes. 

Yesterday, Thursday, was our last day in Kyoto.  We woke up in the ryokan around 8:00 and were taken downstairs to our Japanese-style breakfast in a room overlooking the beautiful ryokan gardens.  The breakfast was a feast--a grilled bone-in fish, hot tofu, miso soup, rice, pickles, sugared plums, warm omelets, some sort of fish wrapped in tofu skin, and something the hostess told us was "bean milk" in a tiny glass.  It was all pretty unusual from a Western perspective, but nonetheless delicious and very filling. 

We relaxed for a few more hours in our room in the ryokan, making the most of our down-time.  At 11 am, we hit Kyoto for some shopping.  We started at the women's sock store Tutuanna, on Kyra's recommendation.  After our night wearing formalware at the ryokan, I'm completely obsessed with tabi, traditional Japanese socks where the big toe is separated from the other toes.  I went a little crazy in the sock store, but I'm excited to say I can now wear socks with flip flops (if I am brave enough to rock that look in the US)!  We then visited the food market, Nishiki Market, exploring stalls full of all sorts of unusual foods.  Our ultimate destination was a knife store, Aritsugu, where chefs can buy knives for preparing sashimi, fish, and other things.  Barrington got a little choked up when he finally picked out a knife to purchase (a big heavy knife useful for cutting seafood, shellfish, and poultry) and got the katakana for his name carved into it.  Barrington actually gasped and covered his mouth when he learned that the knife could be engraved in Japanese with his name; the clerk, looking amused, asked if he was happy.

We got lunch in a ramen shop just outside of Nishiki Market called Ippudo, which served delicious tonkatsu ramen and yummy tiny gyoza.  It was my favorite ramen of the trip so far.  We then walked a mile or so to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, a multi-story building selling local crafts and souvenirs.  We bought some beautiful handmade items, and then checked out a nearby sword and martial-arts store called Ippodo.  We also swung by Heian shrine, where I convinced Barrington to throw up a peace sign for a picture with a dragon statue.  We then walked back to the ryokan down old Kyoto streets, stopping to look at tea shops and bookstores along the way.

After grabbing our bags at the ryokan, we took the train to Hiroshima, where we are now.  We both agreed that we wished we could stay in Kyoto longer; four days isn't enough time to enjoy everything the city has to offer, especially not in cherry blossom season!

By the time we got to our hotel in Hiroshima about 2 hours later, we were starving.  Exhausted, we wandered our hotel, yet another hotel, and the train station in between the two looking for something we felt like eating.  We finally, a little sadly, admitted to each other that we desperately missed American-style food after a bit more than a week of only Japanese fare.  We settled on an Italian restaurant in the train station that was festooned with a ton of Italian flags and that had plastic models of pizza and pasta in the window.  We were a little shocked to discover that the restaurant was (1) blaring country music and (2) empty except for 2 older American couples.  I ordered a glass of red wine that was (predictably) awful, but the pizza, pasta, and garlic bread was pretty delicious.  The only unexpected touch was that the pizza came with a salad on top, complete with vinaigrette dressing.  We were eventually joined by some Japanese diners, which left us less embarrassed about our choice of restaurant.  In the end, I think we felt satisfied but ready to return to the high-quality Japanese cuisine we've been eating here since we arrived.