Day 10 - Arriving in Kyoto, Meeting More Friends, Tea & Steak

We departed our hotel Konansou early the next morning, just after 8AM. It was about -8 Celsius, and the weather had miraculously cleared, giving us amazing photos of Mt Fuji. We all caught the slow train back to Otsuki, before taking a regional train to Shin-Yokohama station where we would board the shinkansen (bullet train) for Kyoto. The ride to Kyoto via bullet train would take us about 140 minutes, at speeds approaching 320 km/h. We all enjoyed the ride, and most of us napped as there is something extremely restful about riding the shinkansen, as the mag-lev trains are so smooth you can barely detect you are moving.

We arrived in Kyoto in the early afternoon, so the group was all ready for lunch. While Lauren went to check into our Airbnb - a traditional Japanese home near Kiyomizudera shrine, I took the group up to the 10th floor of the Kyoto train station mall, where we enjoyed a bowl of Hakata style tonkotsu ramen.

The group then split up to check into accommodations, as we were all planning to meet up at 5 PM in Kiyomizu for a tea ceremony, where we would meet up with our friends Dan and Chelle, who had arrived from Houston the day before.

Our tea ceremony was hosted by Tetsuya-san, a friendly and informative fellow who gave us all the history of the tea ceremony, as well as the method to prepare our own, which we did a few minutes later. The tea was very strong and tasted like dirt to yours truly, but it was a neat experience none the less.

After our tea ceremony, the group climbed the narrow streets of Kiyomizu to visit the famed shrine Kiyomizudera. The sun was setting and this afforded us some spectacular photos as we explored. Rather than blather on about the shrine, i'll just share a series of photos I took.

The central pagoda at Kiyomizudera.

The Kyoto skyline at night

The sakura trees reflecting int he surface of a calm pond.

The picturesque view looking down the hill from Kiyumizudera

After finished up at Kiyomizudera, we all took cabs to the other side of town for our dinner at Hafuu Honten, a delicious wagyu beef steakhouse in Kyoto. We all enjoyed a fabulous meal of melt-in-your-mouth beef, and headed back to our accommodations to get some rest before an early start the next day.

My delicious serving of wagyu beef, accompanied by garlic chips, sea salt and wasabi.