We both woke up late than ever. 9:49am. Yikes! Skipped ordering the Shinkansen tickets due to the massive queue. Only to end up on a rapid train line that took 50 mins to Kyoto instead of Special rapid 30 mins and only 3 stops. Ugh. Bad choice.
Matsuno Grand Shrine. This shrine had three car parking areas. Talk about huge. And so I thought. When actually it was semi grand. Lots of stalls were setup and testing by monks in preparation for the two big days: 31st December and 1st January. The activities looks like fun. Too bad today was the wrong day to visit it. In fact, my goal was to come early for the omamori. Beautiful amulets.
To my guess, indeed there were two Daimaru on Kyoto's main shopping street. One by Hankyu railway and another near Takashimaya called Fuji Darimaru (on Karasuma cnr Shijo) it housed Q-pot green tea macaroon strap. Omg. I had to have it. A symbol of Uji green tea.
Sannen zaka and Ninen zaka walk path has so much craft stores and delicious food. Unique drinks on offer. We ate beef buns and drank green (maccha, the real deal) mixed with coconut milk put into a take away bottle. yum! ¥300 each.
Ryozen Kannon temple was at the end of Ninnen zaka trail.
We have finally found it. Yet it was closed at 4pm. Dang! We arrived way too late. Buddha statue was a huge structure. You can see it towering above the temple before entering the temple. Also it was closed for renovation since 13th and due to re-open after 1st of January 2011. Ugh?
For dinner we dined upstairs on 7F of Takashimaya. I had Eel set meal. Sis had green tea soba noodle set meal.
Off to Isetan to look at lovely stationey and drool. Odd, that eletronic product domination has not reduced stationery production in this country compared to Western world.
Japan may have most polite citizen a decade ago, many of it's citizen in later part of this decade have gone wild like Westerners. For example, not offering seats to elderly and not letting people alight before boarding. Newer generation is corroding it's own unique culture. Sad.
