The Long Road to Kyoto

OMG what a crazy day.  Again, good crazy. Had a lovely breakfast at a cute little bakery in Namba Walk, cruised Bic Camera one more time,  and then headed to the train station for what would be an adventurous day. 

Brian mentioned that it would be about an hour by train to get to Kyoto.  We checked out of our hotel at 11:00.  We arrived at our airbnb home at about 3:30.  The train transfers were crazy confusing. Once we arrived to Kyoto, the walk to our place was so long.  With suitcases and tired kids in tow, we weaved our way through the crowds and oncoming bikes until we finally found the tiny little alleyway where we would find the place we will call home for a few days. 

The place is great.  It's small, but has laundry, AC,  a bed for each person, and a kitchen.  What more could we ask for?  It has crazy steep steps leading to the upstairs apartment we have.  The pictures don't really show how steep.  It's all part of the adventure. 

After we settled in and rested our really tired and sore feet, we set out to grab a little bit of groceries.  Found a great grocery store about 15 minutes up the narrow street filled with little restaurants and such.  Fi and I noticed that many of the places had buckets of water sitting out front of the buildings.  We thought it was some type of offering and after googling, it seems like it is to keep stray cats away.  Hmm.  

Saw so many beautiful Kimonos today.  In windows and on beautiful ladies walking down the street.  I tried to discretely take some pictures.

Our walk led us to Fresco for some fresh food.  I FOUND A SALAD!!  I have been dying for some fresh veggies.  We had watermelon too which tasted so sweet and yummy.  It isn't that I'm not enjoying the food we have had so far, it's just a lot of salty, heavy food that I'm just not used to.  Our snacky dinner consisted of fruits, veggies, of course a cheese pizza, and a variety of local faves for Brian.  

Then more walking!  We headed to Gion to explore and ended up on a search for ice cream to keep a certain member of our team motivated.  It was a really long day that thankfully ended with chocolate before our 45 minute walk back home.  We are all tired.  Brian and I are up late planning the next few days.  Temples, monkeys, and walking.  We might even do some more walking after that.  Here are the rest of the shots from the day.  Oyasumi!