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A traditional Kyoto lunch: soba
Ohisashi-buri Kyoto!
My most awaited visit of the Kansai region was definitely Kyoto. The one day trip where I'd been to Kyoto before is maybe half the reason I wanted to return to Japan! I absolutely love everything about Kyoto, and as I've found out from my Japanese friends, they often love Kyoto the most too.
Everything feels transcendent after visiting Kyoto. It's like, "Did I just see that all with my own eyes?" How have they preserved this ancient capital so beautifully? There are so many temples that you step out from the gates of one and there's another right next door! Even now, the big city skyscrapers and ultra-modern Kyoto station seem to blend seamlessly with the old Kyoto image. You still see women walking in kimonos and rickshaw drivers for hire on the streets.
But being able to live in Kyoto, drinking in the sights of your own Japanese garden, the surrounding walls and leaves of the plants absorbing the drone of the city when you return from your busy urban life; that would be superb. It's such a one-of-a-kind city. Our first stop was Arashiyama, to the west.
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Arashiyama
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| With Maiko in Arashiyama |
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| Walking upriver |
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| An absolutely perfect Japanese garden to the side of our soba restaurant. |
The gardens here can make anyone go halfway nuts. Every time I pass one, I just want to live there as a hermit forever. They are so old and so meticulously perfected, you can tell right away from the age of the pines and the luscious blanket of moss underfoot. Kyoto is 100% the mecca for Japanese gardens. And I would like to go on a pilgrimage here.
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Kyoto is chock-full of gardens
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