Crazy Digest: Japan2012: Kyoto 5D/4N Itinerary

Date of travel: 2-6 April 2012

Umekoji Craft Market - First Thursday of each month

Today was our lucky day. After Sukiya beef bowl (yes again!!), we decided to visit the Gold temple Kinkakuji. On the bus ride there, we passed a craft market which we totally forgot we wanted to visit. This is also known as the Umekoji Park Craft Market, that opens only on the first Thursday of each month. About 6 rows of 20 stalls selling items from handicraft, wooden toys, clothes, to plants and cakes. I bought 3 bars of handmade soap and a donkey house for Monica.

Because I wanted a toilet, we walked into a train station looking building which turned out to be the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum. Here you can find a life sized Thomas train set! We opted to take the ride on a steam train that lasted about 15 minutes. It takes you past the Kyoto aquarium and back. After our exciting ride and shopping, it started to pour! No luck with getting to Kinkakuji today.

My niece and nephew both have a Thomas train set that looks exactly like this!

Heading back indoors to Porta shopping centre, we had a great tempura lunch set, as reviewed previously under Item 5 here. For our evening outing, I woke up from a short nap and said lets go to Kawaramuchi Sanjo. I remember reading something about this previously, but couldn't remember what. It turned out to be a night bar area with pimps on every corner. But it also had great restaurants and cherry blossoms almost in full bloom. We had great fun at a Akiyoshi Yakitori restaurant and both of us ate 20 sticks in total. Photo taking was lucky again because the rain stopped momentarily. Then we chanced upon a famous udon shop which was super yummy. You get to select tempura to go with it. A great day although we didn't visit any famous tourist sites