Bye Osaka, Hi Kyoto

Today was about packing our things and moving on to Kyoto. The whole process went surprisingly smoothly. With our train ticket, we simply boarded a train in the right direction – and about half an hour later we were already at the station in Kyoto.

Upon our arrival, we first went to the nearest café with our full luggage, as we had about three hours to kill before we could check into our new accommodation. Waiting was not a hardship: the sun peeked out occasionally, bathing the city in pleasant, warm light – a lovely first impression of Kyoto.

After the coffee, we slowly made our way towards our accommodation but made a pit stop along the way. I wanted to buy a souvenir as a memento and found something after a short search. Thus, we could move on quickly. However, since we still had plenty of time, we casually landed in another café – the same chain as before, but a different location.

To my surprise, the coffee nerd this time didn’t bring coffee to the table, but a drink made from the coffee cherry itself – Cascara soda. Very refreshing – and with a slight hint of star anise, it also had a somewhat festive taste.

After the coffee nerd also got to observe a new dripper (some fancy coffee gadget) in action with his sponsored beans and test the result (and of course, he ended up buying the dripper), we slowly made our way to the accommodation, which was only about ten minutes away on foot.

After checking in, however, we headed back out quite directly. Before dinner, we wanted to take advantage of some daylight and stroll through the nearby park. Timing worked out quite well because we noticed in the park that the restaurant recommended by the café staff wouldn’t open for another hour.

In the park, we passed by the old Imperial Palace of Kyoto. It would have been very interesting, but unfortunately it was already closed for the day. We’ll definitely visit it in the coming days.

For dinner, udon was actually planned – unfortunately, the udon noodles were already sold out. So, the dish was served instead with ramen noodles (the menu mentioned something about 'Sasame'): a hearty soup with a slight curry flavor, spring onions, and tofu.

And with that, the day was already over. Actually, it was a rather uneventful travel day and hardly worth a blog post of its own. But now that it’s written anyway – you might as well read it.