Deciding to end my trip in Kyoto was the plan from the beginning of planning this trip - from the time before my parents decided to come to Japan as well. The reason was simple - save the best for last. In prior Asia August/September trips (including the Japan one in 2023) I went to Southeast Asia for the last few days of the trip, because there was familiarity and a safe joy expected with ending the trip there. Kyoto is playing that role this time, a known quantity, a place I unabashedly love, and after a first full day back, I can confidently say I chose wisely.
The day actually started by leaving Kyoto and heading to Himeji to visit the famed Himeji castle, one of the other "Premier" castles within Japan (Kumamoto being one of the others, Matsumoto the third) and probably known as the most stunning. The castle is the only real draw for the city of Himeji, and they know it - placing the train station a 15-minute walk away from the castle keep, but that fifteen minutes is by walking down one long promenade from the station straight to the castle walls, with the central tower of the castle imposing itself mightily from the start. It's a pretty awe-inspiring view.
Like the other castles, that central tower is the main element, but you have to earn your right to go there by walking through the castle compound, in this case through a series of paths, gates and turns. There is a large courtyard in front of the tower, but unlike with Kumamoto and Osaka, that area is noly accessible once you finish with the tower - the path from the entrance gate taking you basically around hte back. The tower itself was a wonderful contrast to Kumamoto and Osaka, as the interior here was left basically untouched - it was as close to a truthful example of how it looked.
Each of the seven floors explaing a bit of how the castle worked as a defensive force - from rooms with elevated counters around the perimeter from where soldiers could launch rocks at their enemies, to areas of nooks that were used as granaries. The castle is kept as it was - which also leads to having no elevator, and requiring you to take your shoes off. The actual staircases within the castle floors are fairly steep, but again there is a certain cool-ness in ascending and descending the tower the same way those did centuries ago.
From there we then got to the courtyard, which gave just great viewpoints of the castle, this one more black trim than Kumamoto's blue. In the end, seeing both of the two was a delight (and my parents saw the Matsumoto one, so across the three of us we've completed the set) and again I did like the contrast in the way they chose to go about the interior. Very much worth the trip to Himeji - but we were fortunate / smart in using the Shinkansen there, because the normal trains take about 1:45 from Kyoto (or 1:20 from Osaka) vs it being 45 minutes.
We were supposed thereafter to go to Kobe, which sits halfway between Himeji and Kyoto, but I was getting a bit of a worry we wouldn't have enough time tomorrow to do everythign I wanted in Kyoto (and everyhing I wanted to show my parents), and there was the aforementioned draw of the familiar, where I was able to convince my parents that we skip Kobe. Made easier by the fact they are taking a cruise from Hong Kong to Tokyo with many Japan stops, including one at Kobe. My realization of this change happened slightly too late to take one Shinkansen back, giving us about 50 minutes before the next one where we got a bento box lunch in Himeji station - a classic Japan tourist experience, and my wagyu sukiyaki bento box was lovely in its efficiency.
I had a clear set series of sites that I wanted to check off in Kyoto - a mix of new and repeats but playing the hits, mostly. We arrived back at the Kyoto station at 2:40, and I thought it best to finish off the farthest afield (or at least the one not near anything else) which was the Ginkaku-Ji temple complex Northeast of the city. Getting there was easy (uber) and as with most temples it has a mini-souvenir market frenzy around it. The walk throuhg the Ginkaku-Ji was lovely and a great introduction to why Kyoto temples are so incredible - namely, how seamlessly they integrate with teh nature around it.
The Ginkaku-Ji has a clear path demarked to take within it that starts off with the almost too picture perfect lake with beautiful trees, shrubbery, moss and the large sand gardens that are so well manicured and perfected. It's all so serene of a picture. From there you go up towards a point that serves as a lookout both for the temple complex below, but to a vewi of part of Kyoto from behind. The whole thing opened my parents eyes to why Kyoto is so special, as it did reaffirm taht for me as the Ginkaku-Ji was one of the temples that I didn't see last time - probably because it is a bit disconnected from the others. Overall, it was a great experience.
As was the next bit of Kyoto tourism which was just walking through the Nishiki Market streets, and the surrounding shiopping districts. The Nishiki Market is definitely being commercialized for tourism - more and more stands selling more "approachable" options like meat or seafood skewers. Granted, the skewers are good (we got a couple seafood ones, and yakitori) but many stalls now promote most heavily skewers of kobe beef and other premium A5 wagyu cuts, which go for aroudn 20k - 30k yen a stick (basically $14-20). Less present now are the stalls selling "weird" Japanese delights. This is definitely a change I noticed from the last trip.
The surrounding shopping area is no less interesting than before how ever - so many great stores and mroe than that the decor. Spiralling out from the Nishiki Market are lane after narrow lane with generally a mix of residential real esetate and then one or two lovely shops with great storefronts and designs. Brilliance lives within these lanes, you just have to go seek it. The best way is truly just to get lost and walk around soak it all in.
From there we walked the fifteen minutes or so across the river to the central Gion area, the lantern-lit Edo-style street with more restaurants and shops. I was surprised that more of taht street is restaurants than I remember (would call it 75/25, vs something closer to 50/50 that I misremembered from the 2023 trip) but either way the style of the buildings, the lanterns coming on as dusk was settling in creates a lovely environment. But if your intention is shopping, it seems better now to remain on the western side of the Pontocho river.
From there my parents went to see a cultural show at teh Gion Center (which I do regre a bit not seeing) but I had another bit of familiarity to check out, a visit to Umineko Stand Bar, back near the Nishiki market. This beer bar is my favorite in Japan, and remains so. Yes, the whole standing element can get tiring, especially after a day with a lot of steps already, but the beer options - 24 taps, dozens of cans, all Japanese - was alluring. As was their menu, where I got a really nice lamb and lotus root meatball dish. In the end, the time at Umineko was as good as I remembered it being. And I don't think Umineko has necessarily hit the tourism circuit yet as the crowd was more locals than I expected given how overrun with tourists Kyoto was. On that point, Kyoto definitely seemed busier as a whole than last time - this isn't a bad thing. Kyoto is after all primarily a town about tourism by its own admission, but the secret is out globally, if it wasn't already in 2023.
Dinner was at Sumiro Man, a lovely, buzzing Izakaya a block or two away from Umineko (though of course I had to go back in between to shower, change, etc.). Like basically all Izakayas, or at least the ones I have been to on this trip, you had to order by QR code on a program that seems to have a monopoly on this particular ordering method all across Japan. However, for this one I didn't want to responsibility, so booked us for the "Sumiro Man" premium course where they pick about 8-10 plates for you to try. It was nice not having to be the chooser, and even if we missed on some stuff, the food on the set menu was generally quite good.
The best was probably the wagyu sukiyaki that was the star of the show, live cooked in front of you - so sweet, so brilliantly soft, with also the associated vegetables within the dish (mushroom, tofu, scallions) all so tender as well. But prior to that, their other dishes of sashimi, fried chicken, roast beef salad were all nice. Their grilled meat dish served right before the sukiyaki, of a wagyu strip loin was great, if a bit annoyingly covered in a more Western style mustard sauce. The only other notable part was me trying sochu for the first time all trip and pretty immediately not liking it, or at least not getting it. Luckily, included in the premium course is an all you can drink aspect where I could quickly pivot to a much nicer highball.
Following dinner, the town was ablazze with Friday Night merriment on a lovely night, and I took my parents for a little walk before heading to Bar Caamm, wanting my dad to experience a true Japanese Whisky bar. They both got a kick out of the sheer number of whisky bottles covering every spare inch of Bar Caamm, and my Dad smilarly so in terms of the level of detail of which the menu goes into for the btotles. It was a nice experience for them, and a good start for me as well, before I headed to Bar Dram, which is similar in setup (whisky, and gin, focused) but smaller, more modern and more reminiscent to the bars I went to in Kyushu. This one definitely not on most peoples list, but out of the ten chairs, six (including me) were occupied and one regular who was definitely geting fairly drunk (in a good way) regaled me and a couple from France with some great stories. It was a perfect Kyoto bar experience - as was a brief stop at Rockign Bar ING, which again is reminiscent of Kyushu (or really all Japan) music bars - this one having been aroudn since the 90s.
The last stop of the night was part of that familiarity at Barcode, which was not as crowded as the night before. There were a few repeaters, including a nice American group who recognized me (as I did them), and then you get the fun of what groups come in day v day, such as a group from Ecuador stepping in for the group from teh Philippines yesterday, and then a large Indian group coming in towards the end fo my time there. All in all, the experience tonight at Barcode wasn't as memorable as last night (namely, music picked wasn't as much my speed - more K-Pop and Taylor Swift) but there is never a bad time at Barcode, and that's never a bad way to end your night.
