All that glitters is gold
As this is supposed to be a a travel blog, I cannot lie down on the job forever, so we have resumed our normal travel plans today. We’ve been spoiled on lavish breakfasts the past two days and as such, have kept to konbini (a bastardization of convenience store) food this morning, me with my inari pouches and my friends with the various bao buns .
Our first destination today was Nijo Castle, a very ornate castle with very squeaky floors. According to my friend, which now may be a questionable story, the emperor at the time this was built was paranoid of being assassinated, and intentionally had the floor built to squeak. From what we read inside the castle (photography was prohibited inside), the floors became squeaky with wear and time.
This survived the bombings from WWII
After visiting the castle, we had to hustle off to lunch at an ochazuke restaurant, Kintame, which we barely made in time due to confusion of the bus lines. Upon arriving, we were treated to a delicious array of various pickled vegetables, fish, and of course ochazuke, basically rice with tea poured over.
Miso soup with mochi ball and mustard Various pickled veggies, including eggplant, mountain potato, broccoli and others The cashier insisted we take a picture outside.
Once we were done with brunch, we proceeded to Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, a very popular site for people to visit. Fortunately we enjoyed the rest of the gardens, along with the main attraction.
Next up was visiting a yarn shop my friend wanted to visit to procure some locally made yarn. Nearby we lucked out in seeing some cherry blossoms actually blooming (our trip happens to be ending right before cherry blossom is to begin). After this we had some dessert and then journeyed over to Nishiki Market to find some omiyage for my friend’s friend that we were having dinner with later in the evening, and also get some food along the way.
Once this was done, we headed back to our hotel, and was off to visit a friend of my friend for a very rollicking dinner, which I managed to not get any pictures of, as we were rather caught up in the company of our hosts. We ended our night by celebrating Pi Day (3/14 … 3.14) by grabbing a late night pizza. Til’ tomorrow, thanks for reading and to all a good night.
