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May 21st

Three of us went to Uji and Nara while the other two stayed in Kyoto. Uji was really cute and the shopping street had a massive choice of tea shops. We got several tea candies, chocolates, and lots of loose leaf tea including “award winning Uji tea”, which is really good almost minty gyokuro and a tin of the best matcha I’ve ever bought (for only 1,700 yen).

Before leaving we got sweets at Matcha Republic, where we signed a little guestbook, copying the other girls sitting in there. They noticed and took a picture. :)

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Arashiyama, Kyoto, continued.

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Shoraian, Arashiyama, Kyoto.

We did, however, choose differently on deserts. Tiramisu and houjicha pudding! No one wanted the tofu pudding after so much tofu already.

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Shoraian, Arashiyama, Kyoto.

6- Yudofu (boiled tofu) with dipping sauce 7- Wagyu steak with green onions and wasabi 8- Rice and kombu topping, agedashi tofu, tsukemono: kabocha, turnip, and mixed.

The kabocha tsukemono was so interesting, I’ve never had that before! Really crunchy.

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Shoraian, Arashiyama, Kyoto, continued.

3- Tomato, pesto, and an egg custard?, yuuba 4- Shimeji mushroom creamy cheese bake 5- Deep fried yuuba, shiso and sakura ebi with matcha powder

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Shoraian, Arashiyama, Kyoto. We all ordered the same kaiseki choice, which was a $60 per person lunch but was one of the best meals we’ve had in Japan.

1- fresh tofu with very soft salt, plum wine. 2- shumai, octopus filled with some earthy fish item, fiddlehead fern, sesame tofu with wasabi, ama ebi, bamboo, beans, and gluten.

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Arashiyama, continued.

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Arashiyama, continued. A parade and boat display / festival that recreated a historic moment was happening. Unfortunately we had to make it to our lunch booking so we couldn’t watch!

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May 20th

We spent the day in Arashiyama, the bamboo grove area in north west Kyoto. Really sunny!

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We ended up walking around the Kiyomizudera area, and tried getting into the tatami Starbucks, but there was a very long wait, so we got other treats instead!

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May 18th-19th

When we landed at Narita, we spent the rest of the day traveling to Kyoto (shinkansen ekiben pictured), where we reached our house after 10pm in pouring rain. The next day our first meal out was at Iyemon Salon, a tea-theamed restaurant. Matcha beer!

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Hello! In a few months we’ll be taking our third trip to Japan- expect new photos of Kyoto, Nara, Koyasan, and Tokyo!

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~The End~

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More Eorzea Cafe

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Back at Eorzea Cafe. A lot of my pictures turned out crazy blurry so I’m not posting them. :( We tried ordering as many items as we could, even the little things like saltines with mashed potato.

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Nighttime in Akiba.

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Day 11- Our last full day, we went back to Akihabara to take it easy, get last chance purchases, and attend Eorzea Cafe for the last time.

We tried going to a vegetarian Buddhist cafe for lunch, but they only had huge set meals and “NO SHARING”, so we ended up at a coffee shop to save stomach space for Eorzea.