Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 4 (2/3)

The tour continued to move towards Kiyomizudera Temple.

Similar to the Fushimi Inari Shrine (See part 1 of Central Japan Day 4), our bus was parked further to the attraction so we had to walk a few kilometers before reaching the temple. Also, before walking to the temple, there is also a market place selling foods and souvenirs as well.

Market place located outside the temple

We stopped outside the temple for a short while to take pictures with the Geisha. That photo taking session was only given to our tour group. Other visitors were not allowed to take pictures with her. My family took pictures with her and we continued our journey to the temple.

Photo taking session with the Geisha

After climbing steps and walking a few more kilometers, we arrived at the Kiyomizudera Temple.

The front and back of the admission ticket to the temple.

Kiyomizudera Temple from far.

Kiyomizudera

 Inside the temple, one of the things you should try is to get the water from the Otowa waterfall.

Otowa waterfall

[About Otowa Waterfall: Located at the base of Kiyomizudera's main hall, the waterfall is divided into 3 streams. Visitors would have to take the cups attached to the long poles, take the water from the stream and drink it. Different streams have different benefits - Longevity, academic or career success and fortunate love life. However, don't take water from all 3 streams as it would be considered as greedy.]

Take note of something before you drink the water from the cup. The cup has to be placed back into the sterilizer before using it. Common sense tells you that it's more hygienic. If someone pass it to you before placing it back, you will have to put the cup into the sterilizer before taking the water from the stream. Don't worry! It won't take long to get the cups sterilized. Wait for a few seconds and you can use it.

Ultra violet sterilizer for you to put back the cup for hygiene purposes

When you are at the waterfall taking the water from the stream, it will be great if you put water into a water bottle. Why not? My father took an empty cider bottle which I finished drinking it and filled up with the water from the stream. Obviously, the water tastes differently from the normal drinking water.

We walked around the temple for a while before heading to the market place. Although it was a Wednesday, it's a tourist attraction hence the temple and the market place were crowded with foreigners and locals. We were only given half an hour to walk around before traveling to Osaka so we walked downhill of the market place with big footsteps to get a taste of snacks available there.

At the market place, we bought the jumbo chicken stick as recommended by our tour guide and matcha ice cream.

The jumbo chicken stick stall

Never mind about the spelling mistake made here. Let's try the taste of the jumbo chicken stick.

Large pack of jumbo chicken stick: 1,000 yen

The chicken itself tastes different from the normal fried chicken that I have tasted, leave alone those fast food restaurants. While marinating the fried chicken, I believe the owner put a desirable amount of ginger juice in it alongside the normal marinating ingredients of the fried chicken. A desirable amount means that the taste of ginger juice would not make you choke with the spiciness of the ginger and the chicken meat is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Recommend to try this when you are at Kiyomizudera temple market place.

Apart from the jumbo chicken stick, the ice cream is also a must to try. They have 5 different flavors available but the best and recommended is the matcha flavor.

Matcha flavor. Not bitter but there's an acceptable sweetness.

The other one I forgot. It tasted like sesame.

We headed on to Nishiki Market located in downtown Kyoto. From Kiyomizudera temple to Nishiki market, it took around 30 minutes by bus. The bus stopped at Shijo Karasuma street and we had to alight, walked a few kilometers before reaching Nishiki market. Along the way to the market, we walked the wrong direction and turned back. After passing by Ippudo ramen restaurant and Daimaru department store, we arrived at the market. The market has been opened for 400 years!

There's a small banner congratulating the 400th year opening of the Nishiki market.

The Nishiki Market is a long distance market street selling seafood, vegetables, cosmetics and even swords. There is a store selling foods, cosmetics, toys and others including swords that allows tax-free for visitors spending 5,001 yen and above for consumables and 10,001 yen for non-consumables.

We looked around to see if there were things to buy until we reached the end of the market, there was nothing to buy. I went back and saw a shop selling honey drinks. I decided to stop for a while and bought myself a cup of yuzu and honey drink (Japanese lemon and honey drink).

Yuzu and honey drink

Other drinks are also available as well.

At first, we thought that there would be nothing to buy at the market but after I stopped at the honey shop to buy a drink, we went in the store and bought a bottle of yuzu citrus honey back to Singapore. The yuzu and honey is not too sweet so it's worth to try. Also, the honey shop is a tax-free shop where visitors can enjoy tax-free for purchases above 5,001 yen. 

We left Nishiki Market in Kyoto and continued our journey to Osaka. Before that, I finished my cup of yuzu and honey drink but there was no rubbish bin there so I held the cup in my hands and boarded the bus to Osaka.

Part 3 of Central Japan Day 4 continues.