We had planned on going to the Arashiyama area and the golden temple while we were in Kyoto, but time was running out to do everything and Melissa and I really wanted to wear the traditional kimonos and we knew that would take up a lot of the day, so we decided to skip the sightseeing so that we could do that.
I had looked up whether the Japanese people minded that tourists dress up in the traditional dress, and everything that I read said that they find it a sign of respect and interest in their culture. It was the last thing that Melissa had on her bucket list to do in Japan and Harri was happy to join us.
Jalen was out of action this day and just slept for most of the day and Kobe was happy to tag along and be our photographer.
There were so many places in Kyoto where you could hire a kimono, so we just walked into one of the first ones that we saw as we didn't have a booking.
One lady was running it and showed us to where we could choose our kimonos and then she went back upstairs to dress someone else. Melissa straight away picked a pretty blue one.
She was able to speak quite a lot of English, and it was so interesting listening to her tell us about the kimono and the traditions behind it. She explained that even in Kyoto today, many people would wear the kimono in everyday life.
She told us that her daughter lives in Australia and kept telling us how much she missed her and that whenever she has Australians come in, it makes her feel a little bit closer to her daughter.
I can't remember what colour kimono I picked to start with, but when the lady went to dress me, I remember her saying something like 'oh' and I jokingly said (but knew it was the truth!) 'I'm too fat-o' (we loved putting an 'oh' onto everything) and she laughed and said, 'no, I have a lady who was six xl'. She then told me she would just get a different kimono for me and came back with one that I loved even more.
We started off wearing the traditional shoes (which we couldn't even fit in) but quickly learnt that there was no way we could walk any distance in them, and went back and swapped them for our regular shoes.
It felt so special walking around the Gion district in our kimonos.
I had read about Kodaiji Temple which has its own bamboo grove and thought it would be nice to go there to get some photos.
I'm always amazed as to how much care and pride Japanese people take in everything that they do.
Kobe got some great photos for us. It's always busy here, but he made it look like no one else was around.
This was one of my favourite things we did on this trip as it just felt so special.
Later we went to do a little bit of shopping as it was our last afternoon in Kyoto. On the bridge was a busker singing Wonderwall by Oasis which made us stop in our tracks. Oasis was Aaron's favourite band and I know he would've been with us on our trip.
I had a quick walk through Nishiki Market which was super busy.
I loved walking back to our accommodation around all the beautiful streets.
I was so excited to see a geisha walking along the street. Despite Jay getting sick, I loved our time in Kyoto. On our first trip we ended up just doing some day trips, so it was nice to be there to just spend more time wandering around and not feeling so rushed.
We had been so lucky with the weather on our trip but knew we were going to have one day where it was going to rain all day. On our first trip to Japan we loved Team Lab Planets and wanted to take Melissa to experience it as well. The new Team Labs Biovortex had just opened in Kyoto and since Kyoto is a lot smaller than Tokyo, I knew it would be easier to get to, so we planned on going in Kyoto and watched the weather, so we do it on a day when it was raining.
We spent a good 2-3 hours in there and it was very similar to the one in Tokyo but had a few different rooms which were incredible.
I think the vortex room was my favourite room.
Jalen photobombing again!
We love the area where you colour your own pictures and then they scan them and they then appear and move around on the walls and floor.
One thing we noticed about Japan is that whenever there is any rain or sun, everyone uses an umbrella. I don't know why, but for some reason we really don't use umbrellas like they do there. We pull the out sometimes, but we often just dash inside or put a coat on, instead of worrying too much about an umbrella. Every place we stayed at supplied us with umbrellas. We were very impressed with the umbrella storage and locks at Team Lab - until we couldn't get ours out for a long time and someone had to come and unlock it for us.
As we were walking back to our accommodation the night before, Melissa and I spotted a hairdresser with a sign out the front that said they did head spas. This was another thing on Melissa's bucket list and also mine, so we popped in the night before to see if we could book them for the next day. Luckily they could fit us both in, so after we went to Team Labs we couldn't wait to have our head spas.
I had a guy do mine and Melissa had a woman hers it was incredible. The hairdressers were all very cool. They would massage and press on pressure points on your head and we described it as a 'good pain' at times. After the amazing hair treatment and massage, we had two of them drying and styling our hair each.
When we were leaving Melissa stood outside so I could take a photo and the two girls that did her hair saw us, so they popped out and joined her in the photo. We loved it so much and wished that we booked it a second time while we were there. I've had a 'Japanese' head spa since coming home and paid a LOT more money than I paid in Japan and it was so disappointing and nothing like what they did in Japan and was such a waste of money.
It continued to pour with rain all day, but it didn't stop us from getting our usual treats from 7 Eleven.
Something else on Melissa's bucket list was to get some custom rings made. We had spotted a shop when we first arrived in Kyoto and in the end, we all decided to go and get one made so that we had a special souvenir to take home. I don't love shopping and buying things just for the sake of it, but I love little souvenirs like this and love looking at my silver ring every day and knowing I got it made in Kyoto.
We all felt like Ichiran for dinner and no one else had any trouble, but let's just say that Jalen did not have a good night that night and I didn't get any sleep and was wandering the streets at 1 am looking for places that sold medication. Unfortunately, no pharmacies were open, but I came back with lots of Pocari sweat (like a hydrolyte drink) and cups of ice.
Jay loves to add extra pork in his ramen, so I'm not sure if it was the pork or something else, but he was out of action the whole next day. I still love ramen, but I don't think Jay has touched it since!
On our first full day in Kyoto, we headed to Fushimi Inari on the train. I knew we would need some cash for the food stalls there, and the easiest way to get cash is from the 7 Eleven ATMs. I love the look of the yen.
When we got off the train at Fushimi Inari station we popped into a couple of shops as Melissa was buying lots of beautiful postcards to take home.
It was busy as usual, but once we started walking up through the shine, the crowds started to thin out.
Jalen creeping behind Harri and Melissa. So funny!
There are always a lot of people dressed in kimonos at the shrines, which I love.
We walked about halfway up and decided that was far enough as I wanted to head to Uji which was a short train ride away. Before we jumped on the train, we grabbed food and I found this cute little area where Jay and I got some oysters. The food is always so much cheaper than home.
Uji is the between Kyoto and Nara and is the matcha capital of the world. It was only about 20 minutes from Fushimi Inari. It was such a pretty city along the riverbank.
It had lots of cute matcha shops.
Melissa ended up buying some matcha from this shop for her friend back home. The owner was telling us that his shop had been passed down many generations, and he had served royalty and many famous athletes and actors. He loved showing us photos of all the famous people he had served and was so proud of his shop.
The reason I really wanted to go to Uji was to see Byodoin Temple which is a World Heritage site founded in 1052 and is featured on the 10 yen coin. It was so beautiful.
Jalen creeping again!
When we headed back to Kyoto the boys were keen to go to the Pokémon Centre. They're always so busy and you often have to line up or take a number outside and wait for your turn to go in.
We were so tired after six full days of walking and being flat out, but we were still loving everything. We had started putting an 'oh' on the end of everything we would say, because the Japanese do that a lot with English words like 'cardo' for 'card' (credit card) so we would say things like 'I'm hot-o', 'I'm tired-o'. This video makes me laugh as Jalen is going to get a 'snack-o'.
We had been trying to go to a sushi train since we arrived and they are also so busy at night, but we finally decided to just sit it out and wait for about a half an hour to get in and it was lots of fun. The ordering screen had games that we could play.
Jay was so excited to win a prize, but we accidently left it there!
Melissa isn't very adventurous with her food and just wanted lots of plain rice. Luckily, she likes gyoza which got her through the trip.
We ordered so many plates and drinks, but it was so cheap compared to what we would've paid at home.
Without fail our night would always end up with us grabbing treats from a konbini. We often went to 7 Eleven as Melissa, and I loved the creme Brulé ice creams which you could only get there.
When we got back to our accommodation the boys had fun unboxing what they bought at the Pokémon Centre earlier. Jalen cracks me up.
We knew that the next day was going to be very rainy, so we planned lots of things to do indoors.
