Kyoto, Day One: Part One

We arrived in Kyoto in the early afternoon and were famished. As we wandered to the Gion, this (naturally) caught our eye. This and . . .

...this and ...

... this, which smelled heavenly. Turns out this is a restaurant called Issen Yoshoku, which serves a dish called okonomiyaki, variously described as "Japanese pizza" or "Japanese pancake." This restaurant was rather wacky--each table has a kimono-clad mannequin sitting at it, and there are some decorations in, um, shall we say rather dubious taste--but the food was absolutely delicious; I had to pick off the meat, but hey...

The stores in the Gion area were full of interesting (and beautiful) goods for sale. These are from a confectionary shop called Oharameya. We bought a little shopping bag there, and they very sweetly gave B. a fan (he dubbed it "the man fan"), which came in immensely handy over the rest of the hot and humid trip.

The travelogue will have to continue in another post--Blogger is no longer letting me upload pictures...grrrr.