Adventures in Kyoto

In the last two weekends I made two adventures to the wonderful city of Kyoto. The first time was for more of an experimental shopping, while the second was to experience the various clothing shops in one of the shopping districts.

First, the flea market. 

Every month, on the 25th you can travel to Kitano Tenman-gu and experience a very lively, very full, flea market. You'll know just by the bus ride that you're going to the right place, because as you get closer to the temple, the bus becomes insanely crowded. Everyone and their mother's mother goes to this flea market. There's some religious reason for going this temple as well, but seeing as I barely seen anyone one person leave from the flea market area--it's not as important as the goods that surround you.

And why? Because everything is cheap, like insanely cheap. I bought a kimono and an obi for only thousand yen, or roughly ten bucks. Yes, this place is great for finding deals. It's also great for finding antiques and statues, and even toys for children. If you're looking for something out of date, you'll probably find it at this location.

The food stands they have set up: also awesome as well as the icy stands. The icy was a little sweetie than I was use to back home in the states, perhaps because I tend to chose things labeled with sour, but it was great none the less.

Also, there's another flea market on the 21st of every month at Toji temple. I was told it was actually bigger than this one, and by god that's scary.

The other shopping trip was to Sanjo.

The original mission was to go to a yarn store. However, every time we found a store we thought was interesting, well we just had to stop. One of them was a 315 yen store. Such awesome accessories for such a low price. I got two scarves, a purse, and a pair of sunglasses for roughly fifteen dollars. It's really amazing the type of stores you'll find if you look hard enough.

Along the way we had to stop to eat, everyone was starving. So we found this little cafe on the second floor of an older building, and oh my it was amazing! They placed in a private room, probably for the benefit of everyone involved in the communication and we had water in pretty glasses. We looked through the menu, deciding what was the best option. Most of the group went with a very American Meat Lunch with involved a hamburger steak and sometime of sauce. This was lunch was an amazing deal since it came with a soup (cheese soup), a drink, the main course with a choice of bread or rice, and then a small dessert. Everything about the food was great.

Eventually we left and made it to our destination with a few other stops of course. However, the yarn was apparently very expensive so we went home empty handed (when it came to the original mission).

All in all, Kyoto is a great place to leisurely spend time shopping and having fun. It is a very vast area and 'd recommend as a foreigner to go with at least one other person, so that if you're lost, at least you're not lost alone.

Oh! On the way back to the train station we ran across a publicity stunt. We're still not fully sure what was going on, but involved pretty dudes in suits, people laying on the ground as if they were dead, and one man in a maid outfit. We were amazed, and it was awesome.

*Pictures may or may not come later.*