Kyoto

Last Sunday I had once more a private tour guides in Kyoto, a city about one hour away from my place. Kyoto is THE place to go for culture. There are many handcrafts done and almost countless shrines.
With Makoto-San and Tomoko-San we first had a walk thru the market where crafts and food is sold. Some of the food looks very yammi, some less...


Market, Kyoto

Do you need a bowl or something ...?

Funny guy at the fish stand

We had a look at the Aritsugu blacksmith shop where they sell expensive kitchen knives. This family makes these knives since over 400 years! I guess they know their business. www.aritsugu.com

Tomoko and Makoto at the "Aritsuge" knive store

Then we went for to this very exquisite restaurant and had delicious tiny dishes to taste. That was best! Could unfortunately not take pictures... not very polite in the restaurants... but I'm sure you can imagine.

With a full belly we walked in direction to the shrines. Quite impressive. Tiny streets, traditional houses, little stores and plenty of religious buildings. There quite many Japanese and foreign tourists on the street. Even some fake "geishas" were touring.

Entrance of the main temple.

Main temple of Kyoto.

The cherry blossom is shyly starting.

On the way back we had quite the unique chance to see a "maiko" "apprentice geisha" and an older "geisha". I was told the this was that this was her first time wearing the "kinomo" for performance. Ehmm, could you walk in those sandals?

Maiko and geisha

Close up's with a Japanese touch.

Of courses during this one day I could only have a first impression. I'll have to dig deeper next time!