Spending 2 PERFECT days in KYOTO 🇯🇵

Hey it's Phoebe and today I'm in Kyoto. We've got two days together to explore this amazing city and I'm going to be showing you just why Kyoto is my favorite place in Japan. This place is amazing! We're going to be trying so much delicious local food, visiting some of Kyoto's most unmissable spots and hopefully unearthing a few hidden gems along the way. Let's go! It's an overcast gloomy day here in Kyoto today. I don't care, it's one of my favorite places in Japan and I kind of love rainy weather so this is fine with me. But we do need to do one thing to get today started off right, coffee. And we're going in here. Oh my god this place is cool already. Blue bottle. I am obsessed with this place. You will find them dotted all over Japan and there's one right near my hotel which I'm really happy about. I've got an iced americana with a dash of oat milk in there and the lady helped me choose some dark roast beans which are my favorite kind. Oh yeah. I'm hungry and I know the perfect place for us to try some authentic local Japanese street food. Let's go! The Nishiki market has been here for some 400 years and the street here is lined with all kinds of delicious local treats to try. There is one really big problem with coming here, you're going to want to try it all. And I have a plan to eat a lot of food today so I'm pacing myself. I found a beautiful sushi sashimi place. I've got some salmon sushi to try. Let's get stuck in. That looks perfect. That's really good. Getting here to Kyoto was actually really easy. I caught the Kintetsu line from Nara and I had purchased a three-day Kansai rail pass. It just made my life so much easier. I'll have a link in the video description for you so you can get yours too. But basically I just woke up that morning, didn't have a plan, put it into google maps and followed the directions they gave me. Honestly navigating Japan by train is so easy. Gion is Kyoto's famous geisha district and the area is both beautiful and historic. As you walk around here you're going to see so many traditional wooden merchant houses and tucked inside shops, restaurants and tea houses. I recommend spending a few hours walking around this beautiful area. You should definitely check out the Hokanji temple and spend some time walking through Ninazaka and Senazaka streets. It's crowded but it's so worth it. There is so much good food to try here and it's just a beautiful area. And if you love matcha as much as I do, make sure you visit Matcha House. This place is a highlight for me. The food and drinks here are so good. I devoured this matcha parfait. That ice cream on top is so delicious. The matcha flavor is amazing. It has all these crunchy and chewy textures layered inside. It is so so tasty. While I'm in Kyoto, I'm staying here at the Prince Smart Inn. Now this place is in the perfect location and I'm really happy I stayed here. Let's go inside and I'll show you around. Here on the first floor they have something really cool. Little amenities you can help yourself to. So instead of putting them in the room you can just swing by and pick up a washcloth, a toothbrush or even some pajamas if you need them. You know I'm rocking those. And this is my room. I am staying in 430 and I love it here. I have this great little entryway. My shower is in here with a little bathroom area behind me and then through here is the bedroom area. We've got a big television. This bed is nice and comfy and a really great size. Usually in Japan I'm in a single bed and it's a bit too small for me because I'm so tall. That thing is perfect. A little desk area and I've left all my mess out for you. But honestly guys I love this hotel. I highly recommend it. I would stay here again and I'll have a link in the video description for you so you can book your stay as well. All right it is time for dinner and the other day I was walking past this really cute restaurant and I just have to try it. Let's go. This is the dinner restaurant. Now I had to book which is a really good sign and all the locals are already queued up before it even opened. I have a feeling we're in for a real treat. I've ordered a whole bunch of things for us to try. We're starting with an octopus and avocado tartare. This looks better in real life than it does on camera. Let's try it. Oh my god. That's amazing. That's one of the best things I've had in Japan so far. Holy. Fried corn on the cob and I say fried because I've just watched them deep fry this. Not to be dramatic but that's the best piece of corn I've ever had in my life. It's happening. What is on that? You would not believe how good that tastes. The corn is crunchy and sweet and juicy and you would think deep frying corn would just make it so gross but it's so so good. Let me move you guys up a bit for this one. We have these beautiful grilled mushrooms. These things look perfect. They were cooked on an open flame over there covered in some kind of sauce topped with some kind of crunchiness. Bone apple tea baby. Those are so good. The crunchiness on top a little bit of chew to the mushrooms and a slight smokiness. This place is amazing. This is the spot. This is the spot. I cannot believe I just found that place walking past it. That is hands down one of the best meals I have ever had in Japan and the people that work there are just so lovely which makes all the difference. I'll tell you something that's going to blow your mind. You just saw all that food I had. You saw the quality of it and how much I loved it. Guys that meal cost me 20 Australian dollars. Are you kidding? What are you doing in Japan? That's so cheap. Oh my gosh. All right that's a great way to end this day. I'm gonna go relax at the hotel. I'll see you guys in the morning. Good morning you guys. We are starting our day off at one of Kyoto's most iconic landmarks. Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousand Shinto shrines dedicated to Inari, the god of rice. And you probably recognize it from these incredible vermilion torii gates you see around me right now. Now these gates actually straddle the network of lanes and pathways that make their way up to the sacred Mount Inari. To beat the crowds here I am here at 6am. I got up early and it is definitely worth it. This place is going to get absolutely packed later in the day so if you do want to come and have a more authentic, grounded, scented experience I recommend doing it this way. Now one of my favorite things about this place and something really cool to keep your eyes peeled for are all the fox statues. And they're there because foxes are thought to be Inari's messages. They're really cool. To get around here in Kyoto I have mostly just been walking everywhere but you can also catch the train and bus. They're super easy to navigate using google maps and you just get a little paper ticket like this for the train. This one was 220 Japanese yen one way. That's the train now. We're at a little place called Stumptown Coffee Roasters and this spot is tucked away in the a short but sweet little menu of some delicious sweet treats in the cake cabinet and a couple of savory options in the fridge. This place has a really simple menu but my gosh it is so cute in here. Now I have got a coffee unlike anything I've seen before. This looks like a cocktail or a glass of wine but it's not. This is a nitro cold brew topped with oat milk. I live for a cold brew. I don't think I've had nitro before. Let's try it. That is so good. That is delicious. It's velvety, good coffee flavor, not too strong. I feel weird. I feel like I'm drinking a glass of wine at 7 30 in the morning but it's working for me. And for a nice easy start to the day I have some of their banana pound cake. It is all toasted and heated up and it smells so good. To see some more of Kyoto's most unmissable spots outside of the city center I've signed us up for a group tour. We're gonna go and meet them right now and I'll have the tour linked below for you but prepare yourself because the weather forecast for the rest of the day is rain and a lot of it. Wait I need to clean you guys. It is raining. We're at our next stop. The Kiyomizudera temple. Now this is one of Japan's most iconic temples and I believe it to be one of the oldest here in Kyoto. It was established back in 780 AD and you might actually recognize the viewpoint behind me. We are looking at that famous stage area and our guide when he was telling us the legend has it many many years ago if you made a wish and you leapt off that stage area your wish came true. Thankfully we don't have to do that anymore to wake our wishes come true. To do everything we're doing today I decided to book a tour and so far I'm really happy with that decision. I have a link below for you so you can check it out and book as well but I made sure to book the one that includes the lunch option which has brought us to our next stop. Let's go inside and eat. Our lunch spot is actually near where we were yesterday exploring Nanazaka and Sendanaka. I'm saying that wrong. And after we eat we're going to go and check out another temple near here and a couple of other spots I really wanted to visit yesterday but didn't have the time to do but right now it's time to eat. The restaurant is called Okabaya. Hopefully I'm saying that right. And this looks unreal. Classic Japanese. Just lots of little dishes. Little bits and pieces to try. Everything looks good. I'm just gonna start eating. Let's just try everything. Random fish cake. Delicious. I think this is miso tofu. That's amazing. 10 out of 10. Tempura. Now they said you put this in this and then you put the tofu in it and our lovely guy Winnie was telling us apparently Kyoto is famous for tofu which I didn't know. Oh that looks good. This is all really good and what I like about it was I didn't order any of this and usually when I'm traveling I just kind of order the same stuff because sometimes I don't know what else to order or what else to try. Having somebody else make all the decisions for me like this. Perfect. You cannot come to Japan without trying matcha and I'm due for my daily matcha fix so come here to Gokago. I hope I'm saying that right. Apparently this place is pretty famous. The store itself is absolutely beautiful and they have a shop with sweet menu to try from. I have got the iced matcha latte with oat milk and I splashed that extra. Oh no that's going everywhere. I splashed that extra for the matcha ice cream on top. I'm gonna drink some of this. I'm about to lose it. Chaos. Pure chaos. All right let's try this upside. That is so good. Oh my god. The thing about it is it's not too sweet. Trust me. I'm a sweets girl. I love sweets but that is just perfect. If you've ever tried matcha before and it tasted like you were drinking or eating grass you were eating the wrong matcha. That wasn't good matcha. This is good matcha. And you guys guess who's made a friend. Hi. This is beautiful Claudia. Am I saying that yeah proper? Claudia. Oh see it sounds so much better when she says it. Beautiful Claudia. She's the other solo travel girl on our tour today. Thank god. And I'm glad she's here. Matcha. Cheers. Kankaku-ji is a stunning zen temple and is also known as the golden pavilion and really that's the perfect name for it because the top two floors are entirely covered in gold leaf. It was formerly known as Roku-on-ji and it was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Think of him as like a commander in chief or a general. He even had more power than the emperor at the time. According to his will it actually became a zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. And now we are lucky enough to get to visit it. And interestingly there are less people here than there have been at the other places we've been so far today. And this place is stunning. Claudia's gonna do the food review. What is it? A cheese? Fried cheese. This is an honest channel. If you don't like it you say you don't like it. I don't. She does. Sorry. She doesn't like it. What do you not like about it? It doesn't taste like cheese. What does it taste like? I don't know. Zero out of ten. Do not recommend the cheese croquette. Our last stop is here in Arashima at the famous bamboo forest. Now I have seen this place all over the internet and I have to tell you walking through here it really is stunning. You have all of these weirdly well spaced bamboo shoots just driving up towards the sky and this really leafy canopy over the top of you. It's super serene in here. It's also very very crowded. If you want to get this place to yourself you'd have to come really early in the morning. There are some shops and things and some other places you can explore around here. Personally I would say I wouldn't be too inclined to come out here just for this. You'd want to do it as part of a tour or make a day out of coming here and like eat some stuff and see and do a few things as well. But either way I'm really glad to have visited because it really is beautiful. And with that you guys that brings this week's episode to a close. I really hope you've enjoyed it. Now if you don't already be sure to subscribe right now so you never miss a single episode and say hello in the comments below. I hope you have a great weekend ahead and I will see you in the brand new episode next week. Love ya.