Continued from Kyoto Day 3 Part 1.

Ice cream tastes the best when you’ve physically “earned” it…Not really earned it, but it’s hot outside and cold ice cream tastes good.

RL and the kids wanted to go by to look at the store outside Fushimi Inari. I’ll sit in the shade and relax while yall do that.

RL found a pottery place and really liked one of the artists.

Back to the station.

I think this photo really shows the number of people here. Japan is kinda ruined for me with the massive crowds.

I wonder if we’ll visit a Starbucks here in Japan at all this whole trip?

Deciding not to go to Arashiyama bamboo forest means we can come right back to Gion for lunch and take it easier for the rest of the day. Kinda worked out since it’s really so hot out here.

Lunch spot, a tempura restaurant.

They had some of that old Japanese flare, where they announce where you are from to the whole restaurant. Or maybe by now, that’s just a touristy ploy for the tourists.

Got sat upstairs and the chairs here are on a rail system.

The rock garden at the restaurant. Gave us an idea of maybe having a lichen garden in Texas?

Cold beer served in a heavy stainless steel cup.

He’s operating at an 11 out of 10 right now. Zero body control at this moment. The kids have reached a constant state of not listening to us.

Girls practicing their chopsticks.

Got the omakase tempura meal.

They make a big show of dumping the running egg on the kid’s rice bowls.

For the kids, I’d eat that. Yum.

I’ve never realized how often the Japanese eat their food dipped in raw egg yolk. And how do they have all these super orange eggs?

The kids were going crazy. Their food came out first, they finished and just couldn’t sit still. RL was done too but I still had a couple of dishes yet to come out, so RL offered to walk them back home while I finished my meal in peace.

Peacefulness.

RL’s view, not peacefulness.

Well, apparently RL herself also had a plate left, so I’ll eat hers as well.

Yum.

And then tempura sweet potatoes with ice cream.

Alright, done with my meal. Heading back to the hotel to take a nap during the hottest/sunniest part of the day.

Post nap/ipad time, the kids wanted to go with RL to go look at some shops. I wanted to catch up a little on blogging (I’m way behind. I’m finishing this post while back in Austin already). Kids will go shopping, I’ll blog, then we’ll meet together for dinner.

I think by shopping, the kids really meant something else.

Claw machines!!!

Alright, time for me to leave the hotel and meet up with everyone for dinner. We are meeting at Pontocho dori, a small alley full of restaurants by the Kamo river. Nice quiet stroll for me to the meeting spot.

Well, quiet until I came to the bridge to cross the river.

Kids waiting for their baba to show up for dinner.

Pontocho dori. Let’s see what we can find to eat here. After the tourist trap restaurant last night, I’m much more wary about my selection.

It’s relatively busy here, but nothing like Fushimi Inari. We see a lot of crowds walking around, but the restaurants don’t seem to be really crowded. I bet a lot of restaurants are struggling right now.

Love horsetail reed. Need to grow some again.

I was hoping for something else other than sushi, but the kids have been begging for sushi every meal…fine. We’ll eat sushi again.

Dinner time, lots of people walking around, but most restaurants are half empty like this.

Too bad we have too many people, or we could sit outside along the riverfront.

There you go, sushi. But you’ll need to try new types of sushi if we are going to eat it again.

My sushi meal, yum.

Pontocho park, odd to have a small dirt park here.

RL wanted to go look at a music shop to find some sheet music for her friend LL. I’ll let the kids play a little bit more here and then walk them home to the hotel.

Cool willow tree growing out of seemingly no where.

Kids were fascinated by all the stamps sold at the little convenience store. I was too.

RL’s view, these photos are organized by timestamps from two different phones.

My photo.

Kids, watch some TV and calm down please. It’s tough traveling with kids. They are out of their routine, they are overstimulated all the time. It’s tough for the parents too.

We keep buying alcohol to stock our fridge, but we keep not drinking them. Leaving Kyoto tomorrow, so we are making it a point to drink at lease some of the beers that we’ve got.

And also eat some of the food I get at the convenience store.

Yum, katsu donburi. And in typical Japanese fashion, the rice is separated so it doesn’t get soggy.

Yummmmmm. This is the ultimate Japanese comfort food for me.

To be continued at Hakone Day 1 Part 1.