Kyoto Trip

We had a 3-day weekend this past weekend. We were off on Monday for the national holiday, culture day. We seized the extended weekend by taking a trip to Kyoto! It was Tori's first time, and Miklos's second time (since he was in Kyoto last year for a work conference).

Kyoto is A MUST SEE if you're visiting Japan... Literally an absolute must see. There

are many more things that we would love to do in Kyoto, but for us there is no rush, as we know we'll be back.

From Nagoya, you can reach Kyoto by high speed train in 35 minutes. It's a direct, easy route and a one-way ticket costs about $50 USD.

If you do visit Japan and go to Kyoto be mindful that like many beautiful, must-see places around the world, Kyoto is full of tourists. This can take away from sights. So, keep this in mind and plan your time accordingly. We would recommend getting to

places early to beat the rush.

One of the first places we visited during our trip was Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Check out some of the beautiful photos!

We also were able to meet up with one of Miklos's friends, Jonas, who is staying in Kyoto for a month.

Another thing, Tori in particular, loved about Kyoto was the vegetarian food options. Kyoto is the spiritual capital of Japan which means you will find so many vegetarian and vegan options for food. What is so great about this is that you do not strictly have to go to a vegan or vegetarian restaurant, many places have menus that include both meat and non-meat options. This was wonderful because it enabled Tori to try some traditional Japanese dishes, such as a delicious tofu rice bowl (pictured), and dumplings (gyoza in Japanese). Believe it or not, this is the first time Tori has had dumplings in Japan, as you cannot really find them in vegetarian form. Side note, we were even able to try chocolate dumplings (pictured) as dessert dumplings. Next time, we want to try apple pie dumplings!

Another incredibly cool place we went was

Fushimi Inari Shrine. This is probably the most famous shrine in Kyoto and it gets incredibly crowded. We went in the evening to avoid some of the crowds. This shrine is well known for its 1,000 gates, some of which are pictured. When walking through this shrine you are able to walk through the mountains. The whole thing can take about 3-4 hours to walk, potentially even longer if you take a lot of breaks.

Some other cool things we did included checking out a sake bar and also going on a spontaneous hike while walking through the Bamboo Grove. There are so many things to do in Kyoto. We cannot wait to go back!