Today, the main thing on our agenda was a day trip to Kyoto. We started by grabbing an American-style breakfast at Optimus cafe, before taking the Keihan line to Kyoto (a super comfy, pretty fast commuter rail).
Our first stop in Kyoto was at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a (very touristy) shrine known for its many red torii gates. We did the ~1hr walk to the top (most of the crowds cleared up after the first set of torii gates); it alternated between dry and light rain most of the way.
The shrine stop took a while, and by the time we were done, it was time for lunch. We took the subway toward our next destination and grabbed some cold soba from Takahashi. From lunch, we made our way towards Nishiki Market.
At Nishiki Market, we tried a bunch of random foods. The highlights were daifuku (fruit + white bean paste inside mochi), curry bread bun (friend bun with curry inside), and matcha warabimochi.
From Nishiki market, we headed towards the Kyoto Railway Museum. We had to fly through the museum since it closed about 45 minutes after we arrived, but it was still interesting to see how Japan’s rail transit has evolved over time (it was interesting to learn that Japan’s various railways have gone through periods with more/less public vs private ownership).
Since it was dark outside at this point, and we were pretty tired from walking around all day, we decided to head back to Osaka. Unfortunately, this was rush hour, so we didn’t have the same luxury experience of the commuter rail that we had when we took the train to Kyoto in the morning.
To end the day, we walked around the shops near Osaka Station, before grabbing conveyor belt sushi and then heading back to the hotel to sleep.
