Good morning Japan, so happy to spend my first ever morning in Kyoto! We didn’t have any breakfast goods in the flat so decided to go out for breakfast, and good grief. This was, without a doubt, absolutely the worst breakfast I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m including corn gruel at -20C in this calculation. Tofukuji, despite being so close to Kyoto main station, had very little that ever seemed to be open. At 8.30am, only one place aside from the convenience store was open, so we went in there, wondering how bad it could be. The menu was incredibly lacklustre, options were toast or shaved ice. I decided to err on the side of caution, and had a shaved ice and cheese on toast. I remember that cheese in Japan isn’t the best but was prepared mentally for crappy cheese, but not so prepared for the monstrosity that was presented to me.

Oh well never mind, let’s carry on to the next temple, Kurama-dera up Mt Kurama (yes I have been calling it Kuruma i.e. car in my mind the whole time!). To get there, we took a Keihan train to Demachiyanagi which took about 20 minutes and then the Kurama train itself was a further 35 minute scenic ride up into the mountain and arrived at the town of Kurama. We walked through the town to the temple, and rode the furnicular (YAY I LOVE THEM) up towards the mountain summit, and wandered around the temple complex. It was beautiful but only slightly cooler up in the mountain, and the 34C heat with high humidity was killing us! Mum had a fortune done and then we grabbed some tori kara age from a little shop (yummy chicken) before getting the trains back down.

In Kyoto station, we stopped off for a drink and a cake, as we’d been on the go since 9.30am and it was now 2.30pm. Mum had a fresh orange juice which she assured me was delicious; I should bloody hope so as it was £6 for a glass! I was reminded of the Simpsons episode where they go to Japan and buy a $100 square watermelon! We also had delicious cakes, I had matcha and white chocolate and mum had a sponge cake with strawberries.

We then went to Arashiyama bamboo forest; everyone says that pictures cannot do it justice, and they really can’t! It’s so ethereal as the bamboo is so tall, the gentle wind makes them knock together and a hollow wooden sound reverberates through the forest. They are all different shades and it’s just a wonderful place to experience.

We followed the path along to Tenryu-Ji temple which is a Buddhist Zen temple built in the 1300s and classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The gardens are beautifully designed and sculpted, with empty space and ornate natural trees juxtaposed by gravel and lakes to provide the negative empty space to compliment the intricacies of nature. The temple itself is a wonderful building built of dark polished wood and large, open, airy rooms with white walls. We stayed there until closing and watched the sunset.

Finally, to celebrate our last night in Kyoto (and indeed last proper night in Japan) mum finally felt ready to go out for her first ever sushi experience, and where better to try it than in Japan! We were looking at several places, including some places near where we were staying, but everything seemed to be shut. We decided to try a little place down a back street called Tomi Sushi and ordered a mixed set as well as some fatty tuna. Mum tried everything, even the octopus, and loved everything except the octopus! Weve also discovered that she loves the pickled ginger and really likes wasabi.

After a gorgeous meal we were ready to head home, so did a scenic route through Gion and along the river, and an old Japanese man appeared from nowhere and started talking to us; it turned out that he used to live in Britain for 20 years, and he was constantly studying English to try and improve it. He fished some ancient bits of paper out his pocket upon which he had written Japanese sentences and multiple possible translations, and asked me to pick the most natural sounding translations. He hugged us goodbye and we went on our way!