Kyoto

2 Jul 2025

Even though we’re staying in Osaka, we’ll be heading up to Kyoto today for an indigo dyeing class!

I woke up bright an early just after 5am- the downside to an early bedtime, and lazed for an hour or so before rolling out of bed and down to breakfast.

I wasn’t sure how late Jill was out, or when she usually gets up, but I was hungry so I shot her a message and went down to breakfast.  Japanese breakfasts are more savory than I’m used to- think soups and noodles and rice and meat, though there were some rolls and canned fruit.  I tried a little of everything and while nothing was bad, it wasn’t very filling.  Enough to last me to a convenience store to try some more new foods 🙂

Jill came down as I was finishing my breakfast so we got to catch up on her trip so far and go for a walk around town:

I first noticed in Tokyo that manhole covers had beautiful designs on them, but was too thrown by my first Japanese interaction that I neglected to take a picture of them so here’s the first of many covers:

We hashed out the plans for today, which included putting me in charge of transportation.

Yikes!

I mean, I was the one who found the dye shop way up in Kyoto, and I managed to get to Osaka on my own without getting lost so it’ll be fine- Google Maps pretty much walks you through everything you need to do, from which platform your train will be at to how many stops you’ll be on, from when to get off and where to either transfer or exit- it really does a good job, so I know I can do it, it’s just a little intimidating being in charge of a whole group!

And one thing I did not account for with a larger group is extra time…

I told them we needed to leave at a certain time, and the last of the group finally trickled down 5-10 minutes later.

Shoot.

Then I realized on our walk to the train station that I had forgotten my template- I wanted to draw a whale shark on my shirt and had printed and packed an outline to use, but I didn’t want to make us even more late by running back to grab it, though looking back, I probably could have run back to the hotel and caught up with the group before they got to the station- plus we loaded up the directions on several phones, just in case, and they needed to buy physical tickets (only Jill is using the digital pass like me), so they would have been fine.

Unfortunately, as we approached the station, our train was pulling away.  I didn’t catch it at the time, but the next train was a local train, not the express one I planned on taking, so it stopped at every. single. station. which took FOREVER, plus it didn’t actually go all the way to where we needed it to, so we had to get off and catch a different one (which my phone, that still thought I was on the express train, didn’t tell us to do, but everyone else’s phone did).

I don’t remember if we grabbed the express one or a different local one, we just took the first one that showed up and kept inching our way up to Kyoto.

I did email the shop owner apologizing that we’d be late, but lesson learned: always leave extra time when traveling with a group!

The walk may have been slightly longer than advertised (mostly because I didn’t want to deal with having to switch trains (which we ended up having to do anyway) or figure out busses):

but the group were pretty good sports about it and fortunately it wasn’t too hot yet

We eventually made it up to Roketsu Studio, only like 10 minutes late, which still bothered me, but wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected:

We’ll spend the morning here learning about the indigo dyeing process:

There was another group that arrived before us- they had already picked their patterns and started tracing them in wax.

Since I didn’t want to freehand my whale shark, I decided to go with some traditional bamboo on a t-shirt; Jill opted for a tote bag, which also got bambooed (on one side anyway).

Once you trace the pattern once with hot wax, you go over it again, making sure the wax goes all the way through the material (or not, if you want some shading or lightly dyed areas).

Then it’s time to dye them!

We suited up- boots, aprons, sleeves and gloves, and dunked our items in that rectangular tank for 8.5 minutes- stirring the tank and making sure everything stayed submerged.

Then they were removed, put in one of those round pail-looking things on the left, which was actually a spinner, to remove the excess dye:

Next they get boiled, which melts the wax off, leaving an undyed pattern behind.  Once all the wax it melted away, the items moved to that second pot, which contains soap to remove any excess dye.

Then a series of 3 rinses before going back in the spinner (a different one, to prevent any dye transfer). Everything was still kind of damp, so they bagged them up for us and voila! We’re done!

(I forgot to take a picture of my completed shirt, so I’ll add it here later)

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Since we had a bit of downtime while waiting for the other group to dye their things, I did a bit of research into the Kyoto bus system and it’s actually quite easy to use! A visit to Yaksaka Pagoda/Higashiyama District was on Jill’s list of things to do here, and the bus offered the most direct route, so we split off from the rest of the group and headed across town.

I didn’t take pictures, but we stopped at the local FamilyMart for lunch, where I got another onigiri/rice triangle- pickled plum this time, which was a little sweet, a little vinegary- pretty good! as well as an Aquarius drink, which tasted like a white Gatorade (probably my favorite flavor) but less sweet.  I picked up a Pocari Sweat later in the day to compare and they’re quite similar, though the Pocari Sweat is a bit more grapefruity.

The bus stop had this helpful ticker that counted down how many stops away your bus was!

This bus has a flat fare- something like Y230 per ride, regardless of where you’re going, so you just hop on, ride it to where ever you want to go, then tap your IC card when you get off. So easy! I had been nervous about trying to figure out the bus system in addition to trains, but at least here the bus is pretty simple.

This is Yasaka Pagoda:

It, like so many of the temples and structures here, was destroyed and rebuilt many times since its initial construction in the 6th century.

The temple it was associated with is no more, but the streets surrounding it still hold that olde tymey charm:

Really wish I would have brought my umbrella along- I packed one, but didn’t bring it today- it would have come in handy to have some portable shade!

We did pop in and out of a few of the shop- the ceramics were especially cool!

and we found a chopstick store where you could get your name engraved on a set of chopsticks (I was really tempted but didn’t know if I’d actually use them; Jill bought 2 sets 🙂 )

Gardened graveyard:

So… what are you supposed to do with your trash then?

Nio-mon, the main entrance of Kiyomizu-dera Temple:

This massive gate was burned down in the 1400s, rebuilt in the early 16th century, then completely taken apart, refurbished and repainted in 2003!

Sai-mon, west gate:

another angle:

This one, along with the bell tower below, was reconstructed last in 1633:

Cool details:

In my head, this was a really cool shot, but in actual execution, my phone’s camera couldn’t handle the sun and totally blew out the background:

I just liked the way the old temple framed the city beyond:

Three-story pagoda:

which was also reconstructed in 1633

Overlooking Kyoto:

We wandered through this gate, away from the throngs of people:

Roof details!

Found a little koi pond:

(again, my phone didn’t know what to do with the sun)

Thousand stone Buddhas:

some of these were really old and worn, others looked quite new.

And this really old stone with strangely curvy inscriptions:

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Here’s where I messed up.

We could have gone into this temple, but it cost Y500, plus my goshuin stamp would have been another Y500… or we could hop the bus and visit the nearby Fushimi Inari Shrine, with its famous red torii gates and free entry!

I wasn’t thinking- the dyeing class ended up taking longer than expected and it’s almost suppertime. We haven’t really eaten yet.

Plus, as we were walking to the bus stop, the sky darkened, thunder rumbled and the clouds let loose.

Really wish I had brought my umbrella!

So we ducked into a 7-11 where Jill bought an umbrella and I grabbed a snack:

I did not get (or trust) these shelf-stable meats- there were hotdogs, a fish sandwich, pizza (with corn?), some sort of minced meat pie…

yeah, no. I snagged this mint chocolate chip loaf instead:

and it was incredible! Somehow, the mint was actually cool, it was super fluffy- 10/10, would eat again!

We decided to cut our losses and just head back to the hotel:

but I noticed on the map that Nintendo world was right next to the train station, so we had to check that out!

No pickles 🙁

Why is this fish trapped in a bubble!?

(it was a pretty cool store, but it was crowded and I felt weird taking a picture with so many people around)

We also hit up a Disney store, since it was right there, and checked out a used game store looking for Skylanders (no luck Matt, sorry!)

Then, after a long day of walking, we finally hopped a train back to Osaka:

This part of town was quite lit up and we passed quite a few casinos/pachinko parlors:

Unexpected, but fun!

Nighttime lid, with color!

And since we still really hadn’t eaten, and this McDonald’s was on our path back to the hotel, we decided to stop- sometimes foreign McD’s have fun sandwiches (though I don’t know about that Shrimp Filet-O):

I ended up getting this teriyaki burger, which was messy, and made with a pork patty (unexpected), but not terrible? A Lemon Squash shake, which mostly tasted like a very lemony cleaner, not sure where the squash factored in, and a macaroon, which was supposed to be raspberry, but they gave me a chocolate one instead. It was ok, but I’m not not a big fan of chocolate. Jill finished that one for me 🙂

That green soda was Jill’s drink- a melon soda which, despite the whole “I don’t really like melon”, was pretty decent. She also got a standard cheeseburger which was far superior to US cheeseburgers- their ketchup is different, spicier, but not in a hot way, just more flavorful and the sandwich just tasted a bit more… real?

Authentic Japanese meal? Nope! Fun way to end a long day? Definitely!

I’m gonna sleep well tonight!