Geishas, Shabu-shabu, and Shopping
After resting for a few moments back at the hotel, we headed out for Gion, a famous geisha district. The district itself looks rather plain at first, especially in comparison to the dazzling lights coming from the nearby shopping and nightlife district. Upon further inspection, we found lots of dining options and shops, and we even spotted a geisha! We were not fast enough with the camera, though. Oh well! I’m sure a google image search will produce a few photos if we somehow forget what they look like.
We set out with the intention of finding a shabu-shabu restaurant for dinner - we had read about this kind of hot-pot meal and we were hoping to try it while in Japan. Our hopes were dwindling when we stumbled upon a small restaurant in Gion serving shabu-shabu steak…Mmmmm!
The restaurant was what you would expect to find here - tatami mats, low tables, waitresses in kimono. Our food was served promptly, and our waitress was kind enough to explain the shabu-shabu process to us. Here, allow me to demonstrate:
Watch Sommer demonstrate Shabu-shabu.
Looks tasty, huh? Trust me, it’s delicious and fun! We’re trying to figure out how to do this at home. Our waitress was in love with Casey’s moustache (or maybe just Casey…?), and she kept coming by to pay a compliment or stare in wonder at his handlebar curls. I took a picture of Casey and his #1 Japanese fan before heading back out into Gion.
Gion is situated near Yasaka Shrine, but we figured it would be closed since it was 8pm. We saw a few other people walking up the steps and figured we’d follow. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the shrine was not only open, but all of the lanterns were lit. We’ve seen quite a few shrines during our travels, but we’ve never seen a shrine after dark. It’s so beautiful at night, and it’s so nice to see all of those lanterns being used. I had always wondered if they were just for show. Now I want to go back to Nara at night!
We took the long way back to the hotel through Pontocho, and we ended up stopping in lots of unique little shops. Kyoto is a great place for shopping because stuff here is actually affordable, unlike Tokyo where everything was upscale and expensive. It’s still overwhelming because there are so many options for every item - want a pair of socks? There’s an entire store just for socks. In the mood for a strawberry sundae? I challenge you to pick just one:
Once we reached our sensory capacity for the night, we located a subway station and headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow is another adventure around Kyoto - it looks like weather/construction/time will be prohibiting us from visiting Himeji Castle…maybe next time.
