2023 February. Still cold, but we could feel spring with plum.
In Japan, especially old Japan, plum is the blossoms which will tell spring has come. Now cherry blossoms are more famous than plum, but plum is the most important blossoms. When we see some plum blossoms, we could feel spring even it’s still cold. February is the month of plum.
This month I did such tours like them.
My tours Feb 2023
4 times “Food tasting tour at Nishiki market”
3 times “Kickstart tour”
1 time “Higashiyama tour”
1 time “Arashiyama tour”
1 time “Bike tour”
1 time “Full day customized tour”
“Food tasting tour at Nishiki market”
(Fish store)
In this food market most popular food is fish. I recommend the sea food best taste for the season at an old fish store. We can eat it at the backside of the fish store, it’s cool experience. Of course many other unique and good foods here. You can eat every foods you want!
(Tiny squid. There are squid eggs in the squid body.)
(Taiyaki(a fish‐shaped pancake filled with bean jam))
“Kickstart tour”
(Yasaka pagoda)
Kickstart tour is 1.5 hours short walking tour. In this short tour we walk on the gorgeous street. One day my guest had a guide book about Japan. The cover page was the place in this tour. It means that Lonely planet thinks this place is the best place in Japan. Not just in Kyoto, in Japan!
(On the Gion area main street)
(Gorgeous scenery with many traditional architectures)
“Higashiyama tour”
(Famous Kiyomizu temple)
Higashiyama is the word Higashi + yama. “Higashi” is “East”, “Yama” is “Mountain”. In Higashiyama area, there are a lot of good places to visit. Kiyomizu temple is one of them, this temple is the most popular place in Kyoto. We will visit to Kiyomizu temple in this tour!
(At the entrance of Kiyomizu temple, with snow falling)
(In front of the famous picture “God of the wind and God of the thunder)
“Arashiyama tour”
(Bamboo forest)
Arashiyama is a poplar area in Kyoto. Many travelers visit there, there are many beautiful places, value to visit.
Usually we visit to the monkey park in this Arashiyama tour, but this month my guests didn’t want to go there because monkey park is on the hill. So I made change about the tour, so we visited main places in Arashiyama and took a taxi to another area in Kyoto. It was fun to change the original plan for the guests. In this tour, we could watch some gorgeous plum blossoms.
(The garden of Tenryuji temple)
(Beautiful plum tree)
“Bike tour”
(Riding in the city)
Bike tour is a kind of an adventure. But don’t worry. It’s quite safe because I’m with you. We will go through some famous places and some of just local places. If you explore Kyoto just by walk and bus and train, you couldn’t visit some places. But with bicycle, you could go anywhere you want!
(At the Kamogawa river bank)
(On the unique stone bridge)
“Full day customized tour”
(Kinkakuji temple, Golden pavilion)
Full day customized tour means totally customized plan. Of course there are basic popular places, I’ll take my guests to such papular places. But full customized plans are different each others. This time I took them to Kinkakuji temple, Fushimi inari shrine and Kiyomizu temple. We took many bus and train, took sushi lunch at my friend’s sushi restaurant. It was so nice lunch, my guests were satisfied with it.
(Tea room at Kinkakuji temple)
(At sushi restaurant)
(1000 red torii gates at Fushimi inari shrine)
(Kiyomizu temple)
“LUNCH”
By the way, in the long hours tour I take a lunch with my guest. Such a lunch is important for the traveler so I always find some nice and reasonable food for them.
Udon noodles lunch at Sijo street
Udon noodles is one of popular dishes in Japan. Kyoto has many good udon noodles restaurant, Omen is one of them. 1280 JPY.
(Udon noodles lunch)
Sushi lunch
On this day my guests wanted to eat sushi for the lunch. There are too many sushi restaurants but pick one of the best might be so hard. I have a friend who is the owner of sushi restaurant. It is so good local sushi restaurant, my guests were satisfied about the sushi lunch. 1800 JPY.
(Sushi lunch)
