Dean & Deluca Café & Restaurant, Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is full of wonderful cafés to chose from. The Starbucks are always full of foreign people but this little New York gem is a place were you find high quality coffee and sweets. Price is the same but wow what a difference! This place is also a restaurant if you crave for some western food for lunch. 4 course lunch for 2200 Yen.
You find the Dean & Deluca store in an old bank building on Karasuma Dori not far from Shijo dori 200 meters up north.

Macha Soba at Aiso in Uji, Kyoto

Outside of Kyoto you find the small city of Uji that is famous for the best tea in Japan. Uji is all about tea used in different ways. Aiso is a restaurant that has been around serving soba made of Macha tea. The restaurant is old and outdated and that is what makes it so charming as well. You can sit in the old building or across the street on tatamifloor rooms overlooking the river. This set of light tempura with some small appetizers and green tea soba cost you 1850 Yen and is good value for money. The taste is traditional and a bit of home cooking.
To get to Uji you take the local JR train from Kyoto Station and to get from the restaurant you walk on Omotesando Street, pass the world famous Byodoin Temple and then by the river you find this small street and just ask for Aiso and everyone knows it! Enjoy your meal!

Ryoanji Rock Garden - Kyoto, Japan

One of the highlights for many people is to visit the Rock Garden Ryoanji in Kyoto. It is a garden made in the late Muromachi Period around 1500 and it was made as a meditation garden. Today being one of the most visited places in Kyoto by both tourists and school trips for Japanese high school students it is a bit hard to find the calm for meditation. However it is a stunning place to visit and time of the year. This photo was taken in the springtime of course but if you are lucky to find the garden covered in snow in January it is even more beautiful. Come here early or late in the afternoon for more time alone. The garden consists of 15 rocks laid out in white gravel only and what they form is not to be known. They think that the garden was made by the master Zen munk Tokuho Zenketsu but we can not be sure.  Don't only look at the stones but the wall behind it that has gotten it's nice patina from the clay being boiled in oil before they made the wall of it. Sit down on the temples stairs and just enjoy looking at this masterpiece of Japanese gardening.
To get here you can take the bus from the Kyoto station and the trip will take you about 30 minutes.
When you go here you also have the Golden Pavilion within walking distance.

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Tsujikura Lantern and Umbrella Shop, Kyoto

Wherever you walk in old Kyoto you find these beautiful lanterns outside the restaurants and shops and sometimes if you are lucky you see a geisha with a traditional Japanese umbrella in her hand, The manufacturer Tsujikura has been in business since 1590 and now the 18th generation is taking care of the production. So if you want to bring home one of these umbrellas or lanterns you should visit their store in central Kyoto next to the Takashimaya department store. It is located on the 7th floor of a modern dark gray building. They come in different prices and some at really good value. The ladies working there are so lovely too!
7F Tsujikura Bldg, Higashi-gawa Shijyo Noburu, Kawaramachi-dori, Tyukyo-Ku, Kyoto 604-80-26
Tel 075-221 4396
Open Thursday-Tuesday 11.00-19.00

LOFT Stores in Japan

If if you like shopping and have once been into a LOFT store you just have to go back every time you come to Japan. These stores sells every little gadget or thing you can just imagine. They are big in stationary, make-up, travel gears and every little imaginable thing for your home you can think of. LOFT stores are to be found all over Japan but you have a big one in Shibuya in Tokyo and one just on Kawaramachi in Kyoto. If you enter LOFT, I promise you will be just another person that walk the streets of Japan with a yellow LOFT bag. 

Katsukura, Tonkatsu in Kyoto, Japan

Tonkatsu is a very popular Japanese dish that consists of panfried pork cutlet, pork filet or prawns. You eat is with cabbage, rice and miso soup together with delicious sauces. Katsukura is a chain of Tonkatsu restaurants in Kyoto. The quality is good and the price is low. This shop can be found at Shijo, Higashi To-In around the corner from Daimaru departmentstore and Armani Excange. No reservations can be made but the phonenumber is 075-221-4191 if you need directions for your taxi driver.

Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is a city that is full of temples and shrines. One of my absolute favorite shrines to visit is the Fushimi Inari. It is located southeast of Kyoto but easily reached by local trains from Kyoto Station to Inari Station on JR Lines in 5 minutes.
The Fushimi Inari was first established 711 but the main structure was built 1499. The shrine is located at the foot of a mountain and the orange tori gates donated by companies and families for greater fortune covers the path that takes you up the mountain. There are over 10.000 orange tori gates and walking under them is great thing to do.  The big walk in the mountain that takes about 2 hours to walk makes a fantastic and almost religious experience. It is beautiful to come in the late afternoon so that you walk under the tori gates that are lit up in the dark forrest.
All over the mountain you find small shrines with small tori gates as well as guardian foxes. These foxes also called Kitsune are regarded as the gods messangers. As an attribute the hold a key in their mouth that is supposed to be the key to the rice granary. Rice used to measure your fortune!
There is no entrance fee to the shrine!

Nishio Yatsuhashi from Kyoto, Japan

Do like every Japanese going to Kyoto and buy Yatsuhashi sweets as your gifts to bring home to everyone you know.
Yatsuhashi is a sweet make by rice flour, sugar and cinnamon. This sweet is filled with everything from traditional bean paste to cherry blossoms to chocolate. The store of Nishio at the entrance to the temple Kyomizudera in the hills of Kyoto serves you free green tea and you can walk around and try all the different kinds of Yatsuhashi before you make your purchases. Nishio started to make Yatsuhashi 1687!
There are many other good producers of Yatsuhashi and are to be find all over Kyoto and even at Tokyo and Osaka Kansai Airport. Enyoy!