Reunion! Kyoto Saturday

The night bus ride passed pretty quickly. I’m not sure if I ever completely fell asleep, it’s like sleeping on the plane – that half awake, half asleep state. The bus arrived earlier than planned (7:00) at 6:40am, so I had plenty of time to kill before meeting up with my exchange friends! I first put my bag in a coin locker, found a bathroom to wash up a bit and put on my contacts, and then set off to do some serious café hopping! I had found a lot of places I wanted to go to from 食べログ. The first one was a small little coffee shop quite close to the station, about 5 minutes walk away. On the way there, one of those ID photo taking machines was available, so I quickly popped in to take a photo for my drivers license application on Monday. The coffee shop didn’t open till 8:00am, so I walked to a nearby park and just chilled. Once it became 8:00am, I went back to the coffee shop (Kurasa) and got a hot café latte. It was really good, super smooth and silky and the latte art was very pretty! After that, I walked to the next café on my list for breakfast. This one specialized in coffee and fruit sandwiches! Today’s fruit was melon, and the sandwiches were SO DAMN GOOD. The bread was brioche, and the cream was super delicious, and the melon was cut generously into big chunks, and they were so super juicy! I’m glad I got to Kyoto so early, because it gave me plenty of time to get to these popular places before their opening times. There were already a few people lining up for this café (Ichikawaya) before its opening time of 9:00am. The interior was also super gorgeous, very fashionable, rustic, and cozy. I really enjoyed the fruit sandwiches!

After I finished breakfast, I set off to the touristy area near Kiyomizudera, since that was where my next coffee hunt destination was. I found the truck with no problem (Rocca & Friends) and got the special dessert matcha latte! Very pretty and Instagram-able, and I know (good) matcha is supposed to be bitter, but this one was really bitter haha. After that I browsed around the Ghibli shop in the area, and then walked to Café Bibliotic Hello for lunch with my exchange friends! This café has also been on my “to go” list for quite awhile, ever since I found it on Instagram. They use a lot of fresh veggies in their dishes, and the café interior is also very chic and stylish. They have a large shelf filled with books and CDs making the atmosphere very aesthetic. Spent a while there just talking and catching up. It’s really interesting to hear where everyone is in life, especially with Japanese uni friends, because the way they do things is so different from Western countries. The amount of companies they have to apply for, the many exams they have to take, and the many interviews they have to go to, are just insane. Quite a few of my friends are still doing postgrad too, so there’s that. Everyone is so busy with work though! Japanese people really are just workaholics and they can’t seem to stop themselves. After we finished lunch, we just walked around the streets, went to Kamo-gawa to relax, and then once it got too cold (it was actually legit cold today!) we tried to go to some cafes, but they were all full, so we ended up just sitting inside a department store to talk some more while waiting for some other exchange friends to come.

Had dinner at a Korean place on the food floor of the department store, and then called it a day, said goodbye to my friends, and took the train back to Kyoto station. The hostel I was to stay was super close (only 2 minutes walk from the station!) and also super cheap at ¥3000 per night. I definitely noticed quite an increase in hostels/guesthouses as I was walking around Kyoto today – there definitely weren’t so many cheap accommodation options during my exchange period 3 years ago! It’s nice though, all the hostels I saw looked very cute and clean and tidy. The hostel I stayed was narrow, but tall, and had only one shower we all had to share, but I’d gotten back pretty early (20:30?) so no one was around yet to fight for the shower yay.

The best fruit sandwiches!