Coffee Beans Shop and Bakery

It was rainy today. When I saw Mt.Arashiyama from my place, I remembered a phrase “kumo no hosoku tanabikitaru”(narrow strips of clouds fluttering along the outline of mountains)from Makura-no-soshi；the oldest essay in Japan written by Seisho-nagon about 1000years ago.
  I took the picture of that scene.

I’m always impressed with the scenery  the mountains around Kyoto City make.

I love bread and coffee. I wanted to find a good coffee beans shop and a bakery.

I checked the web and went to Uzumasa to buy coffee beans at Ishida Taiyodo coffee shop.

The owner  said that the coffee roaster was 40years old and the shop was opened 45years ago.

After I bought coffee beans, I went to buy bread at one of the three bakeries on the Kinema street.

I bought some bread for lunch and went home by Randen train.

Though it was not a fine day today, I enjoyed  meeting new shops and new people.

Rural Landscape in Kameoka

The terminal of the train is a 20-minutes  bus ride from JR Kameoka Station, which is at the center of Kameoka City.
   We walked to JR Kameoka. The rural landscape was spreading in front of us. We enjoyed seeing the typical Japanese fields and felt refreshed.

a rice field

JR railroad

After walking an hour, we got to JR Kameoka Station.  Around the station was a  residential area. It was a castle town.There is only a ruin of a castle  but  there remains many temples and old shops.

a rice shop 

Taking Sagano Romantic Train to Kameoka

There is Sagano Romantic Train Station near JR Saga Arashiyama Station. Sagano Romantic Train is a kind of a trolley.

ticket office

route map

I went to the station at 8:00 to get the tickets for a open car of the Sagano Romantic Train.

It takes 25minutes to Kameoka. The train went along the Hozu River, going through many tunnels. We enjoyed beautiful scenery from the train.

It was a lot of fun taking the train.
You should take the train when you come to Arashiyama!

Fireflies and Obanzai

  I heard that we could see fireflies in the city area of Kyoto from mid-May to mid-June.
There are several firefly viewing spots, like
the upper stream of the Kamo River, the Kiyotaki River, and Tetsugaku-no-michi (the philosopher’s road).
  My husband and I decided to go to Tetsugaku-no-michi to see fireflies because  it is in the city area and rather easy to access.
  Tetsugaku-no-michi is near Ginkskuji which is a famous temple in the northeast
of Kyoto.
  Before going to see fireflies, we went to have dinner at the Japanese pub, named “Satsuki”.
   We could eat many kinds of obanzai.
Obanzai is the general name of a la carte in
Kyoto. We ate Japanese omelet, potato salad, tempura,  stewed pork, and etc.

The pub was run by two women. They were very affable. I asked them where we could see fireflies. They said that many people had come to see fireflies, but the number of them had been 

decreasing. Other guests told me that

the season of fireflies in the city area  had ended this year. I was depressed to hear that, but I enjoyed delicious food and  good sake. I would like to visit Tetsugaku-no-michi and see fireflies next year.

Buddha Bowl

After visiting Seiryoji temple, we walked back to Saga Arashiyama and had lunch at the cafe which was at the corner of Marutamachi Street and Kiyotaki Street.
I chose Buddha Bowl because I was very impressed with its naming.
It was not vegetalian food as I guessed.Grilled sermon and vegetables
seasoned with soy sause were on rice.
It was very delicious.

Seiryo-ji temple

Seiryo-ji temple is located near Daikaku-ji temple. It is 10 minutes walk from Saga Arashiyama Station. It is said to have been a second house of Minamoto Toru who was the model of the major character, Hikaru Genji in “the Tale of Genji”.
The temple is not so famous as Daikakuji or Tenryuji in Sagano, but it has very refined buildings and gardens. You can also enjoy seeing many historical relics at Seiryoji.

You should pay entrance fee, 400yen to enter the temple buildings, but it is worth paying the fee to see the beautiful gardens and buildings.

You can do shakyo(copying Buddhism text) in one of the buildings.This is very simplified one, and you should only trace kanji characters printed on paper. So you can experience shakyo very easily.

There is a yu-dofu(hot soybeen curd) restaurant named “Chikusen” in the grounds of Seiryoji temple. You can taste tofu quisine there.