Too early for Sugari
Back from Kinkaku-ji, we walked the old streets around Shijo towards dinner.
Dinner was Wajoryomen Sugari, a ramen shop hidden at the end of a tiny alley. We figured it would be packed, so being proper kiasu Singaporeans we went damn early to beat the crowd. We got there at 5.30pm. It opens at 6. The door was shut and there was nobody to beat.
So we hung around the back alleys like two lost tourists, and found a dorayaki shop down the street to kill time with.
Snack done, we went back and parked ourselves at the mouth of the alley until the lights came on.
Ramen at Sugari
Six on the dot, and in we went.
Worth the wait we made for ourselves. Thick noodles with a rich dipping broth, chashu and sides, a little under ¥3,000 for the two of us.
Nishiki Market
Then Nishiki Market, the covered food street, and our snack budget went out the window. Prawn sticks, skewers, oden.
The prawn stick, which was huge:
At the end of the market is Nishiki Tenmangu, a little shrine squeezed between the shops.
Tenugui and the Minamiza
Eirakuya sells tenugui, the printed cotton cloths, and we got one. Then the Minamiza, Kyoto’s kabuki theatre, all lit up on the walk home.
Back at Kamuroan, a little row of dolls under the dragon. Onward to Amanohashidate!
Postcard from Shijo Karasuma, Kyoto
A tsukemen shop at the end of a narrow alley a few minutes from Shijo Station, behind a wooden door you'd walk straight past.
PS: Dinner starts at 6pm (lunch 11:30am to 3pm, closed Sundays). Turning up early just means a walk round the block.