Friday, Nov 22
- walk to nishiki market, lots of foods which i don’t much pix for
- then to temple, dragons painting (painted in early 2000s, more recent than i thought lol) and zen garden
- then walk back and somehow navigated buying bus ticket from konbini for first time which i will admit i was v proud of self
- night walk together then late dinner at local restaurant and helped old lady store owner interpret for taiwanese/chinese guests who seemed v hungry and were getting impatient and at the end they were hap and i was glad i could be helpful
houjicha latte! was bit grainier than expected, generally i like, but this time preferred J.’s genmaicha latte, smoother 
J.’s genmaicha latte like wow first time for me and thought must try again and make for self
nishiki market was opening around the time we got there, some yums: slices of homemade smoked duck from a v nice old lady, takoyaki (but was real corn flour/stretchy, more than usual of the ones i’ve had? unclear), late breakfast/brunch of salmon rice bowl (pic had way more salmon rip and small bowl but decent), tasters of these sesame tofu sweet crunchy circles which i don’t think i’ve had since i brought a bag to jordan
stopped through department store, so many nice things in their nice packaging including this yum ‘rich’ (J.’s description v fit) pudding not heavy v light SO smooth 
the old looking building next to the bridge with a view of the river is a beijing food restaurant which none of us expected lol 
kinda just wanted to sit and watch rocks and v crafted garden and breathe air but many tourists (like us) 
keninji temple, zen temple 
little moss miniatures 
solid dragons 
this zen garden 
apparently made of circle, triangle, square to represent origins of earth; square (earth), circle (water), triange (fire)… v interest 
moss miniature of said garden 
i aspire 
many temple 
and many people 
lunch: chicken soba, maybe first time, creamy soup, SO GOOD, also that chicken meat was huge wow v flavor yet fairly light + earl grey milk tea 
dinner: went to a place where you get a home cooking set, you choose three dishes out of the line of bowls she had out… between me + uncle, we chose 6… was real yum and homey 
ok this vertical tissue box holder at dinner tho 
one of the dishes: piman (green bell pepper) and mushrooms 
kyoto style (i think) mackerel sushi, citrusy vinegar? dressing + grated ginger, yum tum 
one of dishes: dashi veg + chicken/pork (don’t rmb oops)
chicken soba was kind of a mini revelation for me today
so was the genmaicha latte ok that really was a bit of revelation
both chicken soba and the mackerel sushi (dinner) were kyoto-style, i think- did not realize that i was so uneducated about kyoto-specific food
at dinner: (anecdote/story time lol)
was eating with cousin+uncle, couple walks in speaking Mandarin to themselves, try to order in Eng, get pretty impatient with old lady store owner who is already frantic running the whole store alone with 10+ guests (luckily a young lady came in to help later), store owner trying to use phone translator and say ‘sorry it’s busy rn lemme get back to you in a bit’, couple getting real impatient and look (to me) almost like they wanna leave, me and J. step in, speaking eng to them, me speaking japanese to the store owner, facilitate a bit explain the menu, then they were hap and yums and store owner thanked us and we thanked her cuz food was good and me and J. walked out like rip our empathy is so tough to not step in esp seeing the store owner so 困っている and troubled but glad it worked out the food was good really felt the store owner deserved a chance from the impatient couple who as uncle said maybe were just hungry ok idk why this anecdote is so long 終わり now
ok wait actually one more anecdote:
was trying to buy bus ticket from konbini machine, all in japanese, somehow found the bus i needed and printed the receipt after many clicking buttons and going to previous page and double triple checking the stops and times, asked the cashier where to pay she’s like here (lol) and then got my ticket and felt so achievement and it was great mini win for language learning
ok now i’m done
chloe eats 
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