7-Nichi-me/ Day Seven: Night Time Snacks in Nishiki Market

After a traditional Japanese breakfast at the Hakone Hotel, we’ll take the bullet train/Shinkansen to the historic, serene area of Japan which is Kyoto. Exiting the station, we’ll check in and get settling to our Kyoto hotel (which we’ll be staying at for 4 nights). Our choice for our hotel is Best Western Hotel Kyoto, since it’s fairly inexpensive (at around 92 CAD per night for 2 adults), and it’s a 5 minute walking distance from all of the main attractions in Kyoto.

Since it’ll be close to evening by the time we get settled into the hotel, there’s still a great amount of time to explore the shopping area along side Shijo Street (a 5 minute walk from the hotel). The shopping in Kyoto is very unique, and has a mix of modern, high end fashion shops to historical shops selling traditional ornaments.

Also found in the area is Nishiki Market, a great food market (otherwise known as ‘Kyoto’s Kitchen’). This market has all types of food from fresh seafood, produce, to cooking utensils like cookware. It’s also a great place to sample Kyoto specialities such as Japanese sweets, pickles, dried seafood and sushi (Although I’m not a huge seafood, the others will be in heaven!). Some of the shops even give out samples of dishes and skewers (I guess that answers where we’ll be having dinner!). If we like the food enough to buy, attached to the stores are usually sit down establishments, where we can sit down and actually have a meal right in the middle of the Market.

If we aren’t crazy dead tired, we can go to the alleys of Pontocho to experience Kyoto’s nightlife.