Day 17: Matcha and Mario
Kyoto is hot - really hot! We headed out this morning to a tea ceremony near to the hotel. It was fascinating to see the cultural importance that ceremonies like this hold, as well as the intricate steps involved in them, even if I think matcha is pretty gross!
From there, we headed down to the Nijo Castle, historically Kyoto's imperial palace. We had a lovely stroll around some of the buildings and gardens.
By this point, it was roughly 38° in the shade, so we headed back to the hotel to have some lunch and cool down.
In the evening, once the temperature began to level off, we headed out on a little shopping expedition!
After passing through GU, Uniqlo, and Loft (which seemed to be Japanese paperchase), we visited a knife shop to obtain a new kitchen knife! Exciting, I know...
It was really nice to take a stroll through the covered market, and peek into all of the different shops along the way!
Our final stop for the evening was the Nintendo Store - Nintendo's HQ is in Kyoto, so it was exciting to be able to visit their store in the city where it all started. The shop was packed, with die-hard Nintendo fans turning it into a pedestrian version of Mariokart to get to the checkout! It was really great to visit though!
The Nintendo store:
From Mario to Zelda,
There's something for all!