mrpuff26

CI Y: KHH -> KIX

For the remainder of the trip, I traveled only with my aunt. We had a fairly early flight out of KHH. The airport was pretty empty and we were checked in and made it through immigration quickly. Because of how early our flight was, the More Lounge was not even open yet. I was able to access this lounge using priority pass. The lounge is small with really ugly and gaudy furniture. There are a few workstations with computers near the entrance, a small buffet of hot and cold foods, and even a massage chair available. The lounge filled up quickly with people enjoying their breakfast. At this point, I was not completely over my stomach bug so I didn’t have anything other than a glass of water.

KHH shortly after immigration


The More Lounge




I spent a short amount of time in the lounge before it was time to board. CI actually boards from the back of the plane forward. The flight was almost completely full in Y. They did serve breakfast on this ~2-hour flight. I took one bite just to try and it was not very good.



When we landed at KIX, we took a small tram towards the immigration area. This was a nightmare. There was a ridiculous number of people and we spent >30 minutes before we could get through. We picked up our luggage and I headed toward the post office to pick up a mobile Wi-Fi unit that I had rented through Japan Wireless for the week. We then made our way to the train station across from the terminal to take the JR West Haruka train towards Kyoto. This is where I made a bunch of mistakes. I first bought the wrong type of tickets. Then, I jumped on the wrong train and ended up on a local train going to Osaka. After taking the same train back towards the airport, we missed our originally scheduled train. We had no choice but to use our reserved ticket seats in the unassigned seating when the next train was scheduled to depart.

mrpuff26

Kyoto

After that mess of a morning, we finally made it to Kyoto Station.


We took a cab to the Ritz Carlton where we were staying. I had a hard time deciding whether to book the RC or the newly opened Four Seasons. Concerned with possible new hotel service issues, I decided to book the RC after seeing it featured in other people’s trip reports. I had booked the most basic room type through Amex FHR and we were upgraded two levels to the Luxury room type with a view of the Kawagama River. Check in was very efficient and done in the room.










After settling in, we set out on foot to walk around the streets. We ended up around the Takashimaya and ate a nearby BBQ place. It was average. We made it back to the hotel and promptly passed out as we had been up since about 3 in the morning.

offerendum

Looks like diet-food Of course I could resist..... in my dreams

mrpuff26

The next morning, we had breakfast at La Locanda, the Italian restaurant in the hotel. The inside of the restaurant is interesting as it looks like the inside of a Japanese home. We opted for the Japanese breakfast which started with cold vegetables followed by a bento box of a variety of things. Everything was nicely cooked and traditional.





Afterwards, we had planned on visiting a variety of shrines in the town. We were originally going to take public transportation to each site, but ended up taking taxis everywhere as we felt we had too many places we wanted to visit.

The first stop we made was at Kinkakuji Temple



Then we went to Ginkakuji Temple


Followed by Kiyomizu-dera Temple

mrpuff26

We had some time before dinner so we decided to head towards Daimaru and walked around.

Some delicious green tea ice cream.


I found my favorite eclair place from Paris in Kyoto...!


Some tiny apples...


White strawberries aka pineberries. They were pretty tasty...!

mrpuff26

For dinner, we ate at Teppan Mizuki, the teppanyaki restaurant within the RC restaurant Mizuki. The restaurant has only 8 seats. We had a late reservation as they had been booked out until 8:30. When we arrived, the chef and service personnel were waiting for us at the door. We ordered ‘Sawarabi’ set for each person and did some a la carte additions. Everything was very fresh and well-cooked, but the meal was extremely expensive…


Assorted vegetables


Tofu made from peanuts with salmon roe and crab


Wagyu beef sushi


Foie gras


Shrimp


Abalone


Kuroge Wagyu beef


Garlic rice and miso soup


“Les agrumes rafraîchis à la mandarine, granité au miel” by Pierre Hermé Paris

Fa Hz

beautifully assembled dishes, they look yummy!