Sooo... this amazing day happened! Started with a bullet train to Kyoto City, where we ventured some local temples and the Shosei-en Gardens before it was time to board our train to Arashiyama. Navigating our way around wasn't actually too difficult, and we just simply had the BEST day ever. We made sure to stock up on fruit in the morning at one of the supermarkets in Kyoto Station so we had food for the day before the restaurants in Arashiyama.
It was so crazy hot that day that we basically spent the day sweating like crazy, especially after climbing the mountain to see the Monkey Park. I ended up with an iced matcha latte, made with just matcha powder, water and sugar, no milk. The best food came from Shigetsu Shojin-Ryori, super traditional temple food, and all plant based. We were seated on the tatami floors with endless pots of green tea and they just wouldn't stop bringing more food to us! All was some of the tastiest, yet subtle, vegan food I've had in my entire life.
Some of the amazingness included steamed vegetables I had never tried before, sesame dressed spinach and mushrooms, steamed veggies and tofu in an incredible broth, sesame tofu, pickled vegetables, rice and a miso grilled eggplant (not pictured, but in the video) which tasted like melted cheese.
The rest of the footage was cut short due to my CAMERA DYING (RIP) but from there we travelled to Nagoya and drove past a really tempting amusement park. We didn't go.