Lazy day in Kyoto today. Nothing on the agenda today. We took our time getting ready to leave the hotel in the morning, and headed out at about 10am. I think Kyoto is my favorite Japanese city. The pace of the city is slower, the people are friendlier and the city seems alltogether easier to get around. If any city feels like "home" in Japan, it would be Kyoto. We set out towards the main shopping area in Kyoto today, and started our walk through one of the 2 parallel covered shopping streets, Shinkyogoku-dori. Along with all of the usual shops, this shopping centre was quite unusual because down one side, every 100m or so was an ancient temple, or shrine, or ancient cometary. At one of the shrines, I walked down a pathway between two shops, and the pathway opened up to a large open area containing old houses, a very old looking temple, and a stone tori gate, through which was a shrine among the weeping willows. On the other side of the square was a very old looking belltower, with a large cast iron bell, which looked like a smaller version of the one I witnessed being rung at 6am yesterday morning in Takayama. It felt like we had stepped back in time to ancient Japan. Aside from us, a solitary elderly couple were present in the square. The woman stood back, while her husband silently bowed and worshiped at the steps to the temple. We continued down to the end of the shopping centre, with Veronica stopping at every 100 yen shop that we came across. Some fantastic bargains can be found in these shops for 100 yen, or $1. We walked around to the other market, Teramachi-dori. We walked up there, and stopped at a very busy crepe shop, which served crepes in every variety imaginable. I had a chilli cheese hot dog crepe, and Veronica had a banana, chocolate and custard crepe. The crepes were $2.90 each. After we had eaten, we were stopped by some familiar faces. John and Robyn, with who we had traveled in the train from Takayama the day before, and had coffee with at Kyoto station yesterday afternoon after the train trip, had decided that they would spend the afternoon walking through the shopping district too. They were staying in the Kyoto station area, which is a 10 minute subway or bus ride from our hotel, so it was a one in a million chance that we bumped into them again in all of Kyoto. At the end of Teramachi-dori was a shop that interested me. A butcher. Nothing special, just a butcher specialising in beef. He seemed to deal exclusively in the fatty marbled Wagyu style beef. Whether or not it was genuine Wagyu I'm not sure, as all of the signage was in Japanese, but I suspect that the cuts of meat on the inside of the shop were genuine. Coming from Australia, where a steak isn't a steak unless it is at least 500g, these cuts of meat were very small. Also, the prices were a little confusing, as I'm used to buying steak by the kilogram. I knew steak was expensive in Japan, but the prices displayed were reasonable. 1800 yen, 2200 yen and 2600 yen were the typical prices of the steak in the window. $18 - $26 per kg seemed like very reasonable prices for steak. The hamburger mince and stew style offcuts were even cheaper. These ranged from about 315 yen. Only then did I realise that the prices were quoted per 100 grams, not per kg. $260 per kg was a little less reasonable. And $35/kg for hamburger mince? As I ventured inside the shop, there were fillets of what I assume was Wagyu at 6300yen/100g, or (at the current exchange rate) about $750 per kilogram. An elderly woman sat at the back of the butcher shop behind a counter, with various sauces and a very sharp looking knife. She was the person to see if you wanted beef sashimi. Basically, you could walk in, buy your eye-wateringly expensive steak, and give it to her straight out of the display case, and she would delicately prepare it as sashimi, and serve it back to you. Raw $750/kg steak? Um, no. I would have dearly loved to try some of the steak from this butcher, but not for $750/kg, and I'm pretty certain I would have preferred it to be cooked. Attached to the butcher shop next door was a restaurant dealing exclusively in beef. Prices on their menu were in the 6000 - 9000 yen range for 100g of beef to be prepared for you as a meal. Naturally you could order your meal with as much steak as you wanted. So for a 500g steak meal you could realistically be looking at a $500 lunch. Plus $1.50 for a coke. After the shopping, we returned to the hotel for an afternoon nap. For dinner, we decided to set out and look for the Coco curry house, which was apparently somewhere to the north-west of our hotel, between the Imperial Palace and Nijo castle. We wandered through the backstreets, and emerged at the Imperial Palace wall, and walked west toward the street that Nijo castle is on. Unsuccessfully we searched for the curry shop. The Coco curry website was no help, as the store locator simply didn't work. It said that there were no stores in Osaka or Yokohama, which was a little strange as we had eaten at Coco curry restaurants in both cities. Defeated, we walked back towards the hotel, and settled for our faithful 24hr vending machine restaurant next door to the hotel. So basically we walked for 45 minutes to arrive next door to the hotel. But, we had to try, and if we couldn't find Coco, this restaurant was equally as good. We are almost regulars at the 24hr shop now. When we walked in, it was as crowded as I have ever seen it. The fact that it was 7:30pm probably didn't help. But we got a bench table, and were moved to a table of 4 once it was freed up. The speed that the meals are prepared and served means that customers are turned over very quickly at this restaurant. This gives 3 distinct advantages: 1. The food is always fast and super fresh, and 2. There is never a long wait for a table, and 3. The prices are very cheap because the turnover is so high that they can justify a lower margin. Basically it isn't the type of restaurant where you sit for hours and enjoy the ambiance over a glass of wine. You enter, pay, sit, eat and leave. And with 2 kids this suits us perfectly. And 4 meals for under $20 doesn't hurt either. Across the road to the 7-11 with our coffee supplies for tomorrow morning, and returned to the hotel room. We are heading out very early in the morning to go to the Toji temple markets. Apparently one of the biggest (and most crowded) markets in Japan, and apparently a fantastic place to get a super bargain such as kimonos and other touristy bric-a-brac. The markets are held on the 21st day of every month, and brings in vendors and shoppers from all over Japan. Conveniently, it is on the day before we go home, so anything we buy we don't have to cart around for too long. If the markets are anything like the write-ups I've read, I think we may buy a lot of stuff.