kyoto: day FIVE

Wiley and I beat the boys out the door early this morning to make our way to a nearby flea market. I was so excited for this and got lucky that it was a ten minute walk from our apartment and scheduled for the weekend of our trip. I love flea markets (it runs in my mom's genes) and this one was a lot of fun despite the light rainfall. I had been to a Tokyo "flea market" or shrine sale as they sometimes call them here but it was fancy - more like little outdoor antique stores. The Kyoto version had some of that but it was mostly junky... in a good way. And cheaper.

I got this cool old scale with all the weights in this cute little box for $15! And a bunch of Christmas gifts for folks back home. Walking back to the apartment I somewhat regretted the scale purchase but now that it is back in Tokyo and sitting on my shelf I think the suffering was probably worth it.

 

 

 

We shifted our itinerary around mid-week when we learned that it was probably going to rain on our last day of the trip. We slotted in Nishiki Market which is a covered alley of sorts with vendors selling all sorts of different food items but also some crafts and local goods. The street goes back several centuries and some vendors have kept their stalls in the family for generations. Imagine lots of fruit, specialty pickles, dried foods, fresh fish, grilled meats, fresh soy milk doughnuts, everything sesame, etc. We bought a special knife for ourselves and one as a wedding gift for Mal and Andy. They engraved our last names into the blade of the knife. Guess what? It was also very crowded.
We were tired, we were out of indoor things to do and we decided to head back and do an early dinner. Graham paid one last visit to the onsen and we said goodbye to Kyoto the next morning.

We really loved the city despite its crowds and thought if we could pick we might choose to live in Kyoto over Tokyo. It felt like Brooklyn to NYC or like Austin to Dallas or Houston. Graham had the best orange of his life in the city and I will never forget the spectacular fall colors. It also made us realize that traveling with the kids was doable and fun so here's to many more future trips around Japan!