We'd always had a visit to Arashiyama on the books and on our last full day in Kyoto, we decided to head out early in the day. We ended up taking the rather fun Keifuku Tram Line to Arashiyama Station.
It was a slightly hazy, but beautiful day....the air so clean. We walked out of the station and headed down what looked like Arashiyama's main street. And walked over to the Togetsu-kyo Bridge.
We headed north alongside the picturesque Oi River and took a right along a rather random street.
And just wandered around a bit.
And somehow ended up at the side entrance to Tenryu-ji temple.
It wasn't very crowded, so we just took in the sights a bit.
We headed out front, looking for the Bamboo Forest. I walked up to a traffic officer and asked for directions to the Bamboo Grove. In the typical Japanese way....he insisted on walking us most of the way there.
It was very pretty....but for some reason, I expected it to be a bit more grand.
I guess having grown up around various bamboo forests......
The place does take some really nice photos though.
Heading back down to the street, we found another entrance to Tenryū-ji. This is the garden area and is quite beautiful.
The Sōgen Pond, which was designed by Zen Master Musō Soseki over 700 years ago, is very beautiful.
By now, we'd had enough for the morning and headed back to downtown Kyoto. We walked around a bit and decided to have lunch at a place I had specifically marked down. We'd really enjoyed Ippudo in Osaka and there just happened to be a location in downtown Kyoto.
Call us boring, but we'd enjoyed ourselves so much on our previous visit to the Osaka location that we basically got the same thing. The Shormaru Special, what I call a classic tonkotsu with chashu and egg. And of course, the Missus got Hakata Chikara Meshi, chashu rice and an onsen tamago.
The broth was nice and rich, but not oily nor too fatty. The flavor is rather delicate. The chashu was tender and nicely flavored, the noodles just perfectly al dente for my taste.
I gave the Missus my tamago....now that's love. And when She cut into it....well, we had a perfect "egg porn shot".
Our meal was the perfect foil for the cool autumn chill.
Ippudo Nishikikouji
653-1 Bantoya-cho, Higashinotoin
Nishikikoji higashi iru, Nakagyo-ku
Feeling nice and warm, we headed on out to do some shopping. We found an underground passageway to Takashimaya Department Store.
Of course this lead right to B1 and the food floor.
We were wandering around the third floor of Takashimaya Department Store and I noticed this.....
Oh my....it was Din Tai Fung!
And there was no line.....
The Missus and I looked at each other......why not, right? We still had a bit of room in our bellies, so we went for a second, rather light lunch.
I was wondering just how good this was going to be. We got the pork and crab version of the Xiao Long Bao. When it arrived, it looked like the XLB on the left had leaked, but it had not. As for the wrappers....well just look at the classic "XLB hang". The wrapper were very nice, for some reason they seemed a bit thicker than the wrapper at DTF here in the states. I really couldn't complain about the amount of soup, nor the flavor (a bit too sweet for me), or the texture. This was pretty good. Much better than anything we have here in San Diego.
The Missus has got to have Her veggies, so we got some greens. Nice and simple, very mildly seasoned.
Din Tai Fung (Third Floor of Takashimaya Department Store)
52 Shincho, Shijo Kawaramachi-dori Nishi-iru
Simogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8001
I guess that's fun part of trips...you make basic plans, but leave time to wander and explore. You never know what you'll run into.
XLB at DTF in Kyoto....who'd have thunk.
Talk about a perfect bowl of ramen. Speaking of lines at DTF, I bet there will be some crazy ones when the one at UTC opens this fall. We're looking forward to comparing it to the ones we've had in HK, Shanghai, and Arcadia.
Posted by: Jason | Saturday, 18 March 2017 at 09:55 PM
have yet to try din tai fung...sounds good!
Posted by: kat | Sunday, 19 March 2017 at 05:32 AM
The temple and bamboo forest look awesome! You pick the coolest places to visit!
Posted by: Soo | Sunday, 19 March 2017 at 07:53 AM
You should see the lines at DTF in South Coast Plaza Jason....one can only imagine what it'll be like when DTF opens at UTC.
Check them out Kat!
We're trying to slowly check off places on the Missus's list Soo.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 20 March 2017 at 07:03 AM
All the DTF locations in Japan are inside Takashimaya stores. I went to the one in Tachikawa last time I was in Japan. No lines there either!
Posted by: Junichi | Monday, 20 March 2017 at 10:25 AM
Good info Junichi. The XLB was pretty good.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 20 March 2017 at 10:40 AM
That looks really good! Now we're craving the Uni and crab roe XLB from DTF over there. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: LL | Thursday, 23 March 2017 at 11:45 AM
Now you got me craving that too LL!
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, 23 March 2017 at 02:54 PM