More Kyoto adventures, my absolute favourite places are the ones far into the mountains (a short treck out from the city) The beautiful philosophers path is always worth a wander down (even if the heat is crazy) and it was here we stumbled across a tiny cafe which looked like it had been there for a long time and had amazing adzuki bean matcha kakigori ♡
Near the path is the incredible nanzengi temple, a super ancient entirely wooden place which you can climb to the top and see a gorgeous view of trees and mountains from every angle, its so spiritual and I felt totally in fairyland being so close to nature, it was one of my favourites last time I visited felt I had to come back!
A little further down is Heian Shrine, the setting for a few of the clips in Sofia Coppola`s Lost in Translation (anyone who knows me well will know how much love I have for her dreaminess). The gardens didn`t disappoint and were one of the most magical places I have ever been, even more atmospheric was the sound of crazy rumbling thunder overhead (although luckily it didn`t rain!)
After all our trekking we found an adorable all vegan cafe (where one of the other diners had a pet racoon!!!), and I devoured this gigantic bowl of homemade tomato vegetable ramen - it was run by two little old ladies and took them so long so make, but we always prefer these kind of local run places to anywhere touristy, and the atmosphere was perfect to relax and escape the crazy 38 degree heat for a few hours!
& of course no trip to Kyoto is complete without doing the walk up the mountain surrounding the fushimi inari shrine ♡
Some cheeky Kyoto puricura was also a must ♡
Finally a little bit on Kyoto nightlife (which I`d love to explore more as it seems there are hidden gems the more you explore. We`re not usually one for Izakaya`s either, but on a friends recommendation we visited this (almost all vegan!!!! one!) - (with a huge cheap organic wine and beer menu!!) & devoured several `vegan cheese and meat` pizza`s amongst other crazy snacks that were unlike anything I`ve had before!
This guy`s bar was also a little gem, recommended by one of my good friends he had some super yummy Shochu and even cooked me up some edamame in a little pan behind the bar when I asked if he could come up with any vegan bar snacks ♡
Finally I think Craig`s favourite was the craft beer Izakaye we visited (who also catered for us with a special little salad) Kyoto has quite a big craft beer scene and although we visited a couple of bars this one definitely won for atmosphere, and was worth the long walk and numerous attempts with google maps trying to locate it!
More bits to come on Arashiyama & Nara soon! Lots of love! x x x x ♡
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