Kyoto: Last Day

Wow...we finally reached our last day. We first walked back toward Kyoto station to grab some breakfast. We were eyeing Donut Planet, but ended up just down the way at DeliFrance. We shared a cafe latte, cranberry bun and egg/bacon bun.

After we bought our food, they brought out green tea churros! D had to try one, but it turned out not too special.


Outside, people were lined up, waiting for something. We tried to ask the person working at the bakery if she knew what they were waiting for. We couldn't really understand her, but I think she said it was a video game doll, or something like that.

Must have been one special doll!

Afterward we walked to Higashi Hongan-ji Temple.



Next we walked to Nishi Hongan-ji Temple.






While the buildings themselves were impressive, I am sure they would have been a lot more interesting if they had spiritual significance to us. Obviously, they didn't, so I wasn't too sad that we were only able to visit two. Also, both of them were fairly close to our ryokan, so it wasn't out of our way.

Mid-morning snack:

More green tea ice cream!

After picking up some souvenir snacks at Circle K, we picked up our bags and walked back to Kyoto station. We shopped a little, and then ate at Wako Tonkatsu, located in Eat Paradise, a group of restaurants in Kyoto station.
Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) was the last food item on my list of "foods to eat in Japan".


This was also our most expensive meal of the trip. I would say the price for lunch was reasonable, though (we just ate pretty cheap everywhere else). I think the set was around $15 and it came with free refills of miso soup, cabbage and rice. (We didn't even have room for any refills, though). The tonkatsu was just how I expected...light and crispy. We tried the leaner cut and fattier cut and I preferred the leaner, even though it was not as juicy. It was a satisfying meal to end our trip.

We took the shinkansen back to Tokyo/Narita and boarded our plane without any problems. The plane home was a lot more full, so we had another person in our aisle. The trip was also a lot shorter (due to headwinds) and we weren't served as much food, but it was still plenty. We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to travel, and especially grateful that my parents were able to take care of the kids. I think I need one more post to discuss my observations of Japan and post some random pictures that didn't really fit into any of our previous posts. Stay tuned.