Note: I wrote this blog post over the course of the second half of 2024 from June all the way to November where it amassed 155 pages in a Google document. This blog is being released in 8 different parts where each read has lots of content but is digestible without reader burnout: Pre-trip, May 17-19, May 20-21, May 22-23, May 24-25, May 26-27, May 28-29, May 30-31
Here is the link to view the all parts (released/unreleased)
May 20 Monday
This day turned out to be one of the most fun adventure days of the trip before all of the scheduled activities with the main KonMari group. My stay at the Doubletree was ending so it was time to check out and drop my bags off at the Nohga Hotel Kyomizu Kyoto. As I had previously mentioned, I planned accordingly so swapping hotels was a 5 minute walk at most. After dropping my bags off, one of my oldest organizer friends Melissa was arriving in a few hours so there was some time to kill before roaming to Nishiki Market. Since Bree and I got along so well the previous day, she would join the adventure crew this day also. What I ended up doing was cross referencing the group itinerary and would hit anything major that we would not see as a group. This marketplace and other “shopping” ended up being the main items to see this day along with stuffing our stomachs with as much food and beverage as possible.
Of course the morning could have not started without a dose of caffeine. Being the coffee enthusiast I am, I needed to find the best roaster in Kyoto - SOT Coffee Roaster Kyoto. Fortunately for us this was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel. I selected a Ethiopia Tobutu Tuta G1 Experimental bean with Strawberry and Plum notes in the pourover serving method. This coffee was rated 95 by CoffeeReview which meant expectations were high. After the first sip, I was onboard.
SOT coffee roasters
SOT Storefront
One of the many enlightening conversations that Bree and I shared was about coffee roasting, quality, and brewing. I was able to make recommendations to help elevate her setup from a Nespresso machine in order to get quality on-par with this coffee shop everyday with minimal effort.
After arriving back at the hotel, guess what! Melissa had made it there. This was a landmark time since Melissa and I had been friends for about 5 years but we had never met in person. Plenty of video, phone, texts, but just not face-to-face. It’s hard to beat the real thing, especially in this case. Our backgrounds and the way we conduct our businesses are VERY different but we have the best mutual understanding and respect for each other.
Melissa, Bree, and I were ready to start our adventure towards the market! To preface how this day and many other future days of this trip went, my general strategy for travel is to have a general idea of where you want to end up but trust your intuition of where the adventure may take you. This strategy never let anyone down this entire trip.
The first “detour” to the market would be to stop at the Nintendo Kyoto store located on the top floor of a mall. To be honest the store wasn’t that impressive and had a lot of characters that I didn’t know. The best part of the adventure was getting a photo in front of a large Mario and the journey through the mall getting to see a Japanese toy store since Melissa was on the hunt for Legos. The Japanese toy store had infinite amounts of anime models and toys, but no legos.
Kyoto Nintendo Store
After the Nintendo store, we were still headed towards the market, but intuition took us down a random side alley where the first thing we saw was a Micro Pig cafe that almost put us on another detour. After some deliberation and looking at the reservation, we decided to continue on and if we really wanted to do it we could come back later.
About 200 feet later the first actual stop was a mochi donut shop called Koe Donuts. We were hungry anyways after walking for maybe 45 minutes so it was time for the first of many pit stops.
After the Donut shop we finally made it to Nishiki market! This marketplace was a never ending long street of various food vendors. Some vendors sold on the main walkway and some you had to go inside to get service. The first thing that Bree and I wanted were Kobe Beef/Wagyu Sticks that we found near the area we entered at. They were delicious!
Scarfing down the Wagyu sticks
The next item acquired on this market journey was a custard filled Taiyaki
Taiyaki
As we continued to walk our impulsive stop was for draft beer where we got to go upstairs in the eatery to enjoy our beers in a quiet setting after roaming the busy marketplace. Sorry no pictures of this…too busy consuming.
As we had a slight buzz at this point as we were strolling through the market, it was time for some caffeine again. We saw this couple taking a silly looking video for social media on this staircase leading up to a cafe. Jokingly, I reenacted the video for fun but it actually led us into the cafe called 2D Tearoom Baw. The design of the inside was painted like a 2D room and I had a croffle (croissant waffle) and tea that was to die for.
2D Tearoom Menu
2D Tearoom dining area
As we continued….There was a place that was serving 100 yen sake out front. Why not, it became sake time. We all did a shot of sake out front and then strolled through the place where we got fried chicken and sushi too. This was probably the best detour of the day and became the birth of team Sake Bomb.
Team Sake
After multiple hours of roaming through the market that started to look the same after hundreds of stores we made it to the end. I can definitely say I was pretty wiped at this point and was ready to start roaming back to the hotel…however the Gion District Hanamikoji Street was along the way back. We did not have any group activities planned here besides a dinner. Hanamikoji street looked like it could have been a different century. Everything was “old” but “new” and well taken care of. For some reason there were also many signs saying “no photos” allowed which I later on learned it was meant for the side alley streets and this was also where many of the Geisha performing artists worked. I had read many articles such as this one stating that tourists were banned in this area on certain side streets for harassing the performers but all I ended up seeing were the no photo signs…I have no photos of this street because I didn’t want to do anything risky or violate any regulations. Along the way back to the hotel, there was another garden/temple that was encountered called Kenninji Temple.
Kenninji Temple
A side note from the journey back to the hotel was I was leading the group down a bunch of side streets to get back to the hotel. I want to say everyone was pretty skeptical about where we were going, however we popped out a side alley that was literally right next to the hotel. I can say that this was the exact moment trust was fully earned in me leading groups in foreign countries.
After some R&R team Sake Bomb ventured to an Yakitori restaurant called Torisei. This palace was so charming and sat less than 15 people total where the cooks made everything right in front of you. I ordered one of the set meal dishes and ended up being delicious.
Torisei Yakitori
The night was not over as Melissa and I continued on to get some adult beverages at a bar called Sake&Beer BAR WindMill. This bar was soooo interesting as they had American classic rock music playing and TV screens of concert videos. There was also a large classic rock CD collection where you could request to play albums or songs. We tried a multi-flight taster of cold Sake where the bartender hand-selected what we got to try. They all ended up being delicious and this was the moment I became a real fan of cold sake rather than the cheap/hot stuff in America that’s used for Sake bombs.
Bar WindMill Sake
This was the final stop of the night as it was time to stumble home and get ready for the first official day of the KonMari retreat on Tuesday.
May 21 Tuesday
I started this morning with breakfast at the hotel and it was the first time I had actually eaten breakfast on this trip so far. The breakfast selection was a variety of pastries and breads that were baked in=house along with British-style egg dishes. I recall having breakfast with Meera from the Los Angeles area. She was part of the previous bamboo forest day adventure but getting to chat with her was super awesome this particular time as she was newly certified and had so much drive and determination to hop right into her business.
Around 9 am we met with the group and got introduced to our tour guide for the week, Aki! I would later on come to realize how good of a guide Aki was as she had a wealth of knowledge about every single place we would visit and her command of the English language made my experience as streamlined as it could be. Nothing ever got lost in translation with her the entire trip and saying goodbye to her at the end of the week was the start of some of the hardest goodbyes.
After breakfast, we hopped on the bus to visit the Golden Temple called Kinkaku-ji. The temple had 3 different levels representing various architectural periods. The first floor was Shiden style with lots of wood pillars and white plaster walls - no gold on this level. The second level was Buke style which was what samurais lived in and covered in gold leaf. The third level has a Chinese Zen Hall style with a golden phoenix on top.
Golden Temple Kyoto
Some quick notes was this place was tourist crazy! You couldn’t walk anywhere to have a peaceful moment to take everything in. The temple is around a beautiful pond/garden area that is blocked off. Off to the side of the temple was a Ship-shaped pine tree along with the Abbot’s Quarters. On the path out of the temple, we were able to participate in incense and candle lighting - I really enjoyed this experience!
Incense lighting at Golden Temple
After the craziness of the temple, the next stop on the bus ride was a special lunch and garden viewing at Sennyu-ji Shariden Temple. In terms of crowds you could say this place was the exact opposite of the Golden Temple. There were barely any tourists at this place. We were the “special guests” of the day and were greeted by the staff where we would encounter the White Monk from Florida (Kenmei Foxworth). This temple traditionally hosts many famous people and foreign dignitaries and we got the same experience as many of them. We went into an area of the temple where tables were lined up for lunch. This was one of the most impactful lunches of my life as Kenmei mentioned to us as we consumed this traditional buddhist lunch to be mindful about the environment around us and food we were eating. We all ate in silence versus talking with each other and this is something I have incorporated into some of my current meals where I would have the TV or music on in the background.
Sennyu-ji Shariden Temple Buddhist Lunch
After the lunch, Kenmei answered some questions about how he ended up becoming a monk and ended up at this school which you can watch his Ted Talk here. My biggest takeaway was learning about Esoteric Buddhism and how everything we do is interconnected to the community around us and to find purpose in our lives. We got to then tour the garden at the temple and have more mindful moments about what we were experiencing, seeing, hearing. This was also where I got my first fascination with stones and rock pebble patterns.
Sennyu-ji Shariden Rock Garden
The next stop on the journey was Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. This is the head Inari shrine and is the Shinto shrine with all the orange torii gates that line up in a row. The entrance was an uphill walk where we passed through multiple large torii gates where Aki said we needed to go on the sides and not the center and also bow each time we passed through. This place was BUSYYYYYYYYY. We got a quick history and then got to roam through the grounds on our own for about 30 minutes. Although this is one of the biggest tourist spots that people visit in Kyoto, this was a more of check the box spot as it was just hard to take it all in with how busy it was along with the limited amount of time we had here.
Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine (Red gates)
One of the highlights after the shrine was stopping by an ice cream shop along the shops back to the tour bus and was a much desired treat for everyone since it was HOT that day. Kaulani and I were one of the last people to get our ice creams! Since this is your first time meeting Kaulani, he is from Hawaii and is one of the funniest people that I encountered on the trip and also one of the few males in this space. At any given point there are only 5 or 6 males at a time that are certified over over 500+. If you look at my shirt you can tell I've been sweating for hours too in the photo.
Kaulani and Michael getting Ice Cream
The day was not over yet as our next stop was visiting Komyo-in Temple for some private activities that Takumi (Marie’s husband) had arranged for us to participate in. When I think back on my trip, this temple was one the top experiences for me. We divided up in groups and my first activity was a traditional japanese tea ceremony in a tatami floor room. We got to meet Yoshi who would prepare the matcha for each of us individually and we all sat on the floor and got to enjoy each other's company (mainly in silence) during the process.
Tea Ceremony
The second activity that we would participate in was a Zazen meditation session led by the head monk of the temple. We all sat on the floor and focused on our breath and let emotions, thoughts, and sensations arise as we overlooked a beautiful zen garden. After a day of non-stop “go” my mind was able to slow down and the silence let me be mindful about my own life and many thoughts/events that led up to this moment of me being here at this very moment. Sorry no photos from this meditation as I was in the ZONE. We also got to meet the head gardener Makoto Kitazawa who has designed some famous gardens all over the world and he walked us through his thoughts and inspirations for when he creates a garden. This was one of the top gardens that I got to witness below.
Zen Rock Garden @ Komyo-in Temple
Our final activity of the evening was dinner at Gion Kyoryori Hanasaki in the Gion district that we had visited the day prior. This was the first official dinner of the retreat and there were so many courses from this traditional japanese meal. The team really knocked it out of the park with this. This meal also had entertainment from a Geisha singer!
Gion Kyoryori Hanasaki Meal
Geisha Entertainment at dinner
After dinner was where we discovered the Ren from Malaysia was the SELFIE MASTER which would hold true the entire rest of the trip. She is one of the most kind and warm souls that I have met.
Ren is the SELFIE group photo master!
The night was not over without a nightcap though. Our hotel had a rooftop bar CICON Rooftop Bar where some of us got some delicious Japanese Whisky!
