dailydelicious: Travel with dailydelicious: Kyoto (3) Kyoto with a view and sweetness

(view from Shougun-zuka- 将軍塚青龍殿)

It's the last day in Kyoto, (I didn't want to gooooooooo!!!!), today we waked up early because we planed to go to Mt. Higashiyama to see Shougun-zuka.

Before going out, we stopped at small bakery "Orenopan- オレノパン" in the Kyoto station.

This small bakery was full of delicious bread, we bought some bread and started walking to get our taxi.

Afraid that I couldn't find good coffee outside, I bought a cup of coffee from Inoda coffee (イノダコーヒ ) to find out that it's delicious (and expensive, haha).

With a ride on Sightseeing taxi we reached our destination in less than 20 minutes, and the place was Shougun-zuka- 将軍塚青龍殿.
We asked the driver about how to get back from this place, and he said that it's better to let him wait
(we had to pay the waiting fee), or we had to walking down the hill for 20 minutes to get the taxi by ourself.
We chose to follow his advice (to find out that it's one of the best decision that we made on this trip).

This place is on the north of Shijo on Mt. Higashiyama. The Seiryu-den (青龍殿 ), it was build in 1913 as the Kyoto Branch of Japan Federation of Martial Arts' training gym.

The main event for us was the Obutai (大舞台) or the Observation deck, that was constructed out from Seiyu-den. The total area is 1046 sq.m (very large!), and the view was stunning.

You can overlook Kyoto city, Mt.Hiei, Heian Shrine and Kyoto Imperial Palace from the deck.

Let see Panorama view of the Obutai

This glass tea room, is on the Obutai, it used for movie and drama more than in real life ^^ (this information is from the Taxi driver, who came with us as a guide into the Shougun-zuka, 茂手木さん、ありがとうございました).

View of Heian Shrine from Obutai.

It's cold but we're so happy, the view was beautiful even it's cloudy.

After spending time taking (a load of) photograph, we walked pass the "Shugun-zuka" .

"Shugun-zuka" is a mound about 20 square meters in diameter, and the capital of Kyoto started from here. It's the place where Emperor Kanmu climbed to see the area and decided to move the capital to Kyoto in 794. He buried the statue of a shogun (a general), in this mound and prayed for the peace of the capital.

Seiryu-den from the west observation platform.

From the west observation platform, you can see more of the Kyoto and on a sunny day (we're not lucky enough) you can see the buildings of Osaka too

Not only the view from the observation deck or observation platform, the garden is famous from the autumn leave (紅葉）and cherry blossom (there are about 200 cherry blossom trees here). Well, we're here in winter so we missed bout of them, haha, but I wish I can come back here both in autumn and spring.

Beside from natural beauty, the garden will be illuminated from sunset during Autumn and Spring too (really want to be there!).

We spent almost 40 minutes here, I was so happy and took the photo of everything, haha.

Now, it's time to say good bye to this amazing place, and I made my promise that I will come back again in Autumn.

We got back into the Taxi, and it's time for another destination. At first we wanted to go to アサンブラージュカキモト（ASSEMBLAGES KAKIMOTO) after the driver checked his map, he told us that the shop was closed today, so we had to find new place for sweet.
I remembered that last night Sensei suggested us one of famous Japanese style sweet shop, so we decided to go there instead.

Because Kyoto is a historical city, many chain restaurants or shops have to make some adaptation on their logos or theme. For the example, you can see from this photo that the color of McDonald's is not same as other places, in Kyoto most of the McDonald's are black and white (some are dark brown), not red and yellow because they are not allowed to use that!

Closer view of Heian Shrine Torii, the one that we saw from Obutai.

And now, we're arrived at the place called "Toraya- 虎屋菓寮京都一条店". It's the main shop of the legendary Toraya wakashi (和菓子) shop.

It founded in Kyoto in the late of Muromachi period (室町時代 - around 1586), it means this sweet shop is more than 400 years old!

With beautiful Japanese style decoration, this is the place where you can sit and relax.

There are a lot of seats outside to sit and enjoy the view, but it's cold, so we chose to stay inside ^^.

It's the last day of this set menu, one kind of sweet and a drink per set.

I ordered this one "Haru Tonari (春隣)" the meaning of this word is "spring is coming close" with green tea (抹茶 ) 1134 yen.

It's so beautiful that I couldn't stop taking the photo, haha.
The Green tea was very, very delicious, not bitter, and very fragrance too.

Let see the inside of the sweet.

This one is Hana Goromo 花衣 1134 yen.

Abekawa Mochi (安倍川餅) - 929 yen
Rice cakes sprinkled with soybean powder (kinako -きな粉) and wasambon sugar (和三盆), served with shiokombu (塩昆布).

Ammitsu (あんみつ) 1,188 yen (without drink) - Kanten (agar-agar) jelly cubes with sweet azuki bean paste, Kohakukan (traslucent gelee sweet), and awa yokan (sweet jelly with foxtail millet). We added extra topping Shiratama 白玉 (rice flour dumpling) - 108 yen.