We had a very slow start to the day today. It was our last morning at the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka, and we all went down for breakfast at the buffet. It was good, but I have to admit that the W Osaka’s breakfast was better.

After packing up our things, we left the hotel around 11:30am. The girls went shopping for a couple of hours while Bart and I waited nearby, and then we finally caught a train to Kyoto. We took the shinkansen first, then transferred to a local train that brought us to Nijo, where our Moxy Hotel was located.

Once we dropped off our bags, we immediately hopped on a bus to the Gion District. We tried to visit a temple, but we arrived about ten minutes after closing time, so instead we just walked around the tourist streets, did a bit of shopping, and took a lot of photos. Gion has such a unique charm with its narrow streets, wooden buildings, and occasional geisha sightings.

By the time we finished walking, we were all hungry and found an izakaya for dinner. It turned out to be fantastic. I had a wagyu beef burger, and we shared potato salad, dumplings, and beef with rice. Everything was delicious.

After dinner, we stopped to try mochi, something Vivi had been looking forward to the whole trip. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. The outer layer was made from some sort of rice paste that had a strange fishy taste, and the filling was chocolate with nuts. We all ended up eating the inside and leaving most of the outside.

We made our way back to the hotel afterward and decided to get to bed early so we can make the most of our only full day in Kyoto tomorrow.