Kyoto Archives - Pale Ale Travel

Is Arashiyama Bamboo Forest an Ethereal Bamboo Wonderland or Overcrowded Tourist Trap?

June 11, 2024July 16, 2024Asia, Japan, Travel BigBody Leave a Comment

Look, I get it. Travel is precious and you don’t want to spend your hard-earned dollars (and newly converted Japanese yen) or time at a destination, experience, or sight that has you feeling worse than that one guy who proposed right next to a cliff and fumbled the ring into the canyon adjacent. Or even worse, something that doesn’t make you feel anything at all.

So, in the interest of allowing you to make a more educated decision about one of Kyoto’s most popular attractions and sightseeing districts, here are my thoughts on social media’s favorite ‘Arashiyama Bamboo Grove’ and if it’s worth visiting or skipping altogether.

I’ll say it. Arashiyama Bamboo Grove didn’t do it for me. It was one of the only sights during my three months living in Japan that didn’t live up to the hype and left me wondering if my time could have been better spent elsewhere. That’s not to say that it was a complete waste as I still got to experience it with one of my best dawgz after several years and several continents apart.

However, if you go to Kyoto’s Arashiyama district and bamboo grove, I would adjust your expectations accordingly and make your bamboo pilgrimage with a plan.

So, is Arashiyama Bamboo Forest the ethereal bamboo wonderland you saw online or is it just another overcrowded tourist trap that can be skipped?

Is Visiting Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto Worth It?

October 20, 2023July 17, 2024Asia, Japan, Travel BigBody Leave a Comment

If you’re planning a trip to Kyoto (or the Kansai Region of Japan), then there’s about a 110% chance you’ve come across the traffic-cone colored, bright orange gates of the popular shrine ‘Fushimi Inari Taisha’. It’s a favorite amongst Instagram, TikTok, and other social media influencers, who especially love showing highly curated (and filtered) shots of them standing in front of a stretch of gates with no one in sight, leading you to believe that you’ll have the place all to yourself.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions that I think throws a lot of people off and leads to disappointment, with a non-zero sum walking away feeling as if Fushimi Inari wasn’t this magical gated portal to the otherworld and back. But is Fushimi Inari actually worth it and should you even bother making a trip if you’re traveling to or through Kyoto?

Yes? No? All the above (sung like Maino in the song ‘All the Above’ with T-Pain)? Here are my thoughts.

Blazing a Yakiniku Trail in the Kansai Region of Japan

September 30, 2023July 16, 2024Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

Translating to ‘grilled meat’, yakiniku is a favorite Korean-Japanese eating pastime and hybrid that requires an empty stomach and a pair of your finest pair of sweatpants (or other elastic, stretchy garb when you balloon up like Violet Beauregarde after meat gluttony). In Japan, you can expect a happening yakiniku joint on almost every corner – especially in the Kansai Region – a Bermuda Triangle for premium beef bovines that have, in all likelihood, lived a better life than 99% of us (for God’s sake, they massage and feed some of them beer).

But this post isn’t just to celebrate the golden ruling triumvirate of wagyu beef yakiniku that can be found across all corners of the Kansai Region (and Japan), this is a yakiniku epic, consisting of yakiniku joints from far and wide: premium, mid-range, and budget. What I can confidently declare is that if you are eating yakiniku in the Kansai Region, you are in the right place. From high-end Matsusaka wagyu restaurants in Kyoto to bustling offal haunts in the heart of Temma, all the way to all-you-can-eat and drink G.Y.O.B. (grill your own beef) joints in the South of Osaka, the Kansai Region is a yakiniku murderers’ row – and after all, it’s my beefy Wonderwall.

Here is a list of five of my favorite yakiniku restaurants in the Kansai Region – primarily Osaka and Kyoto. I will return to Kobe for a longer stint (hopefully) in 2024 so that I can keep adding to this list.

Damn I Hate Being Soba: a Buckwheat Ballad in the Kansai Region

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

“Damn I hate being ~~sober~~ soba, I’m a smoker, Fredo a drinker, Tadoe off molly water.” – Chicago Drill rapper Chief Keef

I don’t actually hate soba. I love it. However, one of my biggest regrets during my time in Japan, other than waking up naked in the hallway of my hotel in Tokyo (I wish I was making that up), was that I didn’t eat more soba. A favorite YouTube channel of mine, ‘Japan Eat’, declared soba his favorite noodle dish of them all – and I feel as though I’ve let him down.

I’m not entirely sure why I was so soba-deficient during my three months in Osaka (and various other parts of Japan) but it’s something I need to improve on for my second stint (I’m aiming for 2024). The soba that I did eat was divine. I’m traditionally more of a cold noodle guy (love me my tsukemen), so soba noodles are right up my alley. I fully admit I dropped the ball on this one. Mea culpa.

3 Ramen Restaurants in Kyoto That Make My Heart Sing

August 31, 2023September 1, 2023Asia, Food, Japan BigBody 2 Comments

I mentioned in a previous post that I had written Kyoto off relatively early in my travels – a mistake and miscalculation I fully acknowledge at present day. I was wrong about Kyoto. Please forgive me (me speaking to Kyoto the city). I think it was because I first arrived during the jam-packed Golden Week, in the midst of a rough work week, unable to find a stable workspace to post up, and deep in the throes of worry about falling out with my newly established routine (and life) in Osaka.

But then I found you, Taiho Ramen (I sound like Joe from the Netflix series ‘You’). If you’ve already checked out my post on Taiho Ramen – Kiyamachi, then you know that this is my absolute favorite ramen I encountered in all of Japan (not just the Kansai region). However, there were two other ramen restaurants in Kyoto that caught my attention in my combined three-plus weeks here.

Here are three ramen spots in Kyoto (including Taiho) that made my heart sing and have me excited about my second stint in the Kansai region in 2024.

Taiho Ramen-Kiyamachi: a Late-Night, Kurobuta Ramen Institution in Kyoto

August 16, 2023August 25, 2023Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

If you’ve read my guide on 21 days of ramen in Osaka, then you already know that I’m the self-proclaimed Tyrone Biggums of ramen. Except, instead of white shiny rocks of ‘kryptonite’, my addiction is fatty, smoky char siu and shoyu (soy sauce) ramen broths. And I can’t get enough of it.

I hate to admit it but I wasn’t particularly sold on Kyoto at first. I know. That’s crazy of me. I chalk it up to the fact that I first arrived right during the hectic and overpriced ‘Golden Week’, where families from across Japan flood the streets, shops, and restaurants, and every shrine or temple feels as if you were the 3,000th visitor of the day. I only really warmed up to Kyoto during my second stint there where I was finally able to ease into a comfortable, workable, predictable routine (this Big Body likes predictability).

But there was one constant that remained through the thick and thin – from my first tumultuous moments getting muscled to the back of the line by a horde of Eastern European tourists at Family Mart to my solo treks up Fushimi Inari at night and serene runs along the Kamogawa River – ‘Taiho Ramen – Kiyamachi’ – a vibrant, late-night hole-in-the-wall ramen shop serving up a rich, thick shoyu-based broth that is packed to the brim with Kagoshima Berkshire char siu (pork).