10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Nishiki Market and Teramachi Shopping Arcade, Kyoto
We needed to come back to our hotel, Hotel Ibis Styles Kyoto Station, after visiting Kyoto Gyoen National Garden because I forgot to bring my trusted external charger, Nekohako (it's the brand name, not that I name it myself). After that, we were thinking of eating our dinner at Nishiki Market, which is also known as "Kyoto's Pantry" amongst the locals. There are a lot of direction provided to Nishiki Market so you will not get lost once you exited Shijo Station.
The thing is, we did not know that Nishiki Market turns out to be traditional food market and similar to how traditional food market operates in the other side of the world, it closes pretty early. By the time we reached Nishiki Market, we are welcomed with dark alley and closing shops. *cry*
Filled with disappointment, we decided to walk back to the Teramachi Shopping Arcade where most of the shops and restaurants are still open. In the middle of Teramachi Street there is a small temple with a lot of wishing lanterns. The small temple seems to be very popular with tourists because a lot of them are posing in front of it.
We were pretty hungry after those adventures from walking through Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, training to be a real ninja in Ninjatown, and chasing cherry blossom at Kyoto Gyoen National Garden. So we were immediately lured in by this fancy display of a restaurant called "STAR".
That's a funny restaurant name to begin with but the food display looks so real and so yummy. There is this something about Japanese food display. They manage to make your eyes go hungry because the food display are made so similar to the real food (some even better looking than the real food).
Flipping through the menu, STAR apparently sells mostly fusion food where they mix Japanese food with Western food. For instance, how about omurice and chicken katsu combination? That sounds pretty good in my mind, so I proceeded to order one.
Turns out there are other elements added to the dish i.e. salad and pasta (a tomato-based one). The whole combination tastes pretty good although I wonder if my review is kinda biased because at this point of time, I was pretty much saying yes to any food given to me. #starvationisreal
How to go to Nishiki Market/ Teramachi Shopping Arcade:
You can take subway and take Karasuma Line to Shijo Station. You just need to follow the sign and walk for roughly 5 minutes from the exit of Shijo Station to Nishiki Market and Teramachi Shopping Arcade.