Since I’m laid over at SFO for another 3 hours waiting for the next flight to Orange County, while the wife got the last seat to OC, I thought I’d write a quick trip report on Kyoto. Day 1, we arrived to our hotel early evening. We barely made it to the ramen restaurant Men-Ya Inoichi. It was a quick 4 minute walk from our hotel. They were about to close but was nice to let us in and wait in line for 20 minutes before getting the order in for the evening. Get there early because of the lines. We went to the Men-Ya Inoichi Hanare but was told no because there were several people in line 30 minutes before closing. We were too tired to go to beer bar so we headed back to our room where I had one of my 10 cans I brought with me and called it a night. Day 2-We ended up eating lunch at a nearby Korean restaurant called Hongdae Mukbang. Also a 4 minute walk from our hotel. Excellent choice if you like Korean food. After sightseeing at Kyoto Imperial Palace and some shrines and temples we ended up checking out Stand Umeniko Koto CRAFT. I brought & shared 3 cans from Monkish & Green Cheek. That got the party going while everyone there was loving the CA IPA’s. We then walked a 100 yards to Beer Pub Ichiya. It was pretty dead there compared to SUKC. The beers were pretty good, but not as good as SUKC. They brewed their own beers. The atmosphere was dead. Day 3-We took the train to Nara Park to see the temples, shrines, big Buddha and pagoda with everyone feeding the thousands of deers roaming the park. Took the train back to Kyoto and had lunch at Spring Valley Brewery next to Nishiki Market. They brew their beers there and the food was pretty good too. I enjoyed the 5.5% ipa with Nelson hops and bought 6 bottles to bring home. The price was a lot cheaper than the many cans at Stand Umeniko, which were going for 800-1800yen per can. I decided not to buy the many cans offered at Stand Umeniko. We ended up spending over $200 at Stand Umeniko paying for 2 rounds with everyone inside there. That wasn’t in our plans but we were having such a great time that night and pretty F’d up. That evening I checked out 3 beer bars nearby our hotel, Hachi Record Shop & Bar, Kyoto Beer Lab and Craft House Kyoto. All within 5 minutes from each other. Craft House would be my 2nd favorite beer bar. Place was packed. Some good beers and the best hazy IPA I had in Kyoto. I shared 3 cans at KBL. Our last night in Kyoto I ended back at Stand Umeniko and ended up not spending $200. We checked out the Aramashima Bamboo Forest & Kinkaku-Ji before ending up at Kyoto Station, which is another place everyone should check out. Our last day, today we ended up going to Nijo Castle. Had lunch at a Tonkatsu restaurant at Kyoto Station before catching the Airport Limousine Bus back to Kansai Airport.
