Gyoza!

This is absolutely a comfort food that you should try when visiting Japan. Gyoza (餃子) or Japanese dumpling is actually originated from China, but got really popular in Japan since the 20th century. This food is a labour of love wrapped with minced meat vegetables, soy sauce, sesame oil, and many other delicious ingredients. which then will be fried for a while to be able to give a unique, crunchy, flavourful taste (usually also called as yaki-gyoza). Some gyoza are only steamed and not fried, we call them sui-gyoza. Most restaurants and stalls sell 6-pieces set of gyoza for around 300 until 500 yen, which is a really great price for such food! The flavour will elevate once you dip the gyoza into a soy sauce.

Arashiyama Bamboo Groove

Located across Ōi River, Kyoto, Arashiyama must be one of the top sightseeing district for visitors and Japanese locals. It has a lot of historic sites and beautiful sceneries to offer, including this majestic bamboo groove. These standing-tall bamboos are approximately 30 meters in height and 15-20 cm in diameter. When I visited this site back in June 2019, there were a lot of tourists taking pictures whilst enjoying the incredible view. During summer, Arashiyama gets really hot to the extent that it reached up to 35 until 38 degrees Celsius at noon, so you will probably see many umbrellas scattered among the visitors. However, you will experience a relaxin, cool wind breeze as entering this bamboo groove, especially since the bamboos are covering most of the sunlight. Once you finished admiring these sceneries, the route will lead you to places where you can buy Kyoto souvenirs and traditional food, that’s including varies of ice creams that you can enjoy in the hot weather. There is no doubt that this site is one of “Kyoto’s wonders” that you must visit in order to get full experience of Japanese culture and its beautiful views.