Nishiki Market | Kyoto | Japan Travels

Photograph of Nishiki Market off Trip Advisor (my own photo was too blurry!)

It was a wet gloomy day when we stumbled upon this tunnel of light and bright colours. Our local tour guide/Japanese friend with no sense of direction was actually taking us to another part of town when she, out of habit, took us to Shijo Dori – a shopping strip in central Kyoto. Good thing for her, we were the kind of people who would use any kind of excuse to go shopping!

We thought it would be nice to kick back and relax while our Japanese friend played the GPS for a change, but half the time she didn't even know where we were! To have someone else to blame for our lack of directionality was pretty priceless. We even called her a gaijin a few times. That's always something :P

Nishiki Market is a pocket of culture contrasting the busy shopping strip of commercial giants, stores of mainstream merchandise and luxury brands. So when we spotted the warm and inviting light coming from an alley wedged between high-rise retail buildings we got completely lured inside. Nishiki Market was the first local market I visited in Japan and my first impression of it was, it was unusually very tidy. Often street markets have this suffocating feeling about it - well to me anyway, with stalls narrowing the already narrow walking pavement and owners fighting to promote their store. Nishiki Market however was clean, you can see the other end and there was plenty of space to walk.

According to our Japanese friend, Nishiki Market had been around long before the buildings surrounding it had developed. It's history dates all the way back to the 14th century and had obviously looked a lot different then to how it looked now. Many of the stalls also had rich history behind them, being family run for almost as long as it existed and had been passed down from one generation to the next.

I can't remember what this was, apparently the brown stuff is the same fermented yeast used in Miso.

The Japanese Produce looking really flawless...

Nishiki Market was an ensemble of many things. You can find vegetables and other foods, some meats, vendors that sell cooked food, clothing stores – both independent and chain – and also plenty of souvenir stores. There was a temple inside but the gates were closed. When I peered through the gates there was a Buddhist praying before a huge golden Buddha. I thought it was ironic to find something so sacred dwelling in a place where materialism thrives.

A typical Japanese alley

I also saw this alley-way which at first I was awed by. Bboy Katsu, anyone? The first thing I thought of was the scene on Planet Bboy when the Ichigeki Crew did their rendition of the famous bboy scene from the movie Flashdance (originally done by the Rock Steady Crew). Maybe it was the woman with the umbrella that triggered the memory? Turns out, this was just the first alley of many which looked like that particular scene. Still, it hit home that I was in Japan.

It was a great place to sample both traditional and modern Japanese cuisine. If you have the time you can literally spend hours just sampling and tasting everything. I'm not only talking about stimulating your taste buds - your eyes can also feast! There are so many strange and curious things to see. I was hounding our Japanese friend just about practically every curious thing I saw!

Peaces :) x