Perfect Kyoto Food Tour: Nishiki Market Tour
Food and Drink Tour at Nishiki Market: Enjoy delicious local food with the Best Walking Tour in Kyoto!
Enjoy Nishiki Market and Gion with the best food walking tour in Kyoto!! Croquette, Kyoto style Omelet, Sake, Shopping, Secret Gion, Japanese sweets…etc, this is my best experience at Nishiki Market Tour!!
In my opinion, the best way to explore a country is with guided tours since you can learn the culture and the history of the city with local expert guides, making your trip much more interesting. In recent years, the number of agencies offering tours and activities has grown in Japan, and the variety of things you can do in the country has increased! Now you have a huge range of possibilities. But among all these things, food and drink tours are especially popular. Food is a good way to know the country you are visiting better, and Japanese food is a top attraction of the country (and being honest: people love eating, and I completely understand that! 😂)
In Kyoto, the top destination for food lovers is Nishiki Market. With more than 100 shops and restaurants, Nishiki Market is the best place in Kyoto to discover the real Japanese food. Of course, you can go by yourself, but it’s highly recommended to join one of the several Nishiki Market tours that are available in the area, since you can learn about the neighbourhood in-depth while eating authentic local food.
Recently, I have joined a popular food tour in Kyoto, Food and Drink Tour at Nishiki Market and I have a really super fun time! And, I would love share with you my amazing experience in this interesting food tour at Nishiki Market! If you are interested in Nishiki Market or like the Japanese food culture, I’m completely sure you’re gonna love this tour as much as I did.
Meeting at DAIMARU KYOTO department
The meeting point of the “Kyoto Food and Drink Tour at Nishiki Street & Gion” was in front of the main gate of Daimaru Kyoto department. Be careful and don’t mistake the place, since there are two Daimaru’s departments in the same area. Even if the company already warning me about this in the confirmation e-mail, I trusted too much in Google Maps and I went to the wrong one, so don’t do like me.
Our tour guide was waiting for us just in front of the main gate with the company name in a sign board. The tour guide for that day was Tatsuya, a guy who already seemed very funny and friendly from the beginning (he had our names written with a pen in his hand for not forgetting them)! His English was very fluent and he knew the city perfectly!
After introducing ourselves, he briefly explained us the schedule of the tour and taught us some words in ‘kansai-ben’ (Japanese dialects in the Kansai region). We took a quick walk on the food floor of the Daimaru department and had a bathroom break (since there is not toilet in Nishiki market) and finally we moved on to Nishiki Market! Let’s eaaat!!
Nishiki Market (Nishiki Ichiba)
Nishiki Market (錦市場) is known as “Kyoto’s Kitchen”, and is the largest traditional food market in the ancient city. While other markets are wider or more circular and you have to go around them from one place to another, Nishiki Market is a narrow, 400-meter long shopping street lined by 130 shops and restaurants. The market is 1300 years old, so some of its shops have been there for a long time, passing from generation to generation with traditional recipes. Although there’re also some shops and restaurants that are newer, such as one dedicated to Snoopy! You can find all kind of food ingredients in the market, including meat, vegetable, fruit, dried food, snacks, alcohol drinks, etc.
In the surroundings of the Nishiki Market there is abundant groundwater, and in fact this was one of the reasons why hundreds of years ago the market began to form there (there were no refrigerators at that time so people used the groundwater to keep the food fresh). Nowadays many shops and restaurants in the market keep to have direct connection with this groundwater, and they use this water to wash their products or for any other type of thing. In fact, our guide explained to us that merchants can dispose of this water for free, although how the tap comes directly from the ground ‘you can’t stop’ and the water must always be running. This water is part of the secret of the market.
Unlike what happens at the Toyosu Market in Tokyo, in the Nishiki Market, there isn’t any fish auction and luckily for those who don’t like getting up early, market stores usually start to open between 9-10am in the morning and close around 5 -6pm in the afternoon.
While walking down on the market, Tatsuya stopped by at several shops that he recommended to eat/shop particular items. You could tell he really knows Nishiki Market very well. In some of the shops, we could talk to the owners or the staff who explained us more things about their products or shop. Tatsuya helped us by translating into English. It seemed like he was a friend with every shop owner we’ve been passing! I loved this part because that let us get closer to the locals, knowing better the culture and having a more authentic experience. And speaking about culture, during the tour Tatsuya not only talked about food but also made some stops where he explained us about aspects of Japanese culture and history. A totally complete tour!
Our guide did not only take us to try the best food but also helped us do shopping around the place. Sometimes when we are in a country where we don’t speak the language, buying souvenirs or goods can be a problem: we don’t know which products are quality and which are not, or what they are or how to use it, etc. From cooking ingredients or utensils such as Japanese knives with your name and dishes to special soaps, you can find almost everything in this market. So having Tatsuya helping us make our shopping much easier!
We also visited Nishiki Tenmangū, a Shinto shrine in the end of the market, which is in charge of protecting the shops and restaurants of the market. Therefore, in some of the lanterns at the entrance are the names of some of the businesses we saw during our tour. And here, Tatsuya showed us how to pray in a shinto Japanese shrine. A really interesting experience!