The plane landed at Kansai International Airport at 7.00 p.m. After going through Immigration, I picked up the local SIM cards and ICOCA cards that I ordered days earlier then we bought the Express Haruka tickets that would take us directly to Kyoto.
The train ride took about an hour and half. We hailed a taxi at Kyoto Central Station and reached the address of our Airbnb accommodation after 11.00 p.m. But we could not see any building that looked like the one in the photos sent by our Airbnb host.
There we were on the sidewalk with our luggage and we didn’t know whether to walk to the left or the right, or cross the street. Our local SIM cards were “data only” and there was no way to call our host. So, I approached the first person I saw. A young woman who was about to get on her bike.
I asked if she knew where the ryokan (inn) was. She said the address was correct but she didn’t know where the ryokan was. She apologized for her “not very good English” although I thought her English was pretty good. I explained that I couldn’t call our host, she asked to see our host’s number and she called our host from her phone. He would come over, she relayed to us.
Pretty soon, she was joined by two young men. It turned out that we were standing in front of a pizza joint / bar — 6 Peace, it’s called — that just opened earlier that day. All three of them work there.
As we stood there under the street lamp, a third man came out of the pizza joint that had closed for the evening. He knew where our Airbnb accommodation was and it was just a few steps away! Before turning around to follow him (yes, he walked us to the doorstep of the ryokan!), we thanked everyone else. Profusely. Because we were truly grateful. And with apologies because we took up so much of their time.
Japan may not be the birthplace of pizza but the people at 6 Peace sure know how to make good pizza. The smoky crust was chewy outside and soft inside.
The quality of the crust shouldn’t be surprising because the dough is hand-tossed and the pizza is baked in a wood-fired oven.
Our almost unanimous favorite was the four-cheese pizza. With blue cheese. And drizzled with maple syrup. The contrast between the sharp saltiness of the blue cheese and the sweet syrup was simply magnificent.
6 Peace is more than just a pizza joint. It is a bar too so the menu has a list of drinks and finger food to go with them.
We didn’t order anything with alcohol but we ordered sausages which would have been perfect with ice-cold beer. We ate the sausages, and a bowl of fries, as side dishes.
If we had stayed in Kyoto longer, I am sure that, at some point, we would have ordered pizza with beer or wine at 6 Peace. Because, yes, the food and service are so good that you want to go back for more. And we did go back for more two nights later.
We spent Sunday afternoon at Nishiki Market and, after it closed for the day, we proceeded to the shopping district around it where the girls had a ball shopping for bags and clothes.
By the time we got back to the ryokan, we were tired and hungry. We weren’t able to pick up anything for a late dinner although we brought home plenty of snacks and sweets. It was drizzling and it was cold so the smart thing to do was walk the few steps to 6 Peace.
But we wanted to play cards like we did the night before so we elected Speedy to be the one to go to 6 Peace and order take out.
And we got to try two more pizza flavors that night. One with shrimps and another with mushrooms. Our favorite did not change though. It was still the four-cheese pizza for us.
6 Peace Pizza is near the corner of Hanayacho-dori and Onmae-dori, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto. On Google maps, look for Aitsu no Ramen Kataguruma. 6 Peace is almost directly across the street from it although on street view, you won’t be able to see it because, like I said earlier, it just opened on November 1st and the street view on Google maps is over a year old.
(Yes, we also ate at Aitsu no Ramen Kataguruma but that’s another story.)