Met up with my friend Eli for lunch today. The day before, I was idly wandering Osaka and eating tasty things. He, on the other hand, was conquering the internet with pictures of himself playing with wild baby bunnies near Hiroshima.
Check it out, it's criminally adorable.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Pickles
Alright, so pickles.
I like pickles! Not necessarily on sandwiches, but sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled ginger, pickled pepperocinos, and especially pickled okra. That said:
I do not like Japanese pickles.
Japanese pickles (except for the ginger, I think) are all fermented instead of hot pickles (meaning they don't use hot vinegar to provide acid; they use bacteria). I've fermented beer, tried kombucha, eaten other mold-cured foods before, so I don't mind the gaminess that comes from it.
To me, Japanese pickles don't taste gamey. They taste spoiled.
They've got that kinda funky earthy smell that mold does. It's a penetrating smell, too. Walking through Japanese grocery stores is even unpleasant sometimes because of them, as a lot of times the pickles are just out in barrels, so you can smell them across the floor.
In small batches though (like a single serving at dinner), the smell is manageable. You're not through the woods yet, though. You now have to get by the texture, which is just different enough from plain raw veggie for you to know that somethings not right. Especially when its a pickled root veggie, like a radish or a turnip, things are just crunchy and slimy and chewy.
The weird dinner at Chihana that I just posted about? The fish eggs weren't what got to me. Nor the sperm sacs.
It was the pickles.
I like pickles! Not necessarily on sandwiches, but sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled ginger, pickled pepperocinos, and especially pickled okra. That said:
I do not like Japanese pickles.
Japanese pickles (except for the ginger, I think) are all fermented instead of hot pickles (meaning they don't use hot vinegar to provide acid; they use bacteria). I've fermented beer, tried kombucha, eaten other mold-cured foods before, so I don't mind the gaminess that comes from it.
To me, Japanese pickles don't taste gamey. They taste spoiled.
They've got that kinda funky earthy smell that mold does. It's a penetrating smell, too. Walking through Japanese grocery stores is even unpleasant sometimes because of them, as a lot of times the pickles are just out in barrels, so you can smell them across the floor.
In small batches though (like a single serving at dinner), the smell is manageable. You're not through the woods yet, though. You now have to get by the texture, which is just different enough from plain raw veggie for you to know that somethings not right. Especially when its a pickled root veggie, like a radish or a turnip, things are just crunchy and slimy and chewy.
The weird dinner at Chihana that I just posted about? The fish eggs weren't what got to me. Nor the sperm sacs.
It was the pickles.
Kyoto day 3: Foxes, Monkeys, and Fish Genitals
Pleasant title, no? I'll get that last part at the end.
At the start of the day, I decided to see two more of Kyoto's highlights. First was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, a shrine to Inari, the god of rice and agriculture. This shrine is famous for the long path of torii (the red Shinto purification gates) that lead from the main shrine to the peak of the mountain. There are literally HUNDREDS of them along the path. The idea is that when you walk through a torii, you become ritually cleansed, so that when you reached the top of the mountain, you were about as cleansed as you could be. The torii were funny in that they varied DRASTICALLY in age. Some were two termites shy of falling apart, others looked like they'd just been painted yesterday. Oddly enough, they were all different sizes, too. Oh, and a sidenote: stay on the main torii path. I saw a smaller path branch off and decided to follow it a bit and came across a hive of bees. I squwaked, jumped back down to the main path, and tried to pretend nothing happened as a bunch of chinese tourists looked funny at me.
The reference to 'foxes' in the title comes from the fact that in Shintoism, foxes are regarded as semi-mystical
messengers from the gods, and are closely tied to Inari. As a result, fox statues are scattered all over the mountain. They weren't exactly hidden, as most of them were around the shrines and altars along the path, and ALL of them had bright red scarves tied around them.
Anyway, I wandered around some backroads and branch paths from the main shrine on the way to the torii path. Soon after I came up with an alternative title for this post: "Let's not tell Chris how big this mountain is." Everyone recommends going to see this shrine, no one tells you it's a two-hour climb to the top. I got halfway up before I came across a sign telling me how big it was. I realized it was another hour up and hour down, and decided I felt plenty pure as it was, thank you very much, and headed back down. I swung through the little market and bought a couple little souvenirs on the way back to the station, and grabbed some just truly terrible takoyaki from a street vendor. What's more, Japan's apparent fear of public trashcans meant that I had to carry the stuff all the way back to the station before I could find a trashcan to get rid of it.
Anyway, back in Kyoto, I grabbed some ramen at the station (much tastier), then hopped on another train bound for Saga Arashayama, an area famous for two things: a buddhist temple sporting a supposedly gorgeous bamboo forest, and a park full of wild monkeys you could feed. Guess which one I went for? I started walking from the temple following signs for the monkey park, crossed a river, saw another sign, looked up and WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THE MONKEYS WERE ON TOP OF ANOTHER MOUNTAIN?!? -__-
A little (okay, not so little) hill wasn't going to keep me from my monkeys, though, so I grabbed a 'monkey-proof' bag from the ticket office to put my stuff in (it was just a sky blue cloth grocery tote) and started hoofing it up. It wasn't a long hike (took me maybe thirty minutes) but it was a steep one. I was thoroughly out of breath by the time I got to the top. The monkeys were as funny as expected, and there was a shed we could stand in and feed them from. We'd pass apples and peanuts through the fence. The young monkeys would argue and jostle for positions nearest the people with food, while older monkeys just kinda stared, knowing they'd get fed. The visit ended on an amusing note. Some kid took a peanut out of the shed, and a monkey noticed, ran up, and scared the kid. One of the rangers/monkey-wranglers scared the monkey nearly off a cliff and made threatening monkey noises and hand motions at it. I cracked up, then headed home to change (the trip home was exceptionally ordinary).
Now: the fish genitals. I had a dinner reservation at Chihana, a kaiseki restaurant in Gion. A kaiseki is a traditional Japanese multi-course meal that everyone recommends trying. Chihana was highly rated, so I got a reservation there. It was another case of 'fancy Japanese places behing hard to find,' so it took me a bit. It was down a shaded alley off the main drag through Gion, and the door was behind a curtain. Thankfully the doormat had 'chihana' written on it in latin characters, else I'd not have made it.
Now I'll say this: the chef and cooks were obviously top of the line, the food was excellent quality, and the waiters and hostess were very welcoming of this stranger in a strange land (I was both the only non-Japanese customer and the only customer under 40). That said, this was the most difficult meal I've ever had. I was COMPLETELY out of my depth. About half of the courses were right at the edge of my comfort zone, and half of those were on the wrong side of it. A lot of the ingredients were things you'd just never see in an American restaurant (even the most cool or edgy). I didn't take photos (I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself), but the courses I remember are below (I forgot quite a few):
At the start of the day, I decided to see two more of Kyoto's highlights. First was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, a shrine to Inari, the god of rice and agriculture. This shrine is famous for the long path of torii (the red Shinto purification gates) that lead from the main shrine to the peak of the mountain. There are literally HUNDREDS of them along the path. The idea is that when you walk through a torii, you become ritually cleansed, so that when you reached the top of the mountain, you were about as cleansed as you could be. The torii were funny in that they varied DRASTICALLY in age. Some were two termites shy of falling apart, others looked like they'd just been painted yesterday. Oddly enough, they were all different sizes, too. Oh, and a sidenote: stay on the main torii path. I saw a smaller path branch off and decided to follow it a bit and came across a hive of bees. I squwaked, jumped back down to the main path, and tried to pretend nothing happened as a bunch of chinese tourists looked funny at me.The reference to 'foxes' in the title comes from the fact that in Shintoism, foxes are regarded as semi-mystical messengers from the gods, and are closely tied to Inari. As a result, fox statues are scattered all over the mountain. They weren't exactly hidden, as most of them were around the shrines and altars along the path, and ALL of them had bright red scarves tied around them.
Anyway, I wandered around some backroads and branch paths from the main shrine on the way to the torii path. Soon after I came up with an alternative title for this post: "Let's not tell Chris how big this mountain is." Everyone recommends going to see this shrine, no one tells you it's a two-hour climb to the top. I got halfway up before I came across a sign telling me how big it was. I realized it was another hour up and hour down, and decided I felt plenty pure as it was, thank you very much, and headed back down. I swung through the little market and bought a couple little souvenirs on the way back to the station, and grabbed some just truly terrible takoyaki from a street vendor. What's more, Japan's apparent fear of public trashcans meant that I had to carry the stuff all the way back to the station before I could find a trashcan to get rid of it.
Anyway, back in Kyoto, I grabbed some ramen at the station (much tastier), then hopped on another train bound for Saga Arashayama, an area famous for two things: a buddhist temple sporting a supposedly gorgeous bamboo forest, and a park full of wild monkeys you could feed. Guess which one I went for? I started walking from the temple following signs for the monkey park, crossed a river, saw another sign, looked up and WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THE MONKEYS WERE ON TOP OF ANOTHER MOUNTAIN?!? -__-
A little (okay, not so little) hill wasn't going to keep me from my monkeys, though, so I grabbed a 'monkey-proof' bag from the ticket office to put my stuff in (it was just a sky blue cloth grocery tote) and started hoofing it up. It wasn't a long hike (took me maybe thirty minutes) but it was a steep one. I was thoroughly out of breath by the time I got to the top. The monkeys were as funny as expected, and there was a shed we could stand in and feed them from. We'd pass apples and peanuts through the fence. The young monkeys would argue and jostle for positions nearest the people with food, while older monkeys just kinda stared, knowing they'd get fed. The visit ended on an amusing note. Some kid took a peanut out of the shed, and a monkey noticed, ran up, and scared the kid. One of the rangers/monkey-wranglers scared the monkey nearly off a cliff and made threatening monkey noises and hand motions at it. I cracked up, then headed home to change (the trip home was exceptionally ordinary).
 |
| This chill fella was just waiting for his peanut. |
Now I'll say this: the chef and cooks were obviously top of the line, the food was excellent quality, and the waiters and hostess were very welcoming of this stranger in a strange land (I was both the only non-Japanese customer and the only customer under 40). That said, this was the most difficult meal I've ever had. I was COMPLETELY out of my depth. About half of the courses were right at the edge of my comfort zone, and half of those were on the wrong side of it. A lot of the ingredients were things you'd just never see in an American restaurant (even the most cool or edgy). I didn't take photos (I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself), but the courses I remember are below (I forgot quite a few):
- A plate of Aji (mackerel) sashimi, served with grapefruit (This was very tasty)
- A small plate of a white paste they didn't know the English name of (I think it was whipped taro root in a soy-gravy; it was tasty as well!)
- Scallop sashimi in miso-sesame sauce (Om nom nom, this is going great so far!)
- Stewed soft roe. Basically it was stewed fish sperm sacs. It didn't taste bad, but the 'ick' factor was really hard to suppress. (Okay...I might be in trouble).
- Salmon (or some other fatty fish) in a jelly of some sort (believe it or not, also tasty, if difficult to eat; the spoon they gave me wasn't very adept at scooping)
- A big bowl of miso-ish soup. This was the first really difficult one, oddly enough. It was a HUGE bowl of soup, which wasn't bad, but it was full of this weird vegetable that looked like gills and had the consistency of a slimy raw potato. It took me 5 minutes of constant eating to finish off those nasty things. Please imagine sitting and eating an entire (warm) raw potato, while not having anyone or anything to distract you, and you'll get where I'm coming from.
- A bowl of dried 'tiny fish.' I think it was baby eels. It also didn't taste bad (surprisingly bland, actually), but they were quite chewy, and at this point, I was full and having trouble keeping the 'ick' factor at bay.
- Flounder and fatty tuna sashimi. A welcome reprieve.
- An assortment of Japanese pickles and different preparations of fish roe. Oddly enough the roe was not bad, though the ick factor/fullness problem reached its limit. The pickles weren't helping, which I'll comment more on later.
- Whole sardines. I like sardines and I like whole fish, so this was pretty good also. Still full, so hard to keep going.
- Stewed veggies. Take a big bowl of spinach and mushrooms and boil them. Serve it up in a bowl with the boiling water. I made it through about a third of mine.
- Jellied eels, seaweed, green peppers, and glass noodles. This one broke me. The eels were whole, eyes and all and staring at me. They were also stiff with rigor mortis still. The peppers tasted like green bell peppers, which I hate. I was full to the point of not being able to force things down anymore. Thankfully there were some pine nuts at the bottom, so I looked like I was picking at it before giving up.
- Rice. Easy, right? Nope. Half of it was topped with chopped chiso leaf (a kinda minty, kinda grassy leaf they use here), and that was the half I ate. The other half was covered in Japanese pickles. I left that part alone. Another post to follow about that.
Anyway, the chef noticed I was leaving half my stuff on each plate and laughed and made the 'feeling full' gesture. Grateful for the out, I smiled and said yes. I drank the tea and orange juice that ended the meal, and the hostess in her kimono and the chef showed me out. The hostess walked me to the street making small talk in the little english she knew and the littler japanese that I did.
When I got home I tore into some of my kit kat store to get a familiar taste in my mouth.
Made it to Osaka
Mailed some souvenirs home before heading to the station, the caught an express train to Osaka. The train trip only took like 30 minutes; was awesome ^__^
My new place is located really well, and is a traditional Japanese-style room. It's got a tatami mat floor, and instead of a bed, 'turndown' service comes and sets up a Japanese futon. Pretty cool, especially since I like firm beds (my hostel bed was NOT).
My new place is located really well, and is a traditional Japanese-style room. It's got a tatami mat floor, and instead of a bed, 'turndown' service comes and sets up a Japanese futon. Pretty cool, especially since I like firm beds (my hostel bed was NOT).
Monday, April 21, 2014
Kyoto, day 2: Daitakuji and the Golden Pavilion
I decided Friday would be a Buddhist day, so I hopped on the metro headed north to a couple of temples I wanted to see. I only had a vague clue as to where they were, so I stopped at a Starbucks outside the metro station to orient myself. The directions were basically 'follow the big road 'til you see it,' so that's what I did.
I found the branching road that led to my first goal, Daitokuji temple, and stopped to grab lunch before heading in at a sushi place. The place served Kansai style sushi (which is slightly different that what we're used to), and I was the only customer at the time. My phone was dying, so I sniped an empty wall socket I saw while the chefs made sushi, which cracked the waitress up. After that, I watched them prep ingredients for the day (it was a little early for lunch), which was entertaining. One guy was trimming fish down to size, while the other was chopping omelette into super duper fine strips. After that he started cutting those weird green plastic 'grass' decorations you see in sushi sets you get at the grocery store, except these were actually cut out of banana leaves.
Thoroughly be-sushi'd, I walked out the door to see...a Cafe du Mon (note the mispelling). I thought it was hilarious to see the knock off here. I later found out that Cafe du Monde actually DOES have a shop in Kyoto Station. I went for breakfast one day, but was thoroughly disappointed when I found out they didn't sell beignets. They sold...hotdogs? Wat?
Anyway, giggling done, I went inside Daitokuji, which is a compound made of several buddhist temples that share an outer wall. I didn't have time (or the attention span) to see them all, so I decided on the two that aren't usually open, but were for a special exhibition, plus one of the usual ones. Neither of the special exhibitions allowed photos, unfortunately, which was a shame. The buildings were cool enough, but the gardens were AMAZING. These were exactly what you'd expect from Zen gardens. Some were just giant beds of gray pebbles, raked into patterns of lines around large boulders, others were moss gardens, with mosses and lichens growing over rocks and trees. The biggest moss garden even had a cat wandering about in it, just lazily chewing on the plants.
I headed up the street once I felt Zen enough (though that had been difficult to obtain; I lost my combination ticket between the two special temples and had to buy another) and went to visit Kyoto's famous Golden Pavilion at Kinkakuji temple. The pavilion allegedly houses some of Buddha's ashes, hence the importance. The area across the pond from the pavilion was PACKED with people getting photos. I managed to squeeze
up to the railing and grab a few though. I meandered up the path through the compound, passing a group of kids playing 'get the coin in the donation cup from ten feet away,' and got to the top, which had a little tea house and some shops. I got a bowl of matcha tea (made from ground green tea powder instead of the whole leaves) and a sweet at the tea shop's garden, then some souvenirs from the shop before heading back.
The trip home was a little tricky. I meant to catch a bus back to the station, but it was right as the temple was starting to close, so the bus was too full. Instead, I just walked back to the metro station the way I'd come. I grabbed dinner at a full-service tempura place that had some surprisingly tasty miso soup (it had little clams in it) and would fry each order piece by piece, so it didn't sit around getting soggy.
I found the branching road that led to my first goal, Daitokuji temple, and stopped to grab lunch before heading in at a sushi place. The place served Kansai style sushi (which is slightly different that what we're used to), and I was the only customer at the time. My phone was dying, so I sniped an empty wall socket I saw while the chefs made sushi, which cracked the waitress up. After that, I watched them prep ingredients for the day (it was a little early for lunch), which was entertaining. One guy was trimming fish down to size, while the other was chopping omelette into super duper fine strips. After that he started cutting those weird green plastic 'grass' decorations you see in sushi sets you get at the grocery store, except these were actually cut out of banana leaves.Thoroughly be-sushi'd, I walked out the door to see...a Cafe du Mon (note the mispelling). I thought it was hilarious to see the knock off here. I later found out that Cafe du Monde actually DOES have a shop in Kyoto Station. I went for breakfast one day, but was thoroughly disappointed when I found out they didn't sell beignets. They sold...hotdogs? Wat?
Anyway, giggling done, I went inside Daitokuji, which is a compound made of several buddhist temples that share an outer wall. I didn't have time (or the attention span) to see them all, so I decided on the two that aren't usually open, but were for a special exhibition, plus one of the usual ones. Neither of the special exhibitions allowed photos, unfortunately, which was a shame. The buildings were cool enough, but the gardens were AMAZING. These were exactly what you'd expect from Zen gardens. Some were just giant beds of gray pebbles, raked into patterns of lines around large boulders, others were moss gardens, with mosses and lichens growing over rocks and trees. The biggest moss garden even had a cat wandering about in it, just lazily chewing on the plants.
I headed up the street once I felt Zen enough (though that had been difficult to obtain; I lost my combination ticket between the two special temples and had to buy another) and went to visit Kyoto's famous Golden Pavilion at Kinkakuji temple. The pavilion allegedly houses some of Buddha's ashes, hence the importance. The area across the pond from the pavilion was PACKED with people getting photos. I managed to squeeze
up to the railing and grab a few though. I meandered up the path through the compound, passing a group of kids playing 'get the coin in the donation cup from ten feet away,' and got to the top, which had a little tea house and some shops. I got a bowl of matcha tea (made from ground green tea powder instead of the whole leaves) and a sweet at the tea shop's garden, then some souvenirs from the shop before heading back.
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| Kinkakuji |
Sunday, April 20, 2014
One-offs, pt. 5
When you get something out of a vending machine here, the flap swings out, not in.
I swear, Kirin and Suntory (big beer and whisky companies, respectively) control everything in this country. Take Coke and Budweiser, then multiply by like five.
All temples and shrines here require you to remove your shoes before coming in, but some require them to be off even if you're just on the porch. Let me tell you, there are few things more satisfying than walking around outside on sun-warmed wood in your socks.
The voltage on the wall sockets here is higher. For some reason this makes my phone screen more sensitive when it's plugged in, so I make WAAAAY more typos than if it's running on battery.
Metro station entrances in Kyoto beep. All. The. Time. It's like someone ringing a doorbell every 10 seconds.
Every train in Japan plays a jingle right before the doors close. Kyoto's metro jingle sounds like the Reverse Song of Time from Legend of Zelda.
Speaking of jingles, the mall in Utsunomiya had the same jingle as Delta's airport gates. Not a similar one. The SAME one.
There are three shrines/temples nearby in northern Kyoto. Their names are Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, and Kenkakashin. Say them out loud. Now you know why I almost got on the wrong bus.
I swear, Kirin and Suntory (big beer and whisky companies, respectively) control everything in this country. Take Coke and Budweiser, then multiply by like five.
All temples and shrines here require you to remove your shoes before coming in, but some require them to be off even if you're just on the porch. Let me tell you, there are few things more satisfying than walking around outside on sun-warmed wood in your socks.
The voltage on the wall sockets here is higher. For some reason this makes my phone screen more sensitive when it's plugged in, so I make WAAAAY more typos than if it's running on battery.
Metro station entrances in Kyoto beep. All. The. Time. It's like someone ringing a doorbell every 10 seconds.
Every train in Japan plays a jingle right before the doors close. Kyoto's metro jingle sounds like the Reverse Song of Time from Legend of Zelda.
Speaking of jingles, the mall in Utsunomiya had the same jingle as Delta's airport gates. Not a similar one. The SAME one.
There are three shrines/temples nearby in northern Kyoto. Their names are Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, and Kenkakashin. Say them out loud. Now you know why I almost got on the wrong bus.
Day 1 in Kyoto
Not counting the travel day, as I pretty much got on the train, got off the train, and planned at the hostel. :) I will say that the trip from the station was difficult; I now remember why I didn't like having a roller suitcase in my last travels. I just about killed my ankles whenever I'd climb the stairs, with my bag bouncing off the back of my feet. I got to the hostel a half-hour before they opened for checkin, so I sat outside, edited photos, and talked to Suki (Korean girl who's living in Perth, Australia at the moment) while we waited. When check-in time opened up, I met one of the two front desk girls who was just a bundle of adorable, cheerful energy that didn't quite speak English. She asked for my name, and when I responded, she went "Chrisrussu, okay. Wait, Christmassu? Like Santa?" and made the 'big belly' gesture, looking quite confused. It was a fun check-in ^__^
The next day, I wanted to go back and see some things I passed on the way from the station, particularly a HUGE Buddhist temple called Higashi-Honganji. Its Founder's Hall is the largest wooden structure in the world, and was one of the first temples I'd been in in Japan that really felt like a place of worship. Monks were walking about cleaning relics, people were bowing to the altar whenever they passed in front of it, and people were kneeling in prayer or reading on the huge open tatami mat floor. Photos weren't allowed inside any of the buildings, so I don't have any photos of the things I liked, sadly =/
Next I decided to see some of Kyoto's famed gardens, so I went down the street to Shosei-en garden. The walk over was interesting. Both the temple and garden are within easy walking distance of my hostel, and the neighborhood is like Kyoto's epicenter of religious paraphernalia. There are TONS of shops selling prayer beads, incense, and supplies for building at home shrines (including cabinets made of special woods, statues of different buddhas and spirits, and scrolls and talismans with prayers written on them). It looks like when you want to start a shrine or prayer corner in your home, you come to this neighborhood to get started. I saw several couples sitting inside the various shops, seated on tatami mats and talking with the shop owners.
Anyway, the garden. It was nice! It didn't have any raked pebbles or moss gardens (that would come later),
but was still very pretty. I was actually able to have space to myself, which was nice, and is definitely not something I can say about gardens in Tokyo. There were a few lingering cherry blossoms in the garden (particularly a few weeping sakuras; picture willow trees, except pink), along with a few cool Japanese buildings and bridges. Nothing groundbreaking, but still nice!
Oh yeah, and bees. Really, really big bees. They'd just kinda hover about eight feet above the walking paths buzzing threateningly. It was weird, 'cause they buzz much more loudly and at a lower pitch than American bees, which makes it sound like they're RIGHT in your ear. I kept ducking, then realizing the bee was still like ten feet away.
Once I'd had my fill of gardens, I went up to Gion, which is the traditional quarter here. The buildings are mostly the dark, unpainted wood you think of when you think of Japanese buildings, which makes you feel like you're stepping back in time just a little bit. The folks walking about in kimonos adds to the feeling. I grabbed some photos, gawked at some geisha look-alikes, REALLY gawked at an actual geisha (who had an entourage of about 30 people snapping photos), then grabbed a seat at Tully's and people-watched for a bit while I charged my phone (I keep forgetting to plug it in at night). Oh and Ponnie: I know you worry about my safety, but just to prove how safe this country is: two people came in and were afraid someone would grab their seats by the door, so they LEFT their purses and DSLR cameras in seats about 2 feet off the street while they went to order drinks.
Properly caffeinated, I went home and threw on a sport coat for dinner at Sushi Matsumoto, which I posted about earlier. What I didn't post about was the ride over, which was its own adventure. I wasn't quite sure where it was, so I decided to take a cab. Taxis here don't normally speak much english, so I saved the restaurant's address, phone number, a map, and a google map with a route drawn on it to my phone. I handed that to the cabbie, who stared at it for about twenty seconds before saying, "Wakarimasen (I don't understand)." I pointed at the address and said "Koko kudasai (Here please.)" He still didn't get it, but saw the restaurant's phone number. He called them to get the address (which I saw him write down and was the same as the one I had just given him), then started driving. He wanted to make sure I understood they weren't open until 5:30 (it was 5 already), so he kept repeating it in Japanese. He then parked next to the alley my restaurant was in (too small for the cab) and jogged down the street to point out which door I needed (I could read the sign since I knew Hiragana, but wouldn't have known otherwise, so it was a very considerate gesture). I wandered til they opened, had dinner, wandered home (it was actually closer than I'd thought to where I'd been earlier that day in Gion, so I just took the metro home), and went to sleep.
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| Founder's Hall. The photo doesn't do it justice; it was HUGE! |
Next I decided to see some of Kyoto's famed gardens, so I went down the street to Shosei-en garden. The walk over was interesting. Both the temple and garden are within easy walking distance of my hostel, and the neighborhood is like Kyoto's epicenter of religious paraphernalia. There are TONS of shops selling prayer beads, incense, and supplies for building at home shrines (including cabinets made of special woods, statues of different buddhas and spirits, and scrolls and talismans with prayers written on them). It looks like when you want to start a shrine or prayer corner in your home, you come to this neighborhood to get started. I saw several couples sitting inside the various shops, seated on tatami mats and talking with the shop owners.
Anyway, the garden. It was nice! It didn't have any raked pebbles or moss gardens (that would come later),
but was still very pretty. I was actually able to have space to myself, which was nice, and is definitely not something I can say about gardens in Tokyo. There were a few lingering cherry blossoms in the garden (particularly a few weeping sakuras; picture willow trees, except pink), along with a few cool Japanese buildings and bridges. Nothing groundbreaking, but still nice!
Oh yeah, and bees. Really, really big bees. They'd just kinda hover about eight feet above the walking paths buzzing threateningly. It was weird, 'cause they buzz much more loudly and at a lower pitch than American bees, which makes it sound like they're RIGHT in your ear. I kept ducking, then realizing the bee was still like ten feet away.
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| Street in Gion. |
Properly caffeinated, I went home and threw on a sport coat for dinner at Sushi Matsumoto, which I posted about earlier. What I didn't post about was the ride over, which was its own adventure. I wasn't quite sure where it was, so I decided to take a cab. Taxis here don't normally speak much english, so I saved the restaurant's address, phone number, a map, and a google map with a route drawn on it to my phone. I handed that to the cabbie, who stared at it for about twenty seconds before saying, "Wakarimasen (I don't understand)." I pointed at the address and said "Koko kudasai (Here please.)" He still didn't get it, but saw the restaurant's phone number. He called them to get the address (which I saw him write down and was the same as the one I had just given him), then started driving. He wanted to make sure I understood they weren't open until 5:30 (it was 5 already), so he kept repeating it in Japanese. He then parked next to the alley my restaurant was in (too small for the cab) and jogged down the street to point out which door I needed (I could read the sign since I knew Hiragana, but wouldn't have known otherwise, so it was a very considerate gesture). I wandered til they opened, had dinner, wandered home (it was actually closer than I'd thought to where I'd been earlier that day in Gion, so I just took the metro home), and went to sleep.
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| No kidding. |
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