Category Archives: 4) DESTINATIONS — not in U.S.

The futons have been laid out in our room, on the tatami mats where a low table with two chairs once stood (from one of which I managed to stand up from without throwing my back out, following a nine course (or so) Kaiseki meal). Hiiragiya Ryokan  is an old inn that’s only a few blocks from the very different  hotel where we spent the previous four nights. But it seems miles and decades away, sort of lost in time.

Our room is very traditional, low wood ceilings, tatami mats, bamboo screens, a glass back window looking out onto a Japanese garden. I can hear water tricking outside but little else. We have taken two long baths, as is the tradition here, which was relaxing after traipsing around all day in the heat.

Our meal was served one course at a time by a polite young woman in a kimono, lots of things we’ve never eaten before  (“sushi of horse mackerel,”  “dipped and broiled burdock wrapped with eel in soy-based sauce” etc). Not our kind of food but definitely a memorable cultural experience.

We have tried to get into the groove here but there’s been laughter too and Dirck has been a good sport, padding around barefoot in his new yukata (robe.)  For lunch, the ryokan folks suggested a traditional in yakitori restaurant, Kushikura, nearby where we sat a modified Japanese seats watching the chefs meticulously grilled meat and vegetables on skewers.

Last night we went to Honke Odawara, a soba noodle place that has an outpost on the the 7th floor of the elegant department store Takashamaya,  whose food stands we visited today. Wish me luck sleeping…

Not pretty, I know, but this is what my foot looks like after a record 27,000 plus steps in Japan’s hot humid July.  Blisters, callouses, itchy toes, the effects of skin exposed to friction. Tomorrow we may need to switch to bikes.

We used our free one day bus pass that came with our bullet train ticket deal to ride all over today, but still got in the steps. The Golden Pavilion/Temple (Kinkaku-ji) is, as advertised, covered in gold leaf and sitting serenely in a landscaped pond and garden. But hordes of tourists buzzed all along the trails. Onto Ryoanji Temple and its famous zen rock garden, then back on the bus to suddenly rural bucolic Kyoto, the Arashiyama and Sagano districts, with the famous bamboo grove and narrow country lanes winding up a densely vegetated hillside to ancient cottages with thick-thatched roofs, some growing moss like they are being absorbed back into  the land. We stopped at a famous 400-year old tea house Hirano-ya, where we had our first stint sitting on the floor to drink tea and eat a strange sweet sticky dessert, of sorts, served with something akin to cocoa powder. We were given a stick, shaved at the end, to eat it with. Next time, maybe we make a reservation so we can have a meal.

Tonight we went to Isoya, a hipster spot in an alleyway about two minutes from our hotel, sitting at the counter in a tiny little room open to a back alley, watching a young chef work his magic at a very hot grill with all kinds of great looking and tasting vegetables.

We were the only non-Japanese diners and there was no English menu or much English spoken (which is as it should be) so we just pointed at various bowls of vegetables and picked two meats (steak and chicken).

The chef used a wood board to serve us various ceramic plates filled with freshly grilled concoctions. We may have to return tomorrow.

In Gion

We found the ancient architecture I was expecting this morning in Gion, beautiful old wood houses and stone streets, shrines and women (and men) in kimonos, purple hydrangea and Americans zipping by on bike tours. The 100-year-old sushi place that was too crowded for us yesterday, Izuju,  welcomed us today. We sat in a small old fashioned narrow dining area and ate Kyoto-style sushi, nothing like sushi I’ve had before. For one thing, the fish was grilled and there types of fish and combinations new to us. Aya (sweet fish) is the local seasonal fish, white, delicious grilled and dipped in a light sauce. Then saba sushi – chub mackerel with salt and rice vinegar (which I liked, tasted like smoked whitefish)’ maki sushi (Japanese mushroom, white flowered gourd, Japanese horn root  and omelet; sama maki (sliced Red Sea bass, bread, the Japanese herb kinone, and vinegar rice).

Izuju Sushi

We followed hoarded of tourists on a walking tour of east Gion and Higashi, along narrow streets lined with ancient wood buildings, with elegant shops,  and lush green gardens and enormous ancient buildings (Yasaka Shrine, Kodaiji Temple, Ryzokan Shrine and Kiyomiza-dera Temple.) Spectacular. I ended up buying a lot of gifts, glasswork with inlaid pieces of old kimonos, cotton scarves,  oil blotting face papers (perfect to mop up sweat for another dripping humid day) and a short vintage kimono at a store called Hinaya Kyoto (4-452 Gojo-bashi Higashi) near Kodaiji Temple. I almost bought a gorgeous two-piece long jacket made from old kimonos for $93 until I realized it was $930. (Or about 93000 yen which I read as 9300.)

Tonight we went for a many course set Kaiseki meal at Giro Giro Hitoshina which was as hipster  as the Anthony Bourdain-published “Rice Noodle Fish” book promised.  Lots of interesting ingredients and combinations. The server did seem impressed when I said we’d had aye (fish) for lunch, and he knew the restaurant Izuju, also recommended by an Anthony Bourdain-affiliated website, Roads and Kingdoms, which has not failed us! At Giro Giro, we met some lovely older elegant Japanese couples, both of whom had lived in the states. The men were chemists who did post doc work, one at U Va, the other at Minnesota. We got to the restaurant early and were told to go away and come back which is how we found another cool place around the corner, Len, a hipster hostel, bar and restaurant serving fish and chips and cheese boards. Ahh to be young again but middle age ain’t so bad. At least today.

Outside Giro Giro

Nishiki market

Just as we were succumbing to heat and fatigue on a beastly hot Saturday night in this charming city (having been turned away from two guidebook-recommended and jam-paced restaurants) we stumbled upon a tiny narrow 13-seat curry noodle and steak restaurant just south of the Nishiki Market that came well recommended by three young Japanese women who had just finished eating there (and they spoke English.) Dirck dubbed the steak among the best he’s had (high praise from a Kansan). My orange-colored noodle curry was excellent too ( although I tried not to watch the cook through the curtains beside our table sloshing stuff on the floor. We later got a business card, so there is a name to share: Itadore. We at lunch at another noodle place nearby,  Gontaro.

The bullet train (Shinsaken Nozomi) got us here in. 2.5  hours. My only issue was motion sickness. We managed to take the subway with help from some older women. Hotel Gran Ms Kyoto has a vague hip vibe and great location, but is a bit drab.  Too tired to write more. Brutally hot and humid, as warned but cool city to explore.

                                                     Steak and curry at Itadore