Ryokan, Kiyomizu-dera, and Pottery

Posted by Chelsie on May 31, 2015 in Japan, Kyoto | 7 comments

I’m sad to say that today was our last full day in Japan as we will be on a flight home Sunday afternoon. The good news is, for our last night we are staying in a traditional Japanese Inn (Ryokan) with tatami mats, a kaiseki dinner, and relaxing bath (onsen). After dropping our overnight bags in the lobby, we headed out to see Kiyomizu-dera, a treehouse like temple nestled in the mountains. Some of the temple buildings were natural wood color and others were brilliant shades of orange, green, and white. On the way to the temple, we passed a bustling shopping street lined with food stands, souvenir vendors, and craft shops. While it was a little bit touristy, it was still a lot of fun. We tried almost anything we could get our hands on including some tofu dumplings served by the most adorable older Japanese woman and sesame pickles. It was especially great to see a lot of women out in their colorful casual kimono (yukata) enjoying a beautiful (and warm) Saturday afternoon. On the way up the hill there was also a Japanese pottery shop where you could take a class and make a pot, bowl, or teacup on the wheel. After a really nice udon noodle lunch complete with dipping broth, vegetables, and seasonings we decided to check to see if we could get a pottery appointment. Luck was on our side because they had two openings coming up within the hour. While we were waiting, we grabbed a coffee at a little shop that had a map of the world with a bunch of pins in it presumably representing customers’ hometowns. Since no one had put a pin from Los Angeles yet, we added one and headed back up the hill for our pottery appointment.

On our first trip into the shop, we learned that it takes a month to fire and glaze your pot, but they had really reasonable shipping fees to the US. Since we are running short on luggage space after the Yukata, kitchen knives, snacks, etc., this was actually better for us. Andrew and I both decided to make a teacup to go with the tea we bought the other day at Ippodo. We sat down at the pottery wheel, donned the appropriate clothing protection, and were instructed how to shape our cups by a young woman with a quick smile who was kind and patient. After a little bit of hands-on help, our cups looked great. Mine is a traditional size and shape with a white glaze and Andrew’s is a larger and wider shape with a teal glaze. It was a really fun experience that we will fondly remember every time we have tea from our cups.

Once that was done, we officially checked into our Ryokan or traditional Japanese wooden inn and put on our cotton robes. Since the rooms have tatami mats on the floor, you aren’t allowed to wear your shoes inside…and for the hallways, they ask that you wear special slippers. The walls of the Ryokan are made of paper and the doors are sliding screens so it’s a really quiet and relaxing experience (especially if other guests are behaving themselves). The bathrooms are shared and dinner and breakfast are included with the room. We also reserved some private bath time so we could enjoy a traditional Japanese bath in peace. When we arrived, the hostess brought tea and sweets to our room and let us know when it was time to head down for dinner. To follow tradition, we were instructed to wear our robes at all times in the Ryokan, even when eating. Our meal was multiple small courses of really delicious Japanese delicacies, most of which featured some kind of fish. Dessert was a delectable blueberry mousse gel. When we came back to our room, the hostess had already made up our beds on the floor and had even folded beautiful paper cranes to place on our pillows. Afterward we enjoyed a lovely hot bath (onsen) and did a little bit of photo editing before heading to bed. It was a wonderful last full day in Japan and we enjoyed every minute of it. Tomorrow we pack up around 10:00 a.m. to catch a train back to the airport in Tokyo.

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Tea Tasting, Shopping, and a Spectacular Dinner

Posted by Chelsie on May 30, 2015 in Japan, Kyoto | 3 comments

We were so excited to wake up this morning and head to this adorable little neighborhood called Teramachi Nijo near the Kyoto City Hall lined with antique shops and swarming with locals on bikes. The destination was Ippodo Tea Co., one of the most renowned tea shops in Japan. They have been providing the highest quality Japanese green tea for nearly 3 centuries. More than just a storefront, Ippodo is a multi-faceted tea company directly involved in the choosing and blending of carefully selected tea leaves. We got there pretty close to when they opened to ensure that we could get a seat at the Kaboku Tea Room. There we were shown how to taste three very different types of green tea…matcha, genmaicha, and hojicha. All were extremely tasty, but genmaicha (green tea with toasted rice) was my favorite and Andrew preferred hojicha (smoked green tea leaves). After that we headed on foot toward Takashimaya, a high end department store to scope out some Yukata (more casual kimono). On the way we found this really fun little pedestrian shopping street where we picked up a Kyoto Fire Department T-shirt for Andrew and some delicious fried chicken from a little stand. Coincidentally, the chicken stand was right next store to a beer stand. Very convenient, but at this point it was much to early for a beer. Something I didn’t mention before is that you can essentially buy beer from most vending machines with no ID and, as far as we can tell, drink it almost anywhere.

Takashimaya did not fail to disappoint. It was a stunning high-end store with really beautiful Kimono. Andrew and I both tried a few on and chose two Yukata we think will be really nice for lounging at home. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get any pictures, but Andrew’s is navy with a few very thin while stripes and a jute-type belt and mine is light teal with white flowers and a purple sash. They are really comfortable and a beautiful souvenir of our trip to Japan.

Next it was back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Yesterday we made reservations at Kappo Sakamoto, a family-owned one Michelin Star restaurant in Gion. It was a tiny restaurant and when we first got there, we were the only patrons. The restaurant couldn’t have been in a more picturesque location, on a quiet alleyway overlooking a small river. We enjoyed course after course of small dishes (15 in all), most of them nearing perfection. The chef was really friendly and spoke pretty good English so he was able to describe just about everything we were eating. It was certainly a highlight of the trip. Andrew and I both liked the cold smoked duck the best, but it was really difficult to choose a favorite. One of the best parts about the restaurant is that it is entirely family-owned and run with papa Sakamoto the founder, his son Ryuta the chef, and mama Sakamoto the hostess. They couldn’t have been more kind and, as we were leaving, chef Ryuta even insisted in walking us all the way out and handed us a business card “for next time.” After dinner, we took a slow stroll up the river and checked out some of the boisterous streets of Gion before heading back to the hotel in a cab.

 

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Himeji Castle and the International Manga Museum

Posted by Chelsie on May 29, 2015 in Japan, Kyoto | 2 comments

This morning we popped on the train for an easy one hour ride to Himeji to visit Japan’s grandest castle. You can see it on the hill from the train as you pull into the station and it is magnificent. On the short walk up the hill we saw the most adorable school children singing and paired up using the buddy system so they would stay together. We also saw a lady dressed as a ninja on a bike, but the photo didn’t really come out so I didn’t post it.

As we walked through the many gates of Himeji, it became immediately clear that this was a castle that could defend itself. There were dozens upon dozens of shapes cutout in the sides of the walls for firing arrows and guns at would-be intruders. As we hiked the thousands of stairs in the sweltering heat, we hoped it would be cooler inside the castle. Thank goodness it was, but guess what? More stairs! And these ones were so steep they could almost be considered ladders. We all had to constantly watch not to hit our heads, knees, elbows, etc. on the staircases to all seven floors. Once inside, we were immediately impressed that the entire castle was made of wood. And even more impressive is the fact that in the last 100 years they have completely disassembled, repaired, and reassembled the castle twice. Can you imagine how much work that was? What if they got to the end and had a small pile of extra pieces? What then? Hehe. After some well-deserved ice cream and a snack at the train station, we headed back into Kyoto for a rest.

In the afternoon, we visited the International Manga Museum where we weren’t allowed to take many pictures, but we were able to browse thousands upon thousands of manga books and magazines. It was a lot of fun to learn about this traditional Japanese cartoon and animation style and even how it influenced some of our American art forms. Before we turned-in we had a delicious tempura dinner where we got to wear bibs and did some quick shopping.

Cheers!

Chelsie and Andrew

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Temples and Shrines Galore

Posted by Chelsie on May 28, 2015 in Japan, Kyoto | 6 comments

We enjoyed a really delicious French pastry breakfast at the train station before boarding the subway for the Northern Higashiyama region of Kyoto where there are dozens of temples. We started at Ginkaku-ji, a beautiful villa constructed by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1482. While the landscaping was stunning and the villa was settled perfectly on at the base of the mountain, it was also overrun by junior-high aged school children on field trips so it was a little bit less serene than you would have thought. After grabbing some quick ice cream cones (it is about 90 degrees here), we wandered down the Philosopher’s Walk choosing to stop at temples Honen-in and Nanzen-ji. There are literally too many temples to visit in one day, but I think we chose wisely. Before, I get to the temples, another interesting note is that we saw a sizable snake swimming down the waterway along the Philosopher’s Walk (picture below). Honen-in was a lovely secluded temple set back in the woods with beautiful rock gardens and water features. It was a quiet place for reflection and there were a few people meditating. Nanzen-ji, on the other hand, was a much larger and well-visited temple (although had nowhere near the crowds as Ginkaku-ji) where you could visit the second story of main gate (sanmon) and get a really beautiful view over the city of Kyoto on one side and the mountains on the other side. It also featured an interesting bridge that turned out to be an excellent photography spot.

After a very brief rest stop at the hotel, it was on to Fushimi Inari shrine which is a pretty iconic place to visit in Japan with its thousands of red torii gates. We were able to get some beautiful shots just as the sun was setting. We also met a really great Japanese man who lived in Long Beach in the 1940s. Once he figured out we spoke English, he started showing us all kinds of papers with English phrases on them. At first we were a little bit confused, but after a few moments we figured out that he had written expressions down that he heard, but didn’t understand and was waiting to ask someone to explain what they meant. He did speak pretty good English, but it became really clear to Andrew and I how weird the English language can be when were trying to explain to him what “the long and the short of it,” “acting as someone’s instrument,” and “dirt-cheap” meant. There were a few even we didn’t know (something about a cat’s paw) although I thought of my Nana because she knows all the fun expressions. We had such a wonderful time talking to him that we spent about a half hour chatting.

At the end of the day we were pretty beat, but not so tired that we didn’t enjoy another round of tonkatsu and a few cold beers at our favorite spot. I got to bed before Andrew who ventured out with John to shop for electronics (a theme of the trip at this point for sure) and learn to play Pachinko.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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