June 5

06/05/2013

Work up a bit later than normal (5:30am!) and spent an hour cleaning and catching up, so no pre-breakfast soak.    Headed down to a 7:00am breakfast.   I'm starting to get an understanding of the restaurant here, so no major "barbarian" events on my part (that I know of) this morning.

Here's pictures of most of what I ate for breakfast -- I did forget to snap the final "dessert" portion which was just some pineapple, melon and Jello-like-substance (so not a major misfire on the filming).

ANd off to the races -- tomato, other veggies and seaweed at bottom.   Potato and tofu in the middle, dried sweet fish in the middle right, squid and leeks with a mustard sauce on top left, salmon and onions (kosher!) center top, cold porridge top right.

After breakfast I headed back to the room and updated the blog.    Still about 2 hours before checkout, and although I was thinking of more onsen (bathing) I ended up talking a walk back to the post office (about a 5-7 minute walk) to pick up some more cash from the ATM machine.

Here's a few pictures as I left the ryokan and headed across the little parkway to walk over to the big bridge:

After my walk I did go back and take another onsen bath before checking out and heading by train to Kyoto.    The probably should have taken some pictures of the process, but train rides themselves along with subway rides are not all the photogenic!      But I did use this great web site on my iphone (which I've been using for the trip) to figure out "how" to get from point "A" to point "B". 

The different fares represent different tickets you have to buy at vending machines outside the gates (like turnstyles) to get into/out of the train area.    Roughly divide by 100 to get the rate in dollars -- in this case about $2.20 to get from Arashiyama to a station called Shijo (which is in central Kyoto) with a transfer between trains on the same line (just different platforms) and then walk down a level to the subway station and for $2.10 get a ticket to ride to Kyoto station (about 2 stops down the line).

Once I got to Kyoto I found my hotel -- just about two buildings over.   On my way I took a shot of

people exiting the subway -- lots of school kids here too!

It was still early -- about noon -- and official checkin time is 2pm.    However, they were kind and let me checkin early, so I was able to store my bags in my room and pack my knapsack with a polo shirt to change into for dinner.   The plan for this afternoon is to meet my guide (same one who did the volunteer guiding in Osaka, but this time as a "paid" guide in Kyoto) for some site seeing and a Kaiseki dinner (dinner around 6:30pm).    I also changed from jeans into some nicer pants.   The extra shirt because its a bit warm and I knew it would be better to have a change of cloths for dinner!

Anyway, took the pack and headed back to the subway (really back to Shijo station; about 5 minutes and another $2.10) to wait for Atsuko -- I got there about 15 minutes early (meeting at 1:45pm) and took the following photos.

I met Atsuko and we started our walking tour of Kyoto.    The first stop was a basement department store food area.    It was dessert city!   Oh I was in heaven!!!   There were also some samples that we were able to eat!    YUM!!!

Wow!   That was cool.    But I didn't eat very much (just a few samples if offered).   

We then walked out and down another "retail fish market" street, similar to the one we visited in Osaka few days earlier:

Here's a video "discussing" this window:

As we finished with this street we came to a shrine -- guarded by mythical animal figures.   My guide explained that usually one has its mouth open and the other has its mouth shut (between the two figures - one on the left and one on the right)

Inside the shrine there was a little automaton fortune teller (think the Zolton machine, japanese style!).

Here it goes in a video:

So we continued to walk towards another much larger shrine -- but on the way had to stop for a snack.   These were "custom made to order" little mochi folded crepes filled with things you choose -- I had one that I asked for the black azuki beans (sweet beans) and pomme (apple) in.   Yum!

So we walked to a major Shinto shrine,  the Fushimi Inari Shrine, whose main mythical animal is a fox like creature.   This reminds of an episode of "The Last Airbender" where an owl like creature had a great library and had foxes who would go run errands and collect knowledge for him (often carrying scrolls in their mouths back to his library).    I guess the cartoon was based on some of the mythology of this shrine and its fox like creatures, who also are "Messengers" carrying scrolls in their mouths. 

Here's a video of walking through some of these:

We then walked some more and headed to one of the larger temples -- the Kiyomizudera Temple.   This is known for its pure waters which purify as well as its giant stage as well as a god with many arms, each of which have multiple eyes at the ends of the hands (except for the praying hands, which are normal).    Here are some pictures:

Inside there is a prayer 'gong' which I got to ring -- here is the video:

So after the temple we walked some more and headed towards a very fancy Kaiseki dinner that Atsuko had made a reservation for.     We walked through the gion district and saw a few things on the way of interest:

This was at a high-end restaurant called Kikunoi, located in the Gion district of Kyoto.    This was a special tatami room that the two of us sat in while a traditional server came by with each course for us to enjoy.    Very traditional and quite the experience!    Unfortunately my iphone battery started to run low so I had to switch to the go-pro, so some of the photos and pictures may be a bit more "fish eye" than intended.  BUt still an amazing meal -- it lasted nearly 3 hours

Will update more of the meal later -- its already taken about 1.5 hours for me to 'blog' the above and catch up!   Need to take a break and see some of Kyoto today!

Okay, back to documenting last night!

The above appetizers: glazed Kamo river goby, flowering cucumber (see below), barley miso, egg yolk pickeled in white miso, ocotpus roe, brook shrimp, Wakasa tilefish and cucumber roll, jade eggplant.

Salt-grilled ayo (sweetfish), sauted coltsfoot stalk, water grass vinegar.   Unfortunately I didn't get a picture earlier when she brought out a container with the LIVE sweetfish still flapping to show us the fish before it was taken to chef to make into the above dish.

ANd here's a video of the rice prep:

Oh my god!   I need someone to carry me to a wheelchair because I cannot get up!

Despite this we eventually rolled out of the wonderful restaurant and headed for a walk (fortunately this was a DOWNHILL walk!) through parts of Gion and all the way back to the Shijo subway station.   On the way one of the shrines we'd walked through earlier was all "lit up" (its lanterns get lit nightly).   Here are some pictures as we approached and went through the gate towards the shrine:

 Stumbled back onto the subway from K09 station to K11 station (Kyoto) and to my hotel room for a very good nights sleep!