Night of Day Four - 8/26/09

For Wednesday's night dinner, we were treated to dinner. You see my brother's girlfriend is originally from the Kyoto area, and her mother arranged for us to have a dinner at Ganko along the Kamagawa (river). We arrived a few minutes early, changed our shoes, and we were led to our table by a traditionally dressed girl (who let us take her photo, and then took a photo for us).

We sat down, and were treated to an appetizer course that had many, many different types of food (it was a little bit intimidating, but I was/am trying to be brave with trying new

food, experiences, etc.). We tried nearly everything, but a very large wasp moved in on our table and after few minutes of trying to avoid it we had to have the staff help us out. One of the girls in the kimono tried to shoo it away and it nearly flew up her kimono. Another guy came over and tried to trap it in a bowl with a wet tow

el, but it managed to escape and flew

off into the evening sky.

After that, we ordered some sake (the meal was all you can drink as well, which we took advantage of) and another beer. Unfortunately they took a the appetizer course away at that point, but we had tried everything by then and I wasn't too disappointed.

The next course was composed of pike, shrimp, trout, and yuba (which I don't like much). The pike is a regional fish of Kyoto, and while my brother didn't enjoy it, I found it to be very tasty. The shrimp and trout were good as well, but as I mentioned the yuba (tofu skin) is not my favorite. Ok, it reminds me of old people skin, which is not an appetizing thought at all.

At this point, it's difficult to remember what we had next. Again, it was all you can drink.

However, we believe that it was more pike, but this time with plum sauce. I enjoyed it, and actually then ate some of my brother's serving.

By now, it was time for a whole fish with the skin still attached. My brother and I were wondering if this was dessert, and he didn't eat it but I found it to be really tasty.

It wasn't dessert, following the whole fish we had a traditional Japanese dessert with tofu, fruit, and some sugary syrup, which we both enjoyed. After many servings of sake and beer, we headed out and grabbed a taxi back to Kyoto station to meet up with a Japanese friend of my brother's who he met in Boston. He's a pediatrician now in Kyoto, and he was obviously super-smart and super-friendly.

We headed out from the station to meet up with my brother's girlfriend and her friend at Slowly (which was very close to Kyoto station), a bar full of international beers. Given that it was the summer, I enjoyed a Red Stripe. After that, I called it a night for me and just hung out until we left the place and headed back to our hotel room.

Day Four - 8/26/09

On day four, we rented bicycles from the Kyoto Cycling Tour Project for a tour of Kyoto. We rode our bikes through the pedestrian area of Kyoto station (and were asked to stop... and we did... briefly). After a ride north along the Kamogawa (Kamo River), we stopped for some refreshment at a convenience store. My brother introduced me to a sports "drink" that was really more of a sports "gel", and I grabbed the lemon protein one which was rather tasty, but awfully strange at the same time.

Then we continued on and found ourselves in a small street that led to the Ginkaku-ji Temple. There were many open storefronts selling a special candy that Kyoto is famous for called yatsuhashi. While it did taste good (I only tried the fresh kind), it wouldn't survive the length of my trip so I had to let it go. It is possible I may be able to pick up some baked ones before I go.

We hiked up the street with our bikes, and then found a spot to park the bikes on a road perpindicular to the alley. This is actually quite a problem in Japan, they actually have people driving around on scooters looking for bikes not parked in the proper spots, and they call it back to base and sometime later a truck shows up and takes the bike to the impound. Luckily this didn't happen to us here, but I witnessed it happen later in the day.

We made our way through Ginkaku-ji Temple, past the "magnificent" hedges, amazing sand sculptures, and beautiful scenery. It was quite a place to be in, and certainly one of the most natural spectacles I've ever encountered.

We returned to our bikes, which were still in the place we left them, and started riding south along the same street towards and stopped at some small but interesting shrines nestled in the hills.

We then reached our picnic bento lunch spot, Nanzenji. We enjoyed a lunch prepared by my brother's girlfriend of sushi, and I found that I do not like umeboshi (pickled plums). I figured it's a plum, didn't realize it was a pickled plum, and put it my mouth thinking it was going to be sweet. Turns out it was sour, salty, and spicy, but I did manage to put it down.

After lunch, we walked up behind the aqueduct to Nanzenin, and then we walked along the aqueduct to what looked like a large building with a bell inside, but it was locked up and it remained a mystery.

From there, we headed back down towards the center of Kyoto, and stopped to take some more photos looking both ways to Heian Shrine. We stopped by another gate for a photo, and then made our way over to Kiyomizudera Temple.

Again we cleverly hid our bikes, and then followed the masses around the temple. There were many interesting sights, including a bell that we rung, a very large stage, and a man and his bunny.

We returned to our bikes, grabbed a drink from a vending machine, and drove down back down the river, through Kyoto station (we rode the whole time), and we got the bikes back intact.

This was a pretty amazing and unique way to visit Kyoto, and everyone had a great time.

Night of Day Three - 8/25/09

After a shower and a short rest, we headed out to meet up with some of my brother's friends from the JET program. I requested yakitori, and we had to pass on the first place we went to that didn't have room, but the second place had a large variety of yakitori. They had your good old-fashioned chicken on a stick, and onion-flavored chicken, but also shrimp, "winner" (really they meant "wiener"), and banana (definitely my favorite. A few beers and some sake later, we ordered the last of the banana and headed our separate ways for the night.

Day Three - 8/25

(Sorry for the lack of updates, we've been awfully busy and I have not had (free) internet access in my hotels up until now.)

On day three my brother, his girlfriend and I headed to Rokuon-ji temple complex on the outskirts of Kyoto. First we saw the Kinkaku-ji (golden temple), which was a beautiful tem ple. I took lots of photos (see link), so check them out. We enjoyed some ice cream, and my camera was dropped but it survived with a very small scratch.

From there we walked to Ryoan-ji (temple), where we viewed the famous rock garden. It was very relaxing, and we walked around the grounds.

Then we walked towards a small train station, where we caught an even smaller train. We switched trains, and made our way to Arashiyama, where we had a wonderful tofu lunch (the area is famous for tofu). Turns out I like tofu, at least outside of miso soup. The only thing that wasn't my favorite was the tofu dessert, which was was covered with a flour-like substance that I couldn't identify and didn't really enjoy.

From there, we walked across the street and up a road to Tenryu-ji, where we viewed the grounds and structures and took many photos. From there we took a path through a bamboo forest, and then back into town. We crossed the "Moon Crossing Bridge", stopped to rest, and then we took a long bus ride back into Kyoto.