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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Kyoto

During our first afternoon in Kyoto, after we arrived, we walked around the area where our Ryokan is located. There is so much shopping here too!! We went to one of the big department stores, it had 9 floors and each one was bigger than a Macy’s store. In the basement is a “grocery store” and they also had hundreds of counters that sell prepared food, sushi, salads, raw fish, cookies, pastries, candy, bagels, etc. They were all passing out samples. We tried so many things, many of them I have no idea what it was.

We stayed in a Ryokan on our first night, it is a traditional Japanese Inn. We got served a seven course meal in our room. The dinner is called Kaiseki (when i looked it up it means many courses). It was beautifully arranged and presented on the table. Some dished had flowers or leaves on them as garnishes. We had miso Soup, a white soup-ish dish with pieces of fish in it, maybe made from tofu or soy or egg. I don’t know what it was but it was good, minus some of the fish.; Tempura fish (cod?) some type of green pepper I do not know the name of and a potato maybe, I didn’t eat the potato tasting tempura. We also had Sashimi - tuna & two other white/clear fish. Served with soy sauce and green horseradish; A simmered dish called takiawse, which had meat (a little over cooked if you ask me), mushrooms carrots and some other green vegetables. It was served in a dish over a flame and cooked in front of us which was pretty cool. We also had a bowl of rice, Japanese pickles - kounomono- A grilled Dish - piece of fish, gingerroot & also pearl onions wrapped and cooked in a some kind of leaf. For dessert we had fruit and tea. We also bought a botle of plum wine which we had with dinner too. I Didn’t know what half of the food was. Some didn’t have any taste. Some had a very strange texture.
Anyways after dinner they came in and cleaned everything up and pulled out our beds (mats and futons and blankets) and prepared the room for us. We were daring and went to the public bath in our hotel after dinner. It was definitely a different experience. I was expecting there to be a lot of people in there but it was only Katie and I, which made it a little bit easier. Did I mention you don’t wear a bathing suit?

Breakfast was interesting too. They woke up by knocking, then pounding on the door when we didn’t hear them. They unmade our beds and set the room for breakfast. We had miso soup, salad, many “appetizers” which are bite size, that we did not know, I ate about half of them; a soft boiled egg, rice, nori seaweed, which I have no idea what it was supposed to be used for, and tea.

We spent the day walking around Kytoto. We went to a market this morning at the Toji Temple. They sell everything there! And by everything I mean everything. They had so much food there too, and everyone was giving out samples again. I tried a persimmons, which are grown here and are very popular. Chestnuts are also really popular and we’ve seen so many chestnut roasting stands and shops. After that we went to an area called Arashiyama and saw a few temples there - The Horinji Temple, where we had to climb god knows how many stairs to get to it, and the Matsunoo Grand Shrine. there are sooo many more temples in Kyoto than anywhere we’ve been so far.

We bought the day pass for the bus and I am never riding on another bus in Japan after today! We had to wait so long for each bus and they were crowded and took too long. I’d prefer to rent a bike tomorrow, which would be so much easier. Everyone here rides bikes, some even text and smoke or wear high heels while they ride their bikes, its very impressive!

Tonight we went to the Gion area of the city, which is where the Geisha are. We tried to see them on the two streets they are supposed to walk on. But we only saw two girls in komonos and have no idea if they are Geisha. Everyone else seems to be “missing” them too. I’m gonna look this up later and try to figure it all out.

We had dinner at a conveyer belt sushi restaurant called a kaiten-sushi. I tried raw octopus, sea bream, tuna, sea urchin, and pork. I didn’t know it was pork until after I ate it. But really, who puts cooked pork in sushi?? Also I was told one of the pieces was horse meat…I hope not because it was raw, not like the horse meat I had the other night, and it was very chewy..I had to spit it into my napkin because after 10 minutes of trying I still couldn’t chew it! Some of the kinds of sushi they had were so interesting - different types of rose and at least 6 or 7 fish I’ve never heard of before. They also had quail egg, lobster salad, corn salad and seafood salad maki rolls. The only food I haven’t tried yet that I want to is jellyfish!

We are staying at a hostel tonight in a 6 person room with 4 other guys, two from France and one from England. The other one is a mystery to all of us. The guys are really nice. The two French guys bought us a drink tonight at the bar. They are all in their early 20s, and traveling just like us. One was just laid off, ones an engineer who quit his job and the other has yet to find a job since graduating 2 years ago..It's funny because we are all in the same boat, no jobs so we travel!


Katie & I with our backpacks! 

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