Tofu Delight

Day 4 began with a very early rise at 5 am to begin our journey on the high-speed shinkansen train to Kyoto. We arrived in the ancient capital by 10 am, and found our way (after a bit trying to navigate the subway system) to our lovely ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), Nishyama. Nishyama is in a wonderful neighborhood near Kyoto City Hall.

Dropping off our bags and freshening up, we headed out to Nazen-Ji Temple with its two-storied gate and views of the temple-dotted city. It was just as we were photographing the vistas when we discovered we hadn't charged our camera after the previous night's fireworks display, and that the charger was in our bags at the ryokan. Sue was too exhausted from the early rising time to make the journey back to the inn, so she napped under the shrine's gates, while Sean dashed off to retrieve the charger. (She is probably in many a tourist's photos of the gate, lying on her back in her red tank top!)

We enjoyed exploring the temple grounds - a most reverent place, which we had nearly all to ourselves. The temple marked the beginning of the most beautiful several hours walking along the Shishigatani Canal, along what is known as the Philosphers Walk. The path runs along the base of the Higashiyama mountains and is lined with boutiques, shrines, craft shops and restaurants. We wondered along the path for several hours taking in shopping, the beautiful homes, and shrines along the way. The first one we discovered was the shrine of the boar, which was most serendipitous because it happens to be Sue's Chinese sign in the zodiac! We sat in silence and solitude for awhile and then ventured out to find a bite to eat and a place to charge the camera.

As Buddha would have it, we happened onto the tiniest of tea houses, where we were informed by the hostess that served only tofu dishes, in the Buddhist tradition. "Fabulous!" we said. For the next hour we sat on mats at low tables, and were treated to the most wonderful tea and assortment of tofu dishes - sesame-flavored with wasabi, ice cold with fresh, shaved ginger and soy sauce - along with delicately tempura-battered vegetables, yam soup, picked vegetables (a local specialty, and one we'll be bringing home with us by the jar full!) and the best green tea we've ever tasted.

Feeling fully awake and alive for the first time that day, we headed back onto the Philospher's Walk and proceeded to shop until we droppped - kimonos, paper, more clothes for Sean. We walked along the canal admiring the giant koi fish (bigger than the ducks!) and lovely houses, pondering the level of difficulty for Americans to emigrate to Kyoto and buy property along this beautiful path.

We headed back to our ryokan by 7 pm in time to be served tea by our hostess, wash up, dress in our yukata (cotton robes) and head to the dining room for yet another exquisite meal, the traditional kaiseiki dinner. Kaiseiki consists of several small dishes of local, fresh, seasonal vegetables, fish and more silkly tofu! We had sashimi; more yummy tofu in broth with greens and mushrooms; and more vegetable tempura; grilled eel and eggplant (which Sue bravely tried and enjoyed throughly); small, whole, grilled, salted fish (which stared at us from the plates, but when in Kyoto! Sean was much more brave than Sue on this one, eating the fish, scales and all!); green tea and fresh fruit. All grasciously served to us by our hostesses with lovely smiles and kind explanations of how to eat the meal.

Completely full and blissful, we took 20 minutes dips in the onsen downstairs, which had views of the waterfall in the upstairs rock garden, and then passed out on our futons dreaming of shrines and tofu.

We are writing on the evening of Day 5, anticipating a fun night on the town in Kyoto along the river and at Club World (one of Sean's NYC connections got us on the guest list for the night.). You can read all about Day 5 tomorrow, but a hint - we are staying an extra night (Sunday) in Kyoto beacause we love it so much! More to come ...

Japanese phrase(s) of the day (which sum up Day 4 perfectly):

oyshi katta - That was delicious!

AND

ikura deska - How much is it?

xo, Sue and Sean