Category: Food

The Day We Collectively Ate 10 Shaved Ices

June 14, 2013

After Nara, we all slept like stone dogs, getting 10 or more hours of sleep and barely registering our pricey hotel! The next day – the last of our whirlwind Kyoto trip – was reserved for the sights of Kyoto itself.

Now the guides say Kyoto can be appreciated in a few days, or at best a week. We had one! KLS and I had been here before 11 years ago, and I asked the concierge which sights were recommended in one day and she gave four suggestions. Soon we were on the bus to the first, Kinkakuji Temple (the golden pavilion):

Or, as it may have looked in a 1950s technicolour travelogue:

Beautiful isn’t it? The wooden structure is lacquered with gold, and sits next to a garden (the lake) which is considered one of the greatest in all Japan. To see it in person is quite a sight.

Here is a slightly different perspective:

As with all tourist sights here in Japan, Kinkakuji was mobbed with school kids. Given it was 93F, with almost no breeze and little shade, I felt sorry for them in their long pants, dresses and sleeves!

We quickly felt the heat as well, and I had a bit of a turn at the temple, succumbing to vapors that drained my life rapidly. We decided to head directly to another famous temple on the other side of Kyoto, then call it a day.

Upon arriving at the new location, we found a stall…

Selling a product called ‘potatornado’:

Which was delicious, especially with shaved ice!

Rapid consumption of such treats restored my HP quickly!

That is a pile of sand, intended to symbolize Mt Fuji, in the gardens of Ginkakuji, another famous temple in Kyoto.

As with Kinkakuji, it was built over 500 years ago when Kyoto was the Capitol, and today is one of the national treasures of Japan.

It was during exploration of the beautiful gardens on Ginkakuji that someone who shall be named only as ‘Francis’ was heard to utter: “When does this death march end?”

He was referring to the stairs, and the heat, and the two weeks of exhaustion. It was time to leave the heat and find solace in air conditioning, and that we did!

The above shows ~~Francis~~ Bernard enjoying lunch, and here he is a bit later after some mall shopping:

The tray contains the 8th, 9th and 10th shaved ices of the day, all but one of which had been lemon flavour! It would not be an exaggeration to say the ambrosial quality of the sickly sweet arctic treat had saved us from an early grave in the Kyoto heat!

Later in the day our train arrived to return us to Tokyo. Immediately after boarding we ate dinner:

And then this happened in the seats next to me:

While I chilled out and enjoyed the ride…

Crossing Items Off My List

June 5, 2013

There is an origami ‘museum’ not too far from where we are staying. Naturally, since Bernard is an origamist, we visited yesterday.

The museum, which is in the building of a company that makes traditional washi paper, consists of a small gallery, an impressive store, the area where the paper is made and died, and rooms for instruction. It is all very impressive, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

As we were leaving, a friendly old fellow intercepted us at the lift and told us he would give us a demonstration. This was none other than the chairman, and we were treated to a private demonstration of his skills (and his English!) for the next 20 minutes or so. It was wonderful!

If you’re ever in Japan, this place is worth a look.

The above is a random sketch in one of many sketchbooks in one of many arcades (‘game centers’) in Akihabara, where we spent the rest of the day. I didn’t take a great deal of photos throughout many hours of shopping, eating, UFO Catching and gaming, but I’m quite pleased to say many of the items on my shopping list were found in that several hour period. The rate at which my wallet bled cash was amazing!

Notable pickups included;
– The two DS Wizardry games that were never translated
– Musha Gundam 2
– Vast amounts of monster hunter figurines
– the new Yamashita art book
– certain souvenir items for friends that I was after

The latest and unquestionably greatest of the current crop of UFO figures is a magical girl Kirino from Ore no Imouto. Here’s a picture of an advert for it outside of one of the mega-arcades:

Bernard and I both won one 🙂

The monster hunter cat mascots (‘airou’) are a very big deal here, with vast amount of available merchandise. Twice now KLS has joked (?) about buying one of the big guys seen above!

Game Center highlights included the dozens of classic game posters on display at a Sega arcade, a punching game which nearly broke my hand, and Y200 for what seemed like an hour of darts 🙂

It was another very long and active day, and I fear Bernard may be at the apex of ruination. Even I am in an advanced state of decrepitude, and as I lay here early the next morning writing this the question of how to even rise from the futon is a challenging one!

But I’ll soldier on. As I always say on vacation, I can rest when I get home 😉

We’re Not As Young As We Remember

June 4, 2013

When you live at light speed as I do, you need the right fuel or else you flame out. Yesterday, a source of that fuel was established.

The location was Takao, the mountain to the west of Tokyo. After a pleasant train trip from the city, we started by riding the (fantastic!) chair lift to the half-way point:

The weather was great (about 80F), the views were wonderful and since we were all tired from the previous day we took the walk to the top slowly.

There are many shrines on the mountain, as well as restaurants selling food to the walkers. For us, the more refreshing the better!

The climb was longer and harder than KLS and I remembered, and we were at the apex of ruination before we reached the top. Bernard in particular was unused to the exertion, but he soldiered on like a true man!

That’s a Tanuki apparently, and the photo is taken from a sign illustrating its poop indexed by plants it ate! As with all the other animals allegedly on Takao (monkeys, flying squirrels), we saw none!

The walk done was much easier. At this time, I gave Bernard a rest by carrying his 4763 lb camera myself, taking many exhibition quality photos along the way. I expect he’ll be blogging a few on his blog (see link at right)!

We’d ridden the worlds steepest cable car once before, up the mountain, so yesterday we took it down. Amusingly, the car was packed with school kids, who all screamed excitedly when it fell out of the station at the start.

After a rest (during which I, with all this extra energy from vast quantities of Mt Dew, explored local grocery stores and marveled at overpriced fruit…), we hopped over to Ueno for dinner, toy shopping and (of course!), UFO catching!

That spaghetti was delicious!

Robot Claw