Japan #4

Relieved to awake to find my ankle and knee fully recovered, we took a metro ride after breakfast to Nishiki market. Rich with history and tradition, fish started being sold in this area from as early as 782, as the cold groundwater enabled it to be kept fresh close to the Imperial Palace. With its cobblestone floor and colourful canopy, the arcade now runs for 400m and is referred to as 'Kyoto's Kitchen', owing to the 130+ shops selling fruit, veg, fish etc. 

We pottered around, enjoying all the stalls and making a few purchases for the girls and neighbours. Initially passing one stall giving it barely a glance, we then backtracked and had a closer look. It was basically a junk shop (antique would be overstating it), with everything piled high and in boxes which were crammed into the small space. I found a box of old watercolour paintings adorned with Japanese lettering for about £5 each. We rummaged through and ended up buying one for us and one each for the girls. R found a strange, unidentified wooden object. Despite being clueless as to its use, he now regrets not buying it as it would have looked lovely cleaned and polished. 

R wasn't feeling brilliant at this point, so we headed back to a cafe that we had passed on my search for a loo. Ainsoph Journey was a vegan cafe which we couldn't do full justice to as we already had plans for lunch. Corn nachos with salsa and a matcha latte each filled a gap nicely and allowed R to sit and recover for a while.

Then it was onwards for our main destination of the day - Ki West restaurant for a vegan sushi making workshop under the tutelage of chef Nami.  

For 2 hours, we had fun moulding rice and vegetables into different shapes. There were 3 main types: maki (the well known rolls); nigiri (shaped rice adorned with veg), and battleships (where the rice is shaped, wrapped in nori and the space above filled with other toppings. In our case, one was a mixture of mushrooms and potato, and another was soya mince). One point to note, the bamboo mats used for rolling the sushi were much thicker than the ones that we are used to at home. Also, the choice of vegetables used were some that we wouldn't have thought of eg. okra, which looked beautiful when cut into cross sections. The nigiri were topped with oyster mushrooms, roasted pepper, bamboo shoots and aubergine, before being adorned with a blob of miso, and the battleships were garnished with spring onions and mint leaves. You wouldn't think that mint would work, but it really did.

It wasn't just a matter of making the sushi, we also followed the hand gestures and traditional moves and presentation that sushi chefs apparently use. It was almost dance-like in its execution.

The workshop was great fun. Nami was patient and informative and after the lesson finished we were left alone to enjoy our sushi lunch. :O)

I loved the red lacquered trays.

Following our sushi workshop, we walked to Nijo Castle. This consisted of 2 concentric rings of fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins of the Honmaru Palace and various support buildings and several gardens. One of the highlights was watching 2 kingfishers posing in the gardens. We have kingfishers at home down by the river, but they are usually only glimpsed as a quick flash of blue.

Tired from our busy day, we took the metro back to our hotel for a cup of Rooibos tea, before heading out again to Coco Ichibanya for vegetable curry. You could specify the type of curry you wanted and also the spiciness - I went for the regular heat and R went for +2, which seemed hot enough. The spice level actually ranged up to +20! It was all delicious and amazingly cheap.

Then it was back to the hotel for the nightly ritual of Onsen, firepit and cocktails - Cuba Libra (rum, lime and coke) for me and a Highball (scotch and soda) for R. The highball wasn't the best. We didn't actually know what it was when we ordered it and, having tasted it, we decided that we both prefer our scotch neat!

As Wednesday 2nd April was our last day at the Sakura Terrace Hotel, we started the day with a final trip to their Onsen - it was becoming quite addictive! 

After breakfast we checked out and, leaving our cases to collect later, took a train to the Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine, a mountainside Shinto shrine, famous for its thousands of vermillion torii gates. The mountain is also called Inari and the 4km trail takes about 2 hours to walk up. Each of the 10,000 torii were donated by Japanese businesses. 800 of these are set in a row - the Senbon Torii - giving the impression of a tunnel. They create the entrance to the holy domain and protect it from wicked forces.

Foxes are regarded as messengers of the Shinto God, Inari, who is associated with rice, harvests, fertility and foxes! Some of the fox statues hold a key to the rice granary in their mouths, others hold scrolls and jewels. Incidentally, inari-zushi is also a type of sushi where fried tofu pouches are stuffed with seasoned rice - very nice they are too!

Whilst climbing, we kept thinking that we had arrived at the top, only to then discover another set of steps. It was warm and tough going. Eventually, R had had enough and I carried on alone to reach the summit. This took longer than I expected and, by the time I came back down, R was really worried thinking that I had come down by a different route and got lost - I'm known for my lack of sense of direction.

Climbing under the tree roots is supposed to guard against a bad back - personally, I think if you can crawl under them, your back is probably fine!

Mausoleums were dotted around at various heights - it was these which kept making you think that you had reached the top!

Taking the train back to Kyoto station, we bought a quick picnic lunch, collected our cases and then headed back to the station. Here we held the mistaken belief that the train ticket that we had bought online would be enough to get us through the ticket barrier and actually onto a train. Fools that we were! We eventually worked out that we had to take our QR codes to the ticket office and wait in line before receiving the proper tickets. We waited .......... and waited...........

Eventually, our number came up on the system and we were quickly and efficiently issued with our tickets to Kanazawa. The lady did briefly point out that we had to change trains at Tsuruga and had 8 minutes to make the connection. We were so glad to have actual tickets in our hands that this small fact sailed right over our heads! Until, that is, our train arriving at Tsuruga was 7 minutes late and we had just 1 minute to travel up 2 escalators and run 400m along the intervening corridor and then along the platform ........ carrying 2 heavy suitcases and 2 rucksacks. In retrospect, I think the authorities actually held the other train for a few extra minutes but even so. We are reasonably fit and healthy and we only just made it; heaven forbid if you needed a walking stick etc. We jumped onto the train to the sounds of me gasping 'What on Earth was she thinking? I mean, do I look like Usain b****y Bolt?!' We eventually regained our breath and the train ride to Kanazawa was otherwise incident free.

Our destination was the Daiwa Roynet Hotel, where we had a 'concept room' booked for the next few days. It had a colourful rice paper screen behind the headboard; I'm not entirely sure what the 'concept' was but it was very pretty!

Dinner was found at a local Irish pub called 'Zowie's', where I confused the Japanese staff no end by wishing them 'top of the morning to you' as we entered. It probably didn't help that it was the evening! My Irish blood didn't extend as far as ordering a Guinness, owing to the gluten, but R enjoyed one and I plumped for a mojito whilst we watched Japanese football on the giant TV.

A different Onsen finished off the evening nicely and they also had very nice massage chairs which I played with whilst waiting for R!

More about 2 having fun in Kanazawa next time.

Toodle pip for now. x