Location: Kyoto, Japan
After visiting the temple seven buses of world cruise guests descended upon The Sodoh restaurant for lunch. It was the best meal I had during the 3-day Kyoto event. Everyone was divided into four small buildings and were served a Western-style fusion meal. My first vision was of the centerpiece, with floating flowers and candles.
I first saw Western utensils rests while eating in Osaka. Here they had a single rest for chopsticks and utensils, complete with depressions to tell you what to put where. I may buy some of those.
As we returned to the bus, I spotted a “Rent a Kimono” shop. Our guide explained that Kyoto receives very many tourists, even from within Japan, and quite a lot want to have pictures taken while wearing traditional garb. The basic rule was as our guide explained it: if the kimono is amazingly brightly colored, the wearers are tourists.
We then visited Nijo Castle, which was built to house the Shogun when he visited Kyoto. My first impression: even the traffic cones were concealed within bamboo to help create a common visual effect with the castle.
The castle buildings are only partial open to the public, and photography is not allowed in the interiors. An unusual aspect was the “nightingale floors” in some of the buildings – the floors were supposedly constructed to chirp when walked on to ensure no one could sneak around. And the squeaky part certainly worked.
In addition to the buildings, Nijo Castle was known for having a famous gate. I was thinking, “how pretty could a gate be?” Wow.
All the colors in the rafters are painted carvings.
Below is an even-more closeup, showing the flower crest of the Imperial family. However, this castle was originally built by and for the Shogun. Our guide explained that after the Shogun returned authority to the Emperor in 1868 imperial crests were placed over shogunate crests on the gate.
It’s now time to go shopping! We visited the Nishiki Market, a single pedestrian road arcade of shops that goes for blocks. Shops for fresh seafood, fresh dry ingredients, sake, tourist crap… it just went on and on. We could only visit for 30 minutes, so could not go far.
I love the Snoopy in a kimono sign.
Below is literally a candied baby octopus stuffed with a quail egg on a stick, because of course it is. Does not require further cooking.
We then returned to the hotel, where we had options for dinner type. As I had teppanyaki in Osaka, I choose a traditional multi-course meal, or Kaiseki. Turns out the hotel restaurant does that, so it was a short walk. I found the art in the entrance way interesting, displaying Noh masks and monk bells.
Maiko-san returned to visit us at dinner.
Overall, I found today the most enjoyable of the cruise so far – I saw and learned so much. Tomorrow we have a morning of touring, and then travel to Tokyo by Shinkansen. Stay tuned.