Mar. 6, 2013

Kyoto - Tokyo via Skinkansen

It was a good sleep at the New Miyako Hotel and despite the very quick pace of our trip so far, I was raring to go. The hotel was a buzz of early morning activity, so Darrell choose the least crowded hotel restaurant for breakfast, which offered a tradtitonal Japanese breakfast with rice porridge, miso broth with tofu, an assortment of pickled vegetables and plums, and hot tea.

Our first stop of the morning was to the Shoyeido Incense Company. In the early 18th century, Rokubei Moritsune Hata began incorporating techniques of creating incense he learned as an employee of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan. He would eventually introduce a new world of scent to an audience beyond the realm of royalty. Twelve generations later, the Hata family continues to create an amazing array of fragrances. Shoyeido incense is considered the highest quality, most natural incense available on Earth.

We were greeted by a shop employee and were then escorted to the office of the company's President, Mr. Masataka Hata. Hata-san gave us a very welcome greeting and then took us to the small factory section of the building for a tour to see how Shoyeido produces their incense sticks, which are processed almost completely by hand.

After the tour of the factory, we stopped to watch the incense wood cutter doing his work, which felt more like watching a monk at work. We were fascinated by the meticulous work of thinly cutting and grading the wood according to the particular resin content and color.

A drawing depicting three types of "Koro" (incense burner).

It was back into the shop to look at the very large assortment of incense and incense burners. The ornate round gold burner in one of the pictures below is a "Tsuri Koro", which is literally a hanging incense burner.

We thanked Hata-san for the tour and the time he spent with us, and said goodbye. The moment we left Shoyeido, the wonderful scents of the shop were gone. I wondered if Hata-san and his employees become less aware of the scents of the shop just like we do at Corti Brothers of the scents from all of the unique foodstuffs that permeate our shop. I imagine they do.

~Shoyeido Incense Company Website~

The next stop was to visit an acquaintance of Darrell's, who owns a small antique shop not too far away from Shoyeido. We grabbed a cab, which quickly pulled off of the main road and headed down a number of very narrow streets until we reached the shop. Darrell viewed a number of new antique pieces, which Hayashi-san had recently acquired. They had a few things to talk about, so I took the opportunity take a short stroll around the neighborhood.

During my stroll, I saw a very small Daihatsu automotive repair shop... and I mean small. I marveled at how organized it was and thought that compared to repair shops in the U.S. this was hardly as big as a small motorcycle shop back home.

One place Darrell had not seen in Kyoto was the Kyoto Nishijin Textile Center. The center showcases textile history going back 1500 years in Japan. It's a stop that he wouldn't miss on this trip as it was our next destination. The center has numerous interactive displays, many things to see, an amazing gift shop filled with textile goods, traditional dolls, and many traditional Japanese gifts. It even has a fabric weaving center where one can take classes to learn to weave.

Darrell purchased some fine fabric, which he will have made into bow ties, and I picked up a few gifts to give on my return home. There was a small class being held in the classroom area, which was well stocked with an amazing assortment of fancy threads and yarns.

~Kyoto Nishijin Textile Center Website~

We had a little time before we needed to be back at the hotel to gather our luggage for the Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo. The Kyogashi shiryokan (a museum of Kyoto sweets) was just a short distance, so we hailed a cab and went to see the museum. The entrance to the museum was beautifully landscaped in a traditional Japanese way complete with bamboo, ume trees in blossom, rocks, pavers, and even a beautiful small garden off of the main entrance. We took a look at their permanent exhibit named "The history of sweets in Japan". It was made entirely of sugar, flour, water and coloring. Unfortunately, they did not allow photos of the very elaborately crafted display, which had everything from delicate flowers, trees, buildings, gardens, to people all made from sugar. After viewing the exhibit we had time to sit in the tea ceremony room on the first floor and have some matcha green tea with a hand made sweet. There was a confectionery master at the end of the room who made the individual sweets for the guests seated in the tea room. The combination of the sugared bean paste sweet and the unsweetened green tea made a very pleasant afternoon treat.

We enjoyed the artfully made sweet and tea then left the tea room to see the retail shop on the way out.

We hailed our last cab in Kyoto to make our way back to the hotel. On the way the cab driver took us past the Imperial Palace, so I captured a few scenes of the gates as we drove by and also caught a shot of the Kyoto Tower just before we arrived back at the hotel.

We got our luggage from the hotel concierge and walked across the street to the Shinkansen station. As we made our way through the station, Darrell and I were hit with a few afternoon hunger pangs. Darrell asked me what I thought we should eat. I told him that I was open to anything. Just then, immediately in front of us, we saw those very familiar golden arches sitting on the sign of red. Darrell said "Ok... time to see if the American culture is being properly represented in Japan" and into McDonalds we went.

Unlike our September 2011 experience at the McDonalds in Tbilisi, The Republic of Georgia, this outlet was almost exactly like McDonalds back home. As Darrell mentioned, there was more lettuce and pickle on the Big Mac with a milder taste and the Coca Cola was definitely less sweet than it is back home. The only difference on the menu was BBQ fries, which we don't see in the U.S. Everything else was just like home. Hunger pangs squelched for the time being, it was up to the platform to catch our 3:09 pm Shinkansen train back to Tokyo.

We had the same seats for the trip back to Tokyo, so I knew I would get a second opportunity the catch a few more pictures of Mt. Fuji on the trip back since the mountain was mostly clouded over on the trip coming. Shortly after leaving Kyoto, we passed some snow covered mountains, which looked more like a scene in the lower Alps than Japan. About an hour after we departed the Kyoto station Mt. Fuji came into view. It was completely clear and the angle of the afternoon sun was perfect. I got a few very good shots of the iconic beauty.

Goodnight Mt. Fuji... thanks for the spectacular views!

We made the Ikebukuro station around 5:30 pm. We were greeted by Chieko Koizumi Hosokawa , a dear friend of Darrell's who's family owns the twelve Yoshiya grocery markets in the Tokyo area. The first order of business, since we were now back in Tokyo, was to go eat dinner. Chieko took us to one of her favorite restaurants named Yakitori Hiranoya. We were met at the restaurant by Chieko's husband Tadashi.

Yakitori translates to grilled chicken, but the term also refers to skewered chicken, which is grilled along with other types of skewered grilled food. Hirano-san is a one man show. He cooks at the main counter from his small charcoal grill. The restaurant is small, seating perhaps no more than 20 people. His cooking style is modern and very minimalist. Darrell wanted to have Shamo, which is a specific breed of gamecock chicken. Hirano-san prepared a whole Shamo for our meal grilling each set of skewers at the bar right where we were sitting.

I was completely done in by the Shamo breast. I'm a lover of seared Ahi and am addicted to all good raw tuna. When I tasted the lightly seared Shamo breast, I was struck at how it was similiar to seared tuna, but better, more silky in texture and elegant. I think Ahi has just become unseated from the top of my favorites list! Sadly, I'm sure I will have to return to Japan to have this again because there's no way I could have this served to me back home.

The Shamo dinner at Yakitori Hiranoya was wonderful. Hirano-san was intensely focused as he prepared and cooked all of our skewers. Each was very fresh, all having unique textures, and delicious flavor. The dessert was in keeping with the rest of the meal. Perfectly done and a fitting end to a great dinner. The long day was at its end and we had a busy day ahead, so it was time to retire to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

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