life aquatic

Was feeling particularly unmotivated, but Hiroko wanted to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, so we went to Ebisu Garden Cinema.
Total. Brilliance. Once again Bill Murray proves that he's the greatest actor alive. The film was quirky and ridiculous and visually wonderful and cut messily and just completely entertaining. Must buy soundtrack: all those cool Bowie covers in Portugese!

ah, kyoto

Home safe and got all the photos uploaded. On Flickr I've got them all organized into sets:
Kyoto: various -- leftovers from about Kyoto
Kyoto: Okutan -- tofu feast
Kyoto: Kiyomizudera -- up in the mountains
Kyoto: Maiko -- the higlight; such a cutie
Kyoto: Kodaiji -- brilliant garden
Kyoto: Hyotei -- posh dinner in private teahouse
Kyoto: Nijojo -- tourist-trap castle
Kyoto: Hata-machiya -- a real old-fashioned house
Kyoto: Anjiro -- pious zen priest tofu feast
Kyoto: Myoanji -- be one with the rocks
Kyoto: Taizoin -- best garden ever
Kyoto: Ginkakuji -- not silver, but old and cool
Kyoto: Ryoanji -- be one with the rocks...and tourists
Kyoto: Nanzenji -- big, old, kyoto
Kyoto: Kinkakuji -- yup, it's damn gold
Kyoto: Tawaraya -- there's only one place to stay in Kyoto

I've also dumped them all into one big album on Ofoto.

tea break

tea break

Long day -- after a massive breakfast we checked out of Tawaraya and taxi'd to Kyoto station. We threw our stuff in a locker and went straight to Kodaiji, where a Maiko served us tea and danced. Absolutely the highlight of Kyoto. She is 20 this year, which means she will graduate from Maiko to Geiko (geisha). Cutest little thing, and I must say when she was dancing I think I fell in love with her for about 10 minutes. Absolutely mesmerizing. She graduated from junior high and, at 15, joined one of the houses to study: tea, dance, music, flower, etc. all the traditional arts. The priest who arranged everything at Kodaiji was a cool dude, too.
After that we checked out the gardens and buildings of Kodaiji, then wandered up the cobblestone, tourist-packed streets to see Kiyomizudera way up on the hill, then we wandered back down, grabbed a tofu feast lunch at Okutan, and wandered some more. We finally hopped on a bus back to the station and got the shinkansen back to Tokyo, slightly sun-burnt and very satisfied.

buy slides of nijo castle!

buy slides of nijo castle!

Another whopper of a breakfast and off we went in Doi-san's black Toyota Crown. We started the morning with some temple/garden goodness, including Ginkakuji, which is not, in contrast to the gold-lilt Kinkakuji (built by grandpa) silver, but they're are seriously studying the issue to determine if it should in fact be covered in silver leaf and therefore even more attractive to the hordes of babbling tourists and uninterested students killing time on school trips.
We dropped big coins at Aizenkobo on traditionally indigo-dyed wear and then for lunch we had a traditional priest's meal of never-endingly delicious vegetarian dishes. After lunch we checked out the private tradtional tea-house before walking over to Nijo castle. The 4pm tourist crush was in full effect, so we blasted through the main palace and then checked out the grounds before getting the subway back to Tawaraya.
Tonight for dinner is Hyotei: the restaurant of restaurants that should be good for the tongue and bad for the wallet.

west Kyoto

kinkakuji

Had the typical gut-busting breakfast and hopped into Doi-san's private taxi. We checked out the gold-leafed decadence of Kinkakuji and the Zen tranquility of Ryoanji. Well, as Zen tranquil as it gets given all the babbling tourists, crying babies, and the endless recorded announcement telling you to relax and sit in serene contemplation of the rock garden.
We drove through the bamboo forest and had soba noodles for lunch before heading up Arashiyama mountain. The weather was perfect so at Doi-san's suggestion we took the "Torokko" train (used to be an old coal locamotive, now it must be diesel) up to the top of the mountain and then grabbed the bus to the boat docks. We road the mighty rapids downstream, enjoying the lively banter and thick accents of the three boatsmen for the 1.5 hours down to the bottom of the river. Kind of reminded me of the Jungle Cruise, what with the snappy one-liners, polished delivery, and watery adventure, but it was more fun and significantly moister.
At the bottom Doi-san picked us up and took us back to Tawaraya. We wandered the neighborhood for a bit and had dinner on an outside balcony overlooking the river. Against Jenn's recommendation, I was in only my t-shirt, and as the sun set, the temp dropped. We ate and then walked back down the narrow Pontocho Alley, stopping for some traditional dessert before meandering back to the ryokan.
Here in the study, a cute Italian kid with exploding blonde curls lolled about at his parents' feet whilst his mom played with this computer for 20 minutes trying to get a browser open and his dad pawed his way through some architectural art books. Ah, Kyoto.

tawayara ryokan

tawayara ryokan

Just finished the 10-course dinner and we are lounging in the Ernst Study; the 11th generation's late husband was a professor at Kyoto's Art University and she has recreated his study in the inn. Slick combination of old Kyoto and modern furniture. Like this whole place, inviting, charming, friendly, oddly reminiscient, historical without being imposing, quaint without being trite...

kyoto tower

kyoto tower