Once again, the hotel did a much better job with Japanese breakfast than western. I am a fan of miso soup but not so much on the s
alad and seaweed side. I look forward to my way of cooking scrambled eggs. Anyway, we piled into taxis again for a ride up the street to a Noh theater which is one of the longest operating in Japan. The woman who owns the place gave a talk on Noh, showed us some masks and robes, and trained part of the group in how to do Noh movements. Her son, who is a Noh actor demonstrated the drum they use to express emotions and he gave a short demonstration play. I’m still not sure I would want to sit through two hours of it but at least I would have a better understanding of what was going on.
In order to use the restroom, we then went to the sweets museum next door. They had whole flower arrangements made of sugar. Very interesting but there were no English translations on the exhibits. We then walked a few blocks to the Kyoto Heian Hotel for lunch. The hotel has a beautiful Japanese garden which we had time to explore. Lunch consisted of a salad, pork chop with noodles, and bread.
From the h
otel we boarded taxis once more (did I explain that the streets of Kyoto are to0 narrow and crowded for buses to be useful?) and headed to the Yasaka Shrine, a rather large and well visited Shinto site whose deities specialize in curing illness. We then had a short walk through the Gion district made famous by Memoirs of a Geisha. It was less
scenic than I had hoped but there were a lot of these posters that I found enchanting.
We then crossed back over the river into downtown Kyoto and proceeded to the Teramachi shopping arcade, a fascinating collection of shops of all descriptions which stretches on for several blocks. Perpendicular to the Teramachi is the Nishiki food market, which, while colorful, seems to cater to tourists more t
han locals.
It was just a few blocks back to the hotel so I made my way back and had time to process photos before dinner. We again walked to a nearby restaurant which had a western fusion edge but still was very Japanese in presentation of the meal. We started with an appetizer, then salad, then sashimi, then soup. Our entre was roast beef with a tiny amount of mashed potatoes and a huge amount of rice. Then the ubiquitous Miso soup, and finally desert which consisted of green tea ice cream, cake and something like strawberry pudding.
Haiku:
Bustling chaos
Overwhelming sights and sounds
Nishiki Market