Kansai Trip: Part 3: Kyoto (full) day 2

Alright! A blog post that is on-time for once! Continuing on from my Kansai adventures, here is the end of my time in Kyoto. A good chunk of these photos are spent on my time in Uji (宇治), where I was able to experience tea ceremony in a natural setting (though not real, super complex tea ceremony... I wouldn't be able to understand that anyways).

Touji (東寺)

A nice tree

More Touji. Behind that temple is a school. We went in the morning, and there were kids going to school, walking through the Temple area. It was a strange sight.

Uji. Tei begins grinding the tea we will be drinking. It's all machine-ground now, but it was a fun to experience the one-rotation-per-second of grinding up matcha (抹茶).

 The nice green matcha dust settles. Afterwards it is scooped up and collected in a laquerware bowl...

...like so. This is $550/kg tea. Needless to say, it was really tasty.

Our tea sets.

2 heaping scoops, if I remember correctly. Though we were given extra as "service"

Whisking away. Look at that bubbly, frothy green.

Red bean snack on the side. The tea was quite nutty and sweet, with only a hint of bitterness. God it was good. So thick and rich. Ah, the life of luxury.

Yumi, Tobias (friend from Yamasa), me, and Tei. I was peer pressured into a (^-^)v

Thanks for the experience! We had lunch with them afterwards-- Yumi's family had prepared Oden, my first time trying it in Japan!

Yumi's father standing by the tea-roaster out front. A proud man of his family's 16 generation tea business (which used to supply tea to the Shogun in the Edo period).

Steps away from the shop is Byoudoin (平等院), a UNESCO World Heritage site (one of Kyoto's 16). It was rainy, but they accompanied us on our sight-seeing

Byoudoin

I caught a bird snatching the leftover ice cream cones (the ice cream was matcha flavor of course) as we scattered the crumbs for them to enjoy.

Yuba (湯葉), one of the many famous tofus of Kyoto. Expensive, but I love tofu and this had an awesome chewy texture.

My requisite picture of Kinkakuji (金閣寺). We headed there first thing in the morning on a Wednesday, and it was actually quite peaceful.

I continued my quest to taste all the dango in the world. Up top is kuri (栗 - chesnut), and bottom is matcha.

Children playing at Ninnaji (仁和寺). You can see some playing under the walkway... I'm pretty sure they were digging too... oh well, it's not like this place is a national treasure or anything. Oh what was that? It is?

Zen garden at Ninnaji.

Zen garden at Ninnaji, different angle.

There is less Japanglish in Japan than there is Chinglish in China. But that doesn't mean there is none. I've transcribed the wrapper Tei is holding below (it was a croquette... wait, no, it was a korokke):

SOUNDS GOOD
Thank you very much for purchasing today.
This is one of our special recommendations of this shop.
Our mission is to make our customer
happy with our food and say, "what a so tasty!!"
Our pursuing tastiness will never stop.
We intend to offer tasty food that meets
your satisfaction. All efforts are for our customers' smile!!
We are looking forward to your visit again.

I finally tried Goheimochi (pic from November post)! Though it wasn't the same type, it was tasty. I'm still on the lookout for the ones around here!

A forgettable Shinto Shrine in Ayashiyama, a region west of Kyoto. It wasn't really worth going to since we had very little time, and it was more of a bike-trip outdoorsy kind of place. Also, it was Christmas Eve, which equals Valentines Day in Japan, so the couples were out in force. It was probably my imagination, but Tei and I were getting some weird looks...

Tenryuuji (天竜寺), view one.

Tenryuuji, view 2.

Soy ice cream from a famous dude's store. It was good. That is all.

Next week(ish): Osaka, Himeji, Kobe!