Day 12 - Sunday, Oct. 27 - Kyoto

Chef Kunihito

Another copious breakfast blending European and Japanese style dishes.  Then, as my room is being cleaned, I decide to go to the station and buy my train ticket to the airport in Osaka.  I’m glad I did because the line is long; this way no worries tomorrow morning.  On the way back to the hotel, I explore the underground mall a bit more:  many clothes shops and restaurants.  I’m beginning to get the hang of this.
       Then it’s a taxi to Gion Kurashita and my keiseki lunch, suggested by my daughter.  I wish I were hungrier!
       Looking at the map beforehand, I had planned to walk back.  Then I see how far it is by cab... close east-west, but way far to the north.  The driver drops me off in a narrow backstreet and points to a shoji, a paper sliding door with the traditional half-curtain at the top.  But it doesn’t open, and he’s driven off, so...  I look at other sections of the facade..  Nothing.  Then my brain kicks in; I return to the section the driver had pointed to and see an indent.  It’s a sliding door!
       Just inside, a woman in kimono shows me a card with “Sandy” on it and looks at me inquiringly.  I give her a “hai” (pronounced “hi” and meaning yes) and she shows me into a little room with a chef standing behind a counter set with five trays and five chairs.  But I’m the only customer!  The next hour or so will be just me and Chef Kunihito, who serves me:

- sakizuke, an appetizer similar to the French amuse-bouche;
- hassun, the second course:  sushi;
- mukōzuke, a sliced dish of seasonal sashimi;
- takiawase, vegetables served with meat, fish or tofu, all simmered separately before your very eyes;
- futamono, a soup;
- yakimono, a bit of flame-grilled fish;
- su-zakana, a few veggies in vinegar, to cleanse the palate;
- shiizakana, a hot pot;
- gohan, a rice dish with seasonal ingredients;
- kō no mono, seasonal pickled vegetables;
- mizumono, sliced seasonal fruit and a tiny cake.
All of this in tiny portions.  And this is the “short” menu, thank God!  My daughter would have loved it.  I wish she’d been here.
       All washed down with lots and lots of tea, which both chef and I pour, he when he’s there, me when he’s in the kitchen preparing the next course.
       By the end, I’ve gotten Kunihito to laugh out loud with my remnants of college Japanese from many decades ago.  It’s been a delicious lunch - even though thick-cut raw fish is not my thing.
       A taxi is called, and it takes a different route home through this neighborhood with its narrow streets, its old, low buildings, its policemen directing traffic (no women), its pedestrians and bikes... polar opposites from “my” downtown Kyoto world.  The portly driver speaks a smidgen of English, which helps when we arrive back at the hotel and I can’t get my credit card to work because I don’t understand the options in Japanese on the taxi’s pay screen and hit the wrong button.  He ends up coming around to do it himself... and this on a very busy street, risking life and limb.

       Such a sunny afternoon, so I decide to use my coupon to go up in the observation tower at the very top of the building, just in case tomorrow morning is foggy or overcast.  People of all ages are up there, enjoying the view out over Kyoto to the hills beyond.  On the way back down (shades of Montmartre’s Place du Tertre) I see an artist sketching the family who had taken the elevator up with me - young parents with a shy 5-year-old daughter I manage to get to smile.  And then I hear some teeny-bop music and discover “Neo Break” - five Japanese chickey-poos in kitchy blue outfits dancing and singing on the rooftop terrace bar to a group of nothing but boys who, in my opinion, are too old for this kind of thing.  Maybe they’re younger than they look.  I do a bit of the twist to make the bored elevator attendants laugh.
       I go for a walk around a few blocks, trying to find a Japanese mini-flag for my collection but no luck.  I do find a grocery store that sells mini-bouquets, so I buy one for the travel company staff on the third floor who have made my stay here a success, with the tour and the restaurant.  They’re sincerely surprised; no one has ever done that before.
       With that, I return to my room for some rest and a final night’s sleep in Kyoto.