Glimpses of Familiar Japan - Day 7 Nikko to Kyoto

 Dining at the top of the World (Hotel Okura, Kyoto)

Japan is a place that always defies the expectation.  One of my greatest expectations was arriving in Kyoto on my thirtieth birthday.  This turned out to be one of the longest and hardest days of our journey there and perhaps one of the least impressive, at least at first.  At the end of it, though, we came through the hardship and had perhaps the single best meal of our lives...

My mom was tired of buses, and after our long trip the previous day, I don’t blame her.  So we arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the hotel and take us down to the JR Nikko Station.   Here, we departed the Nikko Lakeside.   I must compliment the wonderful man at the desk because for all the problems of language he did his very best to help us.  That morning was no exception, because he’d packed a wonderful lunch of egg salad sandwiches and other things for us to take on our journey.   This is such a remarkable thing.  When was the last time a hotel staff member not only made you a lunch, free of charge, but packed it and prepped it for your departure without you asking? 

Driving down from Chuzenji

Looking down at Nikko Proper

Last view of Chuzenji

Great waterfalls on the way down

It was 610 yen to take the taxi but money well worth it.  The driver spoke a bit of English and he pointed out things as we passed.  We got to see colors and details of the hillside, huge ravines and immense waterfalls.  At one point, he stopped without us asking him to, just so that he could show us the view of a massive fall of water and he could take our picture.   This was not the only treat on the way down.  We saw wild monkeys sitting by the side of the road.  They looked right at us as we passed within a hair’s breadth and didn't seem even bothered by the passing car.   There were also deer, including a male in the road with his full set of antlers.  He didn’t even bat an eye at us as we passed him by inches. 

Yamabiko 122

We caught a 7:29 train back to Utsonomiya where we took another bullet train to Tokyo.  This time we were on a sleek, blue Yamabiko 122.  This is an extremely fast train, topping out at 300 mph.   We had the sandwiches from the hotel along the way, and the lunch included oranges and an ok green tea.  At Tokyo Station we waited to catch Bullet Train to Kyoto.

 I took the opportunity to try to find lunch, and I settled on a bento from the first place I saw.  I wish I had more time because on the way back, we passed this same area and I saw much better refrigerated boxes.  If the Japanese did anything else, they could make food for every kind of transportation.  There were bento of every kind from western foods to stranger Japanese fare. We did enjoy a lemon cream puff from a bakery stall. 

Inside the Shinkansen

It was about a 3-4 hour train ride to Kyoto from Tokyo, and we passed through more verdant country but did not have a view of Mount Fuji on the way, unfortunately.  When we arrived at Kyoto Station, it was quite the sight to see.   The whole of the structure is a palace of glass, stretching at least 10 -12 stories from outside perception.  Every surface is made of glass on the exterior, and the inside includes huge cavernous spaces with hundreds of passengers passing in all directions.  We caught a taxi here and were driven to the Hotel Okura Kyoto.

There was something uniquely mysterious about this pathway into one particular restaurant.

Our accommodations in Kyoto were a bit more cramped with the three of us sharing a room this time instead of separate rooms.  The Kyoto Okura is very lovely, but it doesn't feel as broad and spacious as the Tokyo hotel, and it's certainly not as austere and quiet. The food for breakfast throughout our stay there was definitely not spectacular.  After arriving, I was in a mood to get out, though I think my parents were more tired than I felt.   I can’t blame them, but Kyoto was the bigger subject for me since the character in my book lives there.  I felt I had a lot of ground to cover.  So we headed out to find Gion. 

Gion area

Kyoto is a very ancient city.  It has wooden houses meshed with modern ones, but in coming there I had no idea how very modern it is.  I suppose I assumed every street was completely wooden houses, ancient cobblestone, etc.   No, not at all.  There is a forest of power poles everywhere.  The streets of Gion are narrow and everything seems strangely dingy and dirty, especially when compared to Tokyo. Outlying areas were far cleaner, more spacious and pretty.   I suppose a modern downtown is a bad example of a greater portion of a city that was a seat of power for centuries, but it was a bit of culture shock. 

Example of a more modern city street

Water is everywhere in Kyoto.  It flows down channels and paths and streams, along through neighborhoods and city streets before eventually emptying out in the main river that divides the east and west city.  This is a huge, deep channel with paths crossing either side and businesses that look out over it.    We followed along, trying in vain to catch glimpses of geisha who still make their home in Gion.   Some neighborhoods were mysterious and strangely inviting, but in other areas people stared at us strangely and in a none-too-friendly way that was very different from the openness of Tokyo.

Central river

We had no idea what to do about food.  It was my birthday, and we wanted to do something special, but we had no idea what to do.  We did pass a fugu (poison blowfish) place, but I had no desire to dine on something that would kill me.  Still it was rather strange to see these bulbous little bundles of death floating around in a tank outside with one doing circle-like loop-de-loops as it was caught in the jet of the filter.    

"There's no gu like fugu, like no gu I know." -Andrew Zimmern  Note the fish on the far left.  It kept doing these weird loops in that jet.

We were tired by this point, and unfortunately unlike Tokyo, Kyoto’s subway was largely useless to us.  I could go on for hours with negative considerations of the Kyoto Metropolitan subway system.  I won't though.

Blue Heron in one of the streams near Gion.

 A small Inari shrine in Gion

Our first glance at a kitsune

Pausing to look at a menu

We trudged all the way back to the hotel, almost too tired to move but very hungry.  We wanted meat because we hadn't had much it, and we decided to try the Okura’s “Steakhouse.”  This was a meal that would live on in our minds as perhaps the single greatest meal we’d ever had or perhaps will have. 

It wasn't so much of a steakhouse as a Benihana, but to compare the two is such a shallow thing.  Benihana are pale shadows of this.  The restaurant looks right out over the city of Kyoto, and with the setting sun long gone we had a view of all the lights like stars in the sky beyond.   We all ordered what was known as the Tokiwa Special menu for 10,000 yen, or about 100 dollars each.  Our chef was clearly the new guy, sent fresh from the kitchen to practice on the westerners before graduation to more particular palates.  Even so, he was spectacular in the way he worked, and the food was awesome.  

We began with a franc of foie gras, with ham and fig, fish and scallops.  This was put onto the hot surface before us while our chef sliced garlic so razor thin it was as translucent as glass.   He infused the garlic into sauces he was making all the while searing a 100 gram sirloin, hot vegetables, salad, rice, pickles, and miso soup.  All this was prepared in unison on the hot surface.  His knife cuts were extremely precise and it was like a show to watch him.  

Then he got out the fresh wasabi.  Now, this isn’t the wasabi you know in the States.  Our stuff is garbage horseradish.  This is the real thing, and he takes it and grates it on a sharkskin grater so fine it’s like a paste.   We put it on our meat, and it’s divine.  There’s just a little heat, a warm buttery taste.   Honestly, we could have made a meal of just the wasabi, it was that good. 

This was an encapsulation of Japanese service, and how very much the Japanese work to please those in their care. My dad tells the story in a different perspective with a tall glass of beer next to him.  It's Kirin Ichiban, and he’s drunk about half and is reaching for the bottle to pour more, but no, there’s a man within arm’s reach of him whose job it is to just pour my dad’s beer so he doesn't have to.  When the beer is out, no need to ask, there’s more.  It glorious. 

We finished with a desert, including candles and everyone singing happy birthday.  It was one of the best meals I've ever had and the perfect one for my thirtieth year.  Gazing out at the soft lights of white and blue against a dark backdrop of mountains, I was very content.  Despite not having such a great first day in Kyoto, my hopes were high and the next day would far surpass the first.

A view out into the midnight of Kyoto