Fushimi-Inari Taisha is a shrine for the 神 (kami) Inari. It's famous for the thousands of torii (remember? the gates to Shinto shrines (incidentally, there's some at Buddhist temples as well. I think this is because of the 1000+ years of cultural mixing before the separation of Buddhism from Shinto in the Meiji era)) that you can walk through. I hadn't been yet & thought it would be a nice place to take some last pictures with Dave before he left, so we went to check it out.

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& that ends the series of pictures from Dave's visit. & my patience for putting up pictures tonight... haha. I hope you enjoyed these. Look forward to more soon!

Okay, so this is an amazing story. Dave & I decided we wanted to try the little restaurant right in front of my apartment -- during the day it's a fish market (you can buy cooked & uncooked fish, sashimi, & bentos) run by an older couple, & at night it looked like it was a little bar that was pretty much always bustling.

We decided to check it out one night, so we went down there & asked if they were open, & a friendly-looking guy apologized & said that that night they weren't. We moved on & got food somewhere else. When we got home, there were some flyers posted on the windows of the little shop -- 3 on the side facing the street, & more on the side with the entrance (which faces the little walkway up to the entrance of my apartment). This is what they said:




I was totally flabbergasted. My initial thought was, "This can't be for me." Then I realized that whoever wrote it (clearly the guy in the shop) went to all the trouble of writing it in English; it HAD to be for me (& Dave). So we went upstairs & put our stuff down & went back downstairs & stepped in.

As soon as we did, 2 of the 4 people sitting at the bar (there's room for maybe 8?) gasped with delight & said "She came!" (in Japanese). & so, I made some friends! Apparently, Mimu (the guy who runs the shop) had been up drinking till like 7am & so he wasn't planning to open shop (understandably), but he wanted to meet us so he decided to 頑張って (ganbatte - work hard). He had called an English-speaking friend & asked him what to write!

The girl sitting to our right was introduced as Midori, & when we realized she was holding markers, I asked if she'd drawn the pictures on the signs & she said yes. She's a friend of Mimu's; they both went to Doshisha's middle school. The guy sitting to her right was introduced as Kazu. I thought he looked kind of familiar, & for good reason -- he lives a floor above me & has the room next to Jan. We'd seen him from time to time (that is, me & Jan), taking his bike in & out of the elevator. He had been the one to post all of the signs.

That night Dave & I just had a beer each, but the next night we went back & ate there -- sashimi & some different kinds of cooked fish, & it was really delicious.

It was really amazing. I couldn't believe anyone would go to all that trouble just to welcome a customer into their shop (well, I guess Dave's hair makes it a little less than shocking...). But now I've made those friends (Midori & Kazu are regular customers), I can go down there anytime, even by myself. & I have, any number of times. One night when I was sick, I went down & just asked Mimu to make me a plate of some stuff to bring back up to my room & eat.

About half an hour ago, I was trying to figure out how to eat this べったら (bettara; a kind of tsukemono) that I'd gotten:

Bettara-zuke is a kind of pickled vegetables, which is made by salt-curing daikon radish and pickling washed and dried daikon in amixture of koji & rice malt, sugar and mirin.

From Tokyo Tourism Info.

( Picture. )

I'd tried it at some tsukemono (pickle) shops before & liked it so I bought some, but when I went to open it just now I realized it was immersed in this sticky gel-like stuff, & I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat it like that (which I didn't remember doing in the store), or if there was something wrong with it (which didn't seem right, either, because all of the ones in the store looked like that).

I decided, I'll never figure it out on my own, so I took it downstairs & went into Mimu's shop (full of customers) & asked him how the heck to eat this thing. He told me to rinse it & then cut & eat; I thanked him & said good night. As I was leaving I heard a customer ask what that was about, & he laughed & replied I just had no idea how to eat it. He probably told them I'm a Doshisha international student, because he tells everyone that when I go in there. :)

When it's time for me to leave for home I'm going to give him a gift, because he's been so so so nice to me. It's so wonderful to have someone so easily accessible at night for help with things like that. He didn't even mind that I didn't order anything.

Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble about this, but it's something that's really touched my heart since being here & it makes me so so so happy that I got placed in this apartment.

Warning: Not safe for work. :)

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This one's going to be a major photo dump. The last time Dave was in Japan, my mom's cousin Asako took us to this yudofu restaurant called 奥丹 (Okutan) over by Kiyomizu-dera.

On Yudofu:

"...when it is cold outside, nothing could be better than yudofu. To prepare yudofu, simmer kombu seaweed in plenty of water in a large pot. Cut fairly soft tofu into good-sized blocks and then add to the pot. When eating, dip the tofu in a sauce or broth containing soy sauce. Yudofu, so simple to make, is often eaten in Japanese homes, and Kyoto has many restaurants specializing in it.

From Nipponia

We loved it so much that we wanted to have it again this time around, but I had learned that the restaurant has another branch up by Nanzenji, which I had been wanting to visit as well, so we decided to go to that branch.

However, it was kind of hard to find, & when we finally got there, there was a sign out front that said the tofu was sold out! I was super disappointed & felt horrible for not having just gone back to the one that we already knew was so beautiful (that was my other reasoning - I wanted to see what this one looked like), but we decided to ask & see if there was anything at all they served other than that.

It turned out the only thing they were out of was the actual yudofu; they have other items that you can order as well, so we decided to eat there after all, & it ended up being plenty of food for me, so I don't know what on earth I did when we were here last time... haha.

Then we went & walked around Nanzenji & it was absolutely beautiful. So, I'll start the pictures!

Warning: It's a really big post, so if your connection is slow (or maybe even if it isn't) be prepared to wait while it loads.

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Since I introduced Dave to the wonder that is Studio Ghibli, & especially Hayao Miyazaki, we've both wanted to go to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, which is just outside of Tokyo. I decided that we'd go when he came to visit, & sure enough, we did! The pictures herein are only of the outside & the rooftop, because you're not allowed to take pictures inside. It was smaller than I expected (even though my friend Jan had told me it'd be small), but I really loved it. It was well worth the trip.

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Dave came to visit for a week (which was extended to a week & a half once he got here & realized he wanted to stay longer) at the beginning of the month. Lucky for me, the cheapest time for him to fly out here from Florida was during Golden Week!

Golden Week is a week during Japan when there's 4 holidays. Some schools only get the holidays off (like my cousins' elementary & middle schools); others get the whole week off (like mine!).

We had a ton of fun, mostly just hanging around Kyoto, but of considerable note is our trip to Tokyo. We visited my aunt Naoko & her husband Pooh-san (so nicknamed because apparently he looks like Winnie the Pooh) & went & saw the Ghibli Museum! We were only there for 2 days, but it was a lot of fun (despite the overnight bus we took).

So anyway, starting off: Day 1!

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On May 1st, Jan, Vivian & I went to Osaka's aquarium, the Kaiyukan. I've been once before, when I was really little, & I remembered a little bit, but it was a lot of fun to go again.

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So as I mentioned in the last post, after Jan & I discovered the Miyako Odori, we decided to go back & check it out. I invited all the UC kids, but it was kind of last-minute, so only Rachel & Traci took me up on the offer.

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I just finished resizing all of the pictures I took between April 30th & May 19th (well, all of the ones that're worth posting). There are 400 of them. At their resized file sizes, it's a total of almost 57mb.

...

Yeah. The reason I'm so backed up is that Dave was here for a week & a half, & then basically right after he left I got sick (tonsilitis, yay!) for another week & a half. I haven't had the time or the energy to get these resized &/or posted. & now I still don't have the time because I'm behind in school... so you're all going to have to wait a little while longer.

But know that when I do get around to putting these up, it will take me all day long to do, & it'll take you a good long while to go through them, too. So - when I do, please comment! It'll make it worthwhile for me to do!

See you in a few days.

Jan invited me to go shopping in Gion with her at the end of last month (on April 29th, if anyone's interested in the actual date...). We spent the entire day wandering around.

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