Oct 11
Die Voltarensalbe ist schon fertig und die Ferien noch nicht…. aber es gibt sie auch in Japan. Die Dame im Shop packte zielstrebig diese Verpackung und streckte sie mir hin (und siehe da, es steht sogar noch ganz klein oben drauf). Bin schon gespannt – vielleicht riecht sie ja nach Wasabi!
I have to admit once in a while it is nice to have some western food… or better said… finally a good glass of wine! Friday evening was a candidate for it and i enjoyed every sip and every bite….. entrecôte, cheese, du vin rouge 🙂
p.s. i think this name is grammatically not correct – but it is the correct name of the place!
Ich wäre eigentlich gerne in einen Kochkurs der traditionellen Japanischen Küche gegangen, aber so spontan gab’s halt nur in der Sushi Klasse Platz. Aber es wäre jetzt etwas übertrieben zu sagen, das können wir ja schon lange… da gibts schon noch ein paar Details, von welchen wir im Westen noch nix gehört haben, sei es in Bezug auf die Herstellung oder einfach nur wie man die Sushi’s eigentlich korrekt isst!
Nach einer Einleitung über die verschiedenen Sushi, welche man hauptsächlich gibt: Tokyo einfache Sushi mit glatter Nori Seite aussen, gepresste Sushi (wie in einer Cakeform) in Osaka oder die verspielten Kugel- oder Blumensushi von Kyoto.
Wir fingen mit einem Art-Sushi an – das heisst zuerst eine normale Rolle mit einer Gurke machen, die dann längs vierteln und dann wieder zusammenbasteln zu einer viereckigen Stange… das haben wir eigentlich alle ziemlich ok hingekriegt. Danach die klassischen Nigiri Sushi wo wir jedes einzelne Reisblöckli abwägen mussten (18-20gr und nicht mehr – im Westen würde man die viel zu gross machen! stimmt). Danach den Fisch drauflegen voilà!
und übrigens – hier noch ein paar Regel zum Sushi essen:
– Chopsticks niemals abwetzen nach dem auseinanderbrechen
– kein Reiskorn darf im Soya Schüsseli zurückblieben
– Nigiri immer nur von der Fischseite her im Soya ‘dippen’
– Wasabi gehört nicht ins Soya Schüsseli, sondern auf den Teller und man nimmt es mit den Chopsticks
und wahrscheinlich war da noch mehr… aber ich habe es schon wieder vergessen – kreisch!
This was on the bucket list for Tokyo for sure…. a visit in a Cat Cafe! It is a bit weird… that all these cats live together in this living room. I assume they have more space for the night… i don’t know. Interesting also they all are very sleepy – maybe they give them some drugs. However they were to all so quiet and lovely – there was one red tiger cat that was super active and after any snack that was handed out to the cats – unfortunately i still cannot upload the videos as you would then see what happened. Glad i was there and had an hour of cuddling time with these fluffy cats. Definitely an experience and a must do in Japan.
Als wir nach Japan kamen, wussten wir noch nicht mal, dass es ausser Naoshima noch andere Inseln gibt… und wir waren angenehm überrascht. Eine kleine hübsche hügelige Insel, welche wir mit e-bikes unsicher machten – mein Knie ist ja immer noch etwas ‘angeschlagen’ von meinem Flickflack in Kamiköchi!
Als erstes ging es auf zum Archives des Coeurs, welches in der östlichsten Ecke in einer ruhigen Bucht liegt. Dort kann man seinen Herzschlag aufnehmen und archivieren lassen.
In einem separaten Raum kann man die Herzschläge dann abhören – man kann im Computer suchen, wenn man hören möchte. Weil wir recht früh da waren, können wir unsere Herztöne nachher im grossen ‘Museum’ anhören, ein ganz dunkler Raum, mit einer Glühbirne die im Rhythmus des Herzschlages flackert…. war noch ziemlich unheimlich dort drinnen.
Nach dem recording ging es wieder zurück den Hügel hoch zum Teshima Art Museum, hatte irgendetwas ausserirdisches diese 2 ‘Betonhauben mit Löchern’. Um reinzugehen musste man die Schuhe ausziehen (wie so vielerorts in Japan), denn der Boden war ganz glatt und sauber und auf der ganzen Fläche bewegten sich Wassertropfen vom Wind gesteuert umher. Wahnsinnig eindrücklich und eigentlich unbeschreiblich aber wahnsinnig schön.
(Architekt: Ryue Nishizawa – Artist: Rei Naito)
Danach weiter über die Insel zum Cafe des Radverleihs für einen Kaffee & Kuchen Stop und dann noch kurz ins Teshima Yokoo House – noch ein Museum das einen Querschnitt der Arbeiten des Künstlers Tadanori Yokoo zeigt. Oft eigenwillig und manchmal auch etwas ungewohnte Kunst für uns aber ein tolles kleines Museum.
The former capital of Japan… but in fact nowadays the place where you can still see REAL Japan. This city was one of the few who had not been bombed to ashes during 2nd world war – what a wonder because this city boasts with old wooden buildings, colourful shrines, temples, sublime gardens and beautiful kimonos. Hard to believe that Kyoto counts 17 UNESCO world heritage sites, 1600 temples and 400 shrines… to be honest i wonder where they are hiding them all, we only saw maybe 20 shrines, 10 temples and 5 gardens or so. You start to lose track as you move along.
Kyoto worked excellent for us as it was much smaller than Tokyo and our hotel was on the top of the train station which is a comment thing in Japan. This makes travelling a lot easier and hey every taxi driver knows where the station is even if you haven’t written down any address!
The first day we did a walking tour around Gion ticking off some of the most important sites of that area including Kyyomizu-dera (no nothing about deers – they come in Nara) it is the temple you must see in Kyoto if you only have time for one – unfortunately the main building was under construction, so cannot really confirm this statement of LP and doesn’t count for autumn 2014…. However from its terrace you do have a great view over the city.
The other 8 bullet points in the walking tour i cannot really remember and yes there were more temples, more incenses that got burned by us and more shrines we walked through and more whishes got written on these wooden plates for a long healthy and happy life.
The nice thing though in Kyoto was the tradition of the Japanese clothing. We saw many Japanese in Kimono’s visiting these sights… even some western people were walking around in them. You could even rent one for about USD 30.00 for a day.
They had all kind of colours and different patterns in a way you think this would never match but in itself it was almost like a painting. Flowers mixed with geometric patterns, very traditional with cherry blossoms or orchids, anything is possible and they all have something in common they make women beautiful. You could call it the Japanese answer to our dirndls ha ha.
Day 2: we rented bikes to a) be able to move faster among the different sights that were spread all across the city b) have some fun with driving on the left side. Interestingly the most difficult part was to find the bike rental shop after we got off the subway. Once there all became gradually easier as the roads of this city are like a grid pattern (apparently based on a GO board) which makes it fairly easy to navigate even if half of the streets have no name signs.
So off we went to discover more of Kyoto’s treasures such as the Nanzen-ji. A Zen temple with the classic dry gardens, where they make patterns in the gravel, build cones from sand and even this one had a small pond all carefully fitted together like one big painting. As you can see in the ‘gardening pic’ – there is not much about meditating when actually making it…
The next one was Kinkaku-ji, the temple with its facade covered all in gold – luckily it wasn’t a sunny day as i think one would have been blinded by the sheer light – vanity! The temple is situated in a beautifully maintained garden combining trees and a little lake in which the golden temple was shimmering.
We started to run out of time and the weather was threatening… so we turned back and went for a pitstop in the all-time safe place: starbucks ha ha – sometimes a true relief as you don’t have to think ‘what may they have’… always clear case and it tastes always almost the same – not the best in the world but very relaxing – as predictable – for sure.
Day 3: visit of the Imperial Palace which was formerly the home of the emperor once Kyoto was still the capital. Admission is free but you have to apply for it in person and with the passport the day before. Unbelievable that we actually managed to arrange this as we are normally the ones who don’t foresee these kind of implications..
Thus we enjoyed a very good tour around the different buildings, gates and rooms in order to get a hint of an idea how life must have been when the emperor, his family and their entourage lived there.
After the tour we quickly grabbed a taxi and drove across the town to go and see the Tenryu-ji temple (the garden pics… camera refused to accept more temple pics ;-)) and the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove which nearly didn’t fit anymore into the time frame. Luckily we managed as the Bamboo Grove is one of the most photographed and peculiar sights of Kyoto. However if you manage to take a picture without anybody else int it you were really lucky. But it was quite impressive to stand in the middle of this sprawling bamboo ‘forest’.
Kyoto definitely a must if you go to Japan – plan enough time for this gem of a city!
Onitsuka Tiger store…. we were there and were reasonable… but yes i have to grab the chance… puuuh it was so hard to decide though….
we had so much fun tonight at this tiny Japanese restaurant…. before entering we reassured each other it will be fine… because all written only in Japanese. communication was difficult if you don’t want to admit inexistant ha ha. we spoke english, the lady japanese. but hey we got lovely chicken yakitori, edamame, french fries (we admit after such long time in asia for me it was a treat!!), pork tomato skewers, shitake – she was so happy i knew the word – green chilies (in spain this would be pimientos padron) and some other skewers. also we asked for the funny schnaps in the bottles right in front of us. still don’t know what it is… but we told her that my father also makes schnaps in Switzerland and she was excited.. did she really understand?? i suppose not but doesn’t matter 🙂 so even though we didn’t really understand each other the bottom line of tonight: we discovered again new food which tasted great and encountered again nice friendly people – we love Japan!
The difference between buying cats in Japan and China is tremendous. The ones i mentioned in my earlier post when visiting the farmers market were packed by the dozen in one tiny cage. Here in Tokyo they are in these nice glass boxes and the price difference must be sky-high.. as these fluffy cuties here are being sold for USD 3,000!
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suebluesky 