Friday 31 January 2014

Last of Kyoto and Uji

Our last day in Kyoto was surprisingly packed. After more fantastic coffee at the old school, smoke filled Decoy coffee shop, we walked right across town to see a few temples in the south side of the city. And they did not disappoint.

The Higashimaya temples were walking distance from our hotel and from each other. One temple was more beautiful than then next - especially the gardens covered in cherry blossoms and the zen gardens. We also took a look at a photo exhibition of the work of Henri Cartier Bresson.

The next stop on the Japan itinerary was Uji. Uji is a smallish city about 45 mins by train from Kyoto which is famous for being the home of green tea and for hosting the Byodoin Temple.

We chose to spend a couple of nights in Uji because it had a gorgeous ryokan and my sis had very generously arranged two nights there for us.

I had expected a sleepy, quaint looking town. And the very central streets clearly had preserved the older street frontages, but Uji was generally a modern looking city.

Our ryokan, Koryuen Seizanso did not disappoint. A huge room with balcony over the river, tatami mats and a futon rolled out in the evening. Dinner on the first night was course after course of tiny, beautiful meals.

Our second day in Uji was also Phil's 35th birthday. We started the day with an in-house breakfast of miso, egg, pickles, green tea porridge.

It was quite the foodie day. We sampled green tea at a tea house and tried sencha and matcha teas. We walked all over town, stopping at an amazing sushi train for lunch - including a sausage sushi, which looked dubious... The sushi train had plumbed in water to all the boothes surrounding the train and provided powdered matcha tea so you could make your own green tea at the table.

The walk along the river in Uji is gorgeous. Surrounded by mountains dotted with temples - there looked to be some amazing walks. We walked to one temple in the mountains. It was so beautiful and virtually deserted.

I had found a bottle of Bowmore Islay whiskey in a seven eleven a few days before, bought it on the qt and brought it out for an afternoon bday drink on our huge balcony while overlooking the river lines with more flowering cherry blossom trees.

Another incredible dinner at the ryokan - this night it was a sukiyaki feast. An older, but gorgeous and elegant Japanese lady who spoke no English showed us how to cook the beef in the sukiyaki broth and use vegetables and egg to round it out - absolutely amazing.

This was our last night in Uji. In the morning, we stopped by the Byodoin temple, which was under construction but had a fantastic museum housing some of the temples treasures before jumping on a train to Nara.



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