Kyoto Part 1

This episode comes to you from seat 4D in car 13 of the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. The trip is scheduled for around 2.5 hours, and it is now 3:20. We left Tokyo station pretty much on time at 2:10, so we are almost halfway through the trip.

Kyoto is the old capital of Japan (way, way back), and apparently looks quite differentto Tokyo. We are expecting to see lots of old buildings and streets, along with Geisha and Maiko walking around in traditional costume.

We are staying at a Ryokan - a traditional Japanese inn. The ryokan is called Yoshinoya (click here), and is supposed to be quite nice. At least it looks nice on the web page. Rooms at traditional ryokan are based on tatami mats - a room might be an eight-tatami room, meaning that the floor is eight mats in size. We will be sleeping on futons, which the staff will lay out when it is time for bed.

Dinner will be served in the room, along with breakfast. Dinner tonight will be shabu-shabu, which is (I think) basically a range of sliced meat and vegetables which are cooked in a pot of stock at the table. Tomorrow's dinner will be kaiseki - a drawn-out affair involving many courses of different foods, served in a variety of different dishes and styles. There may or may not be horse sashimi involved (exactly what it sounds like - sliced raw horse meat). We will let you know afterwards.

Apparently there is no bath attached to the room. Instead there is a communal bath (onsen-style). It's a bit difficult to tell from the webpage as it is all in Japanese (of course). Our understanding is based on what my staff have told me - and they may be having fun at the gaijin's expense. Bathing will involve washing thoroughly while crouched on a small stool, before then getting into the bath itself. Washing must be thorough, and you must rinse off the soap properly so as not to contaminate the water in the bath. Baths in Japan are for relaxing, not washing. Washing must be done prior to climbing into the bath. I believe there may be a "family bath", which can be booked. If not, then the segregated communal baths are the only option. One way or the other, it will be an experience as we cannot wait until Monday night for a shower!

Back to the Shinkansen experience. The train itself is as fast as you read about - the scenery is racing past. Getting to the train station was simple - a 10 minute taxi ride from home to Tokyo Station. Unfortunately there are not many signs pointing where to go to find the Shinkansen platforms (as opposed to the subway and local train platforms). The policeman helpfully pointed the way. Getting through the first entry gates was a little tricky - you need to use the ticket instead of the seat reservation card (both look basically the same). Somehow I managed to get through, but Sonia didn't, and so she had to find someone who could explain. With that obstacle surmounted, we wandered our way through the station looking for the Shinkansen platforms. Again, not many signs. It turns out that the first gates were just to get into the general platform area - once we found the Shinkansen platforms we were faced with another set of gates. Inserting my ticket did not work, and it was only after an explanation from the guard stationed next to the gates that we successfully navigated our way. It turns out that while the first gates only require your ticket, the second gates require both the ticket and the seat reservation card at the same time. Intuitive...

The weather today is very gray - this makes the countryside look quite drab and a bit uninteresting. Still, you get to see a bit of the world this way.

Each carriage on the train is five seats wide, by maybe 30 long. There are 16 carriages making up the train, plus a caboose (Sonia's description). A pleasant young lady pushing a snack trolly is working her way up and down the train, and bows to the carriage as she leaves it for the next one. No-one (except us gaijin) pay any attention to the bows, but it is part of life.

Half of the people in our carriage (which is about 80% full) are snoozing, having boarded, eaten, and promptly fallen asleep. This is another normal part of life - every train (including packed subway trains) are filled with sleeping people.

On Thursday I took Sonia out to Kapabashi, where I bought the plates and things last week. Sonia managed to complete most of the purchases, although we realised that we are still missing some small dishes/cups for the soba dipping sauce.

Now the challenge will be to pack everything properly and get it safely to Hong Kong. Japan Post has a service that will send boxes less than 20kg at a reasonable price, so I plan to pack much of the stuff into boxes and ship it that way. We spent this morning sorting out the contents of the apartment into suitcases and a pile of "to be packed". Sonia is flying to HK on Tuesday morning and will have a suitcase full of stuff - which will end up in Thailand. I will have two suitcases to get to HK. The rest (Mac computer, screen, plates, and some artwork) will need to be sent by a combination of Japan Post and DHL. DHL is looking like the best option for shipping the computer and screen, as they will collect from the apartment. The rest will be via Japan Post.

Shopping

Well as we are now down to only two full weeks in Japan, I went shopping for kitchenware this afternoon. There is a street called Kapabashi, which is lined with kitchen stores. Almost half of them were closed because it is Sunday, but I still managed to find most of the things I was looking for. The rest will have to wait until a visit after work one evening. So far, the tally includes:

• 6 cherry wood miso bowls
• 6 donburi bowls (big bowls for noodles)
• 6 long narrow plates
• 6 more plates (cannot remember exactly the shape)
• 1 hangiri (wooden rice bucket 30 cm diameter with lid)
• cooking chopsticks
• sake flask with six cups
• bamboo wood tea canister with bamboo scoop
• tongs for pickled ginger
  
• four serving dishes - different shapes and sizes
• a soy sauce container
  

I still need to find:

• 6 small cups with lids for serving savoury custard
• 6 soba plates with bamboo mats
• a rice paddle (for serving the rice)
• 6 rice bowls with lids
• 6 chopsticks with rests
• six ladles for use with the donburi bowls (for hot udon/soba noodle soups)
• a soba sauce pot (like a teapot)
  
• a tetsubin (cast iron teapot)
• an oroshigane (japanese grater)

In the process of writing this, I came across this website which has a lot of information about Japanese cooking.

Updates

Well I was originally planning to put together a big blog update, relating the adventures of last weekend. In fact I started writing it at work (my replacement has started so I have some spare time on my hands), but in the end I finished the week going from one thing to another (e.g. attempting to close a bank account) and did not finish the entry. Maybe next week.

This weekend Sonia is in Bangkok, and I have spent the today sorting through the accumulated junk from the past year. It needs to fit into suitcases, with the exception of the computer and screen. Everything else is going to be carried on planes back to Bangkok and Hong Kong. We shall see.

Right now I am cooking (in between writing parts of this) Dashi, which is used as part of making miso soup and dipping sauce for cold soba noodles. You start with a piece of dried konbu (a type of seaweed) about 4-6 inches long. After wiping it (not sure why), put it into 7.5 cups of cold water and bring to a simmer.

Then add about 15 grams of bonito flakes. Simmer for 20 minutes, then add another 10 grams of bonito and take off the heat. Let it settle, then strain. And that's it. Pretty simple, although it makes the kitchen smell a bit.

Well I have just finished the dashi, strained, and the remnants disposed of in a sealed plastic bag before being thrown in the rubbish bin.

For miso soup, I need to mix dashi with red miso paste, simmer (with optional piece of leek), and then eat with cubes of silky tofu or pieces of some sort of fish.

New

Please check out Jordan's blog on the link on the right-hand side.