Last day...and back to the USA!

I woke up late on my last day and had no real plans except souvenir shopping! I repacked my huge backpack for the very last time, checked out of my hostel, and headed back to the Sensoji Temple. Since I had been there once before with the  organized bus tour almost two weeks earlier (!!), I knew there were lots of souvenir shops near the temple.

A "frozen beer" garden

I bought a few trinkets, but discovered I had spent all my money, so I went in search of an ATM. I found a 7-11, took out more money than I should have, and grabbed a rice ball for breakfast. Rice balls are fun little scoops of rice that are stuffed with something, usually fish or veggies, and then wrapped in seaweed. They are better than they sound, and the one I chose ended up being stuffed with some sort of salty tuna.

Japanese people sleep
everywhere!

I had seen some fun looking shops the night before in Akihabara, so I caught the train and headed back to the “Electric Town.” It was slightly less deserted than the previous evening, but I still didn’t see any real characters. I did find a few fun stores, and spent the early afternoon accumulating gifts for my family. I have a pretty short attention span for shopping, so after a little while I decided to go see what the Imperial Palace Gardens were like. You can’t get into the Palace itself, but the gardens are free and open to the public.

For some reason I decided to walk there, and as usual I had underestimated how far away it was. Tokyo is a large city, and I was constantly amazed at how long it takes to amble from neighborhood to neighborhood. But even though it was a hot day, it was fun to spend a while wandering through the huge buildings. I love visiting big cities and really enjoy just staring up at the huge skyscrapers!

I found the Imperial Gardens, and spent an hour or so meandering through the hydrangeas, around the koi ponds, and through the flowering trees. It was really cool to be in such a historical and serene place but look up and see the towering, modern buildings of the city over the stone walls of the palace.

After grabbing a snack (green tea flavored donut and an iced coffee), I headed back to the shopping area near my hostel. It was late afternoon, and I spent the rest of my day shopping…like I said, I’m not a skilled shopper, and it took me forever to decide on everyone’s souvenirs! By the time I was finished it was after 7pm, and I had a midnight flight back to LA, so I headed back towards the hostel to collect my bags and get to the airport.

Ramen ordering machine!

On the way, I stopped for dinner. I had been craving ramen, and decided it was good enough for my last meal in Japan! I found a restaurant with plastic models of bowls of ramen outside, and went in. To order, you had to use an electronic ticket machine. It looked a lot like a vending machine, so I put in money and I pushed the little buttons for the bowl of soup I wanted and a small beer, and it spit out two tickets.

I had no idea what to do with them, so I sat down at a booth and handed them to the first waitress that appeared. She asked me a lot of questions in Japanese, and apparently my blank stare in response wasn’t enough….she brought over a picture of a bottle of beer or a glass of beer, and I pointed to the glass. Soon enough a huge steaming bowl of noodles was brought over and they were yummy!!

Sensoji Temple by night

After dinner, I hurried back to the hostel. It had been a long day of walking in the sun, and I was happy when I inquired about taking a quick shower - the hostel staff was nice enough to let me take a brief rinse even though I had already checked out. I took a refreshing cold shower, changed into some clean clothes, attempted to shove my overflowing bags of souvenirs into my pack, and caught an amazingly easy direct express train to the airport!

I checked in and got through immigration and security really quickly, so I had tons of time in the airport. I also had a lot of leftover yen, so I spent a while getting rid of my “extra” money in the duty free stores. I bought lots of candy for my lab (and some for myself :) and some other small trinkets. After checking out, I decided to count up all my coins (everything up to 500 yen [about $6] is in coins!), and I still had about 3000 yen! With my pocket change, I grabbed a bottle of sake and called it quits.

The many toilet options of Japan

I made it to my gate with too much time, and I’ll admit I sat there and pouted. I was definitely looking forward to my own bed and seeing my kitten, but I really enjoyed Japan and was reluctant to leave! The end of a trip is always so bittersweet to me, but most of the time if I were given the option to keep traveling I totally would, and Japan was no exception!

But I got on my plane, had a long (10.5 hour) but easy flight back across the Pacific, and was on the ground in LA soon enough. I had made it a mission to stay awake the whole way home in an attempt to beat jet lag, and successfully remained conscious even though the flight took off after midnight Japan-time. I landed at “5pm” California time (it is so weird to land 7 hours “before” I took off – the International Date Line is so crazy!), made it through customs, and back to SD.

It was good to be back, pet my kitten, shower in my very own bathroom, and crash into my (comparatively) huge comfy bed! Overall, it was a great trip, and I am really glad to be lucky enough to get to visit such an amazing place!!

Nara and the attack deer!

I decided to take a day trip out to the city of Nara for my last day of exploring. I packed up all my stuff, checked out of my hostel but left my bags, and walked to the train around 10:30am. I grabbed a chocolate croissant (no eel today) for breakfast, and got to the main station around 11:15…I read there was a 30 minute direct express train to Nara, and a Japanese man saw me staring at the ticket machine and told me I was in the right place and that it took 45 minutes. I grabbed a ticket and boarded the train…and quickly realized I was NOT on the direct express. I was on the slow, local train, but by the time I had figured it out I was a few stations away, and figured it wasn’t worth the trip back to the main station if it was only a difference of 15 minutes.

Little did I know, it would take me almost 2 hours on the local train! 45 minutes in I had no idea where I was, and had no map of the train line this far outside Kyoto. I asked someone on the train, and they said Nara was still 45 minutes away, so I attempted to be patient and enjoy the idyllic countryside slowly crawling by the train windows.  I had to switch trains twice, but I finally made it! I was a little bummed though, because I had to get back to Kyoto around 4pm to make it to Tokyo the same evening, so it left little time for seeing the city of Nara after my epic direct-train failure.

But I quickly cheered up when I saw Nara’s most famous residents: the wild deer that roam the streets! The deer were believed to be sacred because one of the Gods was said to have appeared to guard the shrine and was riding on white deer. They are so funny! My first glimpse of them came when I saw a group of school kids hand feeding them. You can buy deer wafers for 150 yen and feed the packs of deer…but they are pretty aggressive! I watched them swarm the kids and a few unsuspecting tourists with biscuits as a walked to Nara’s other main attraction: another giant Buddha!

This giant Buddha is housed in one of Japan’s oldest and biggest all-wooden buildings, which is a sight to see itself. The architecture of the building was beautiful, with its ornately carved wooden accents, sloping tiled roof, and interesting golden “horns” (?) capping the top. When you walk through the humongous wooden doors into the cool, dark shade of the temple and look up, the HUGE Buddha is sitting peacefully in the center of the cavernous building surrounded by lotus sculptures. It was quite affecting, and I was definitely a little awed by the scale and serenity of the Buddha.

The interior of the building itself was pretty plain, but there were other ornate wooden sculptures of fierce warriors flanking both sides of the towering idol. In one corner of the building, one of the wooden columns has a large hole through it near the ground. It is rumored that the hole is the same size as one of the Buddha’s nostrils, and that those who can wriggle through it are afforded good luck! The children going through it looked like they were struggling, with most lying down and reaching their hands above their heads to get pulled through the narrow opening by their friends on the other side. I opted to pass on this opportunity…

I made my way back outside and after buying some biscuits, gathered my courage to feed the deer. As soon as I exchanged my money with the little old lady selling the wafers, I was surrounded! There were deer everywhere!! I threw the biscuits in my bag and escaped the crowd of deer, hoping to find a spot outside the temple where I wouldn’t immediately be outnumbered and attacked!

When I finally found a few calm looking deer outside the temple gate, I passed my camera to a fellow tourist and snuck a deer biscuit out of my bag. I thought I was pretty slick, but the deer were on to me, and I was again quickly encircled by overly pushy deer! Within seconds they were nudging me, nipping at my bag, and even head butting me! One started biting my shorts, and actually gave me a pretty good chomp right through my clothes!

I had to retreat, but it wasn’t soon enough, and I had wet spots on the front and back of my shorts from where the deer were basically chewing on me! They were not to be underestimated!

The warnings...and me ignoring them and getting attacked by deer!!

I tried one more time a few minutes later with a very small group, but I got prodded by antlers as soon as I whipped out a biscuit, and ran away soon thereafter.

Feeling a bit defeated, I wandered towards another shrine. This one was famous for the thousands of stone lanterns that line the surrounding paths, and the stroll through the verdant park with all the mossy lanterns was a nice change compared to the overly crowded areas near the Buddha.


The shrine itself was small, but inside there were hundreds and hundreds of metal and gold lanterns hanging. I assumed they were being stored inside the shrine for the upcoming Lantern Festival in August.

Since I had taken the world’s slowest train, I was running short on time. After the lanterns I started back toward the station, and took the long way through the large park that paralleled the main road. There were small ponds with gazebos overlooking the water, grassy lawns, a few historic pagodas, and lots of deer. I gave one last attempt at feeding them (I just wanted to get rid of the leftover crackers), but was surrounded by lots of antlers and ended up just desperately dumping them on the ground and running away!


I made it back to the train station, purchased a ticket on the REAL express train back to Kyoto, grabbed a to go box of sushi, and boarded the comfy train for my (short) ride back. It was MUCH faster than my earlier trip, and before I knew it I was back to the main Kyoto station.


I headed back to the hostel, grabbed my bags, went back to the train, got back to the main station, got another bullet train ticket, and waited for my train back to Tokyo! I was cutting it kind of close…I got a 6pm train and I was told it took 2.5 hours to get to the main Tokyo station, but I had to check into my new hostel by 9pm!
I was glad to have a chance to see the countryside though, and even though it was grey out and dusk was settling over the fields, the ride was pretty! There were small towns and villages along the tracks, and the rolling green hills in the distance were really neat!

Lunch!

It was a fast trip, and we were soon approaching Tokyo. I had to switch trains twice to get to my hostel (bullet train to Tokyo Metro, to Tokyo Subway - confusing!), but I got off the last train at 8:55pm, and speedwalked to my hostel. I made it just as they were closing up, and was shown to my room. I was pretty sweaty from hauling my bags through the hot subway and hustling to the hostel, and it was humid and stuffy in my 4-bunk room.

I changed into some shorts, grabbed the “free drink” ticket I got when I checked in, and got out of the room as fast as possible! The hostel bar was a few blocks away, and was shared by the two other sister hostels. It was small and packed, and as soon as I ordered my free sake I was invited to sit at a table full of Bolivians and Australians who had just arrived to Japan. Since it was my last night in Tokyo and my last night in Japan (boo!), I wanted to get out a bit. I had yet to see the crazy area of town that was famous for all it’s video game arcades and anime fans, so I invited them to come with me and explore.

Dinner!

We finished our drinks and 3 of them decided they were still awake enough to come out. We hopped on the train to Akihabara, the neighborhood famous for electronics, arcades and anime/comic book/cartoon fanatics. I was hoping to see people everywhere dressed up as ridiculous characters, but we quickly discovered that weeknights were not a happening time for the neighborhood and were disappointed by the deserted streets. The arcades were still open, and we walked through a couple of them.

The Sega Arcade

The ones we chose were also pretty quiet, but I was astonished by how smoky they were! The few people in them were smoking like chimneys, and the arcades had more cigarette smoke hanging in them than most of the bars I had experienced in Japan!

None of us were huge video game enthusiasts, so after some wandering and observation of the locals, we stopped for some dessert. I had a yummy crepe filled with bananas, chocolate and whipped cream that was pretty delicious. One of the other guys ordered octopus balls (like meat balls?) at the food stall next to the crepe vendor, and we sat on a bench and people watched the few passerbys for a while.

It was late, and we were all tired, so we gave up and all headed back to our places. After a cold shower, I climbed into my bunk and went to bed! I thought I would have trouble sleeping since there was no AC in the hostel (how did I not notice that on the website?!), but fortunately I was exhausted, and went right to sleep!

The Tokyo Skytree and the Asahi Beer building by night

Rainy day in Kyoto

Well, I awoke to heavy, pouring rain on Tuesday…I was so lucky to have a clear, blue sky the previous day since it’s the rainy season in Kyoto! But I was secretly relieved, since the rain meant I could allow myself to have a more leisurely day, and I used the rain as an excuse to take my time getting ready. While I was lounging about the hostel, I met one of the guys also staying in my room. Turns out he was also from Southern California, and had come to Japan on a whim since his brother worked for an airline. He just showed up at the airport and got the first available standby ticket to somewhere cool!

Nishiki Market

It was his first day in Kyoto, so we decided to join forces and see some sights together. We started at the big food market in the middle of Kyoto because my guidebook made it sound really cool (but it was also protected from the rain!). We walked the few blocks there and started on one end of the covered shopping promenade. There was so much crazy food! Again, lots of fish, but also stores with every variety of pickled vegetable you could imagine! There were stores with huge displays of just dried foods…some of which I identified as the tiny dried fish I didn’t exactly love over my white rice the night before.

Octopus pops with a quail egg stuffed in the head, dried fish, pickled
everything, and baked good!

There were candy stores with all sorts of adorable, decorative confections, bakeries, and produce stores. I was tempted by a stall serving marinated, freshly grilled eel skewers. Yes, eel for breakfast. My sight-seeing buddy, Alan, was only mildly appalled. As the man grilled my eel, he handed me a shot glass-sized paper cup full of what he described “eel broth,” which was a bit salty, but overall just tasted like broth. When it was ready, I stood in front of the grill and ate my skewer of eel. It was pretty tasty! It’s a lightly flavored fish, and was made a little sweet from the sauce it was grilled in. Alan refused to eat fish for breakfast, so we stopped at one of the bakeries and both got some biscuits on our way out of the market.

The Silver Pavilion

The rain had lightened, so we decided to attempt to go see the temple named Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion. We opted to use the bus system since our hostel recommended it over the trains, and finally figured out where the stop we wanted was and hopped on a bus. Well, it wasn’t exactly speedy (it stopped at what felt like every block!), but we made it to Ginkakuji. The bus ended up being a lot cheaper than the trains (it was only 500 yen (about $5 for an all day pass, where each train ride costs about $2), and we had a bus map that showed the whole city, all the cool spots to see, and the buses that would take you there.

When we got out of the bus, it started pouring again, and we took refuge in the doorway of a store along the way. We were ushered in by the shopkeeper and discovered that it was a honey store. The woman running the store offered us samples of bunches of different honeys and honey flavored drinks. They were all delicious, but we were reluctant to buy any in case we couldn’t actually import them into the US. After a few minutes, she cheerfully announced what I can only assume was “Oh look, the rain has stopped!” and shooed us from her store :)

We made it to the temple, paid our entrance fee (which made me very grateful that Masa had paid for EVERYTHING yesterday – the admissions add up very quickly!), and entered the complex. It was lightly raining, but everything was so green and peaceful! The “Silver” Pavilion is actually made of wood, and the dark wood buildings were surrounded with bright white rock and sand gardens. We walked through the buildings and then uphill to an overlook of the temple grounds.

We spent a while ambling through the gardens, and it was pretty in the rain, but I was approaching temple overload. We got back on the bus and decided to stop off at the Golden Pavilion because Alan hadn’t seen it yet. After another bus ride, we hopped off at the next temple, and I since I had already seen it I hung out in the outer gardens while Alan went in to explore.

When he had gotten his fill of the shiny temple, we headed to see the castle in the middle of the city.  On our way to the bus stop, we stopped at a little noodle shop and had a bowl of soup for lunch. There were the typical plastic displays of food outside the restaurant, but when we walked inside there were no menus, and we both had to walk the waitress back out into the rain to point at the bowls of noodles we wanted to order, haha. The soup was good, and it was nice to have a completely cooked, fish-free meal!

We made our way to the center of the city and found the perimeter of the Nijo castle pretty easily after getting out of yet another bus, but were on the exact opposite corner as the entrance, and had to walk all the way around the castle wall to get in…only to get there and realize the castle is CLOSED on Tuesdays :(

We were kind of bummed, but realized we had just enough time to go see one more thing before everything started to shut down for the day. I had really enjoyed the bamboo forest the day before, so we headed back to Arashiyama to go see it. I hadn’t really gotten to spend that much time there, so I was more than happy to go back since it was also cooler and later in the day, and I was hoping there would be smaller crowds this time. I was right, and after the longest bus ride of the day, we were rewarded with a beautiful, long walk through the almost completely deserted bamboo forest!

The views of the river on the edge of the forest were awesome, and steamy mist was rolling through the small valleys after the afternoon rain cleared. We both enjoyed the stroll, but were tired and headed back towards the hostel on the direct train. We hung out at the hostel bar, checked e-mail, relaxed and grabbed a beer before heading out to find dinner.

We searched for an affordable restaurant for a while, and realized we were definitely in a fancier area of town! We saw a food court advertised at the top of one of the malls, and took the elevator up to the restaurants. We got out of the elevator and realized it was just one restaurant and that it didn’t have an English or picture menu. But after a brief chat with one of the waiters, we were assured we could order some chicken “yakatori” (skewers of teriyaki chicken), and agreed to stay.

Funny dog

After some confusion with the menu, we ordered 2 beers and 12 “chickens” and hoped for the best! We were pleasantly surprised by 12 small skewers of delicious grilled chicken, and enjoyed the meal. Afterwards, we tried to get dessert at “Sweets Paradise” one floor down, but were turned away because they were closing. On the way back to the hostel we stumbled upon another dessert place, and grabbed some ice cream covered waffles.

After dessert we had a drink at the Irish pub next to the hostel, but we were both tired and soon headed home. It was a fun day, and I was glad I didn’t let the rain ruin what turned out to be a full day of seeing the sights

Extreme sightseeing in Kyoto!

I was lucky enough to know a Japanese person in Kyoto: Masataka was a visiting professor who worked in my lab for 3 years, and now lives in Kyoto and has his own lab at Kyoto University!

I had arranged to meet Masa at 10am, and he came to collect me at the hostel. I was surprised when he arrived and said he had cleared his schedule for the day and we could do whatever I wanted! I thought we were just going to have lunch with his lab and that my whole day would be a tour of Kyoto University, but Masa was charged up and ready to see some sights, and we set out.

Bamboo

He had even borrowed a colleague’s car – we rolled around in a giant, black Mercedes Benz all day! I had made a little list of the top things in Kyoto I wanted to see, so we agreed to start on the far end of town and see as much as we could. The first thing I wanted to see was a temple that was supposed to have a cool bamboo forest surrounding it. I’ll spare you the details of the temple itself, but the bamboo forest was really amazing!

It was so green and quiet, and in comparison to the suffocating heat in the sunshine, it was practically chilly! We strolled around the area, but in the interest of extreme sightseeing, we moved on rather quickly to the next goal – the famed Golden Pavillion!

With Masa driving and me navigating, we made it there pretty easily! Masa was great! He drove, paid for admission and parking everywhere, and was super chipper even though the heat was really quite oppressive.

We got to the complex for Kinkakuji and made our way though the gates…and the first sight of the temple was spectacular! It’s a bright, sparkling gold pagoda perched over a lake surrounded by green hills. Masa told me he had only gotten to see it once years ago, and that at that time it was raining and grey, and that I was really lucky to get to see it during the rainy season all lit up by the midday sun!

I watched the koi swim around the water, snapped a few pictures of the lovely lotuses, but before long, we were melting in the heat. We walked by a teahouse that looked cool and shady, and Masa offered to get us a cup of tea! We left our shoes at the door and curled up on the cool, carpeted floor. A lovely woman served us some traditional, frothy hot green tea and a small cake. Masa explained to me that it was a sugar cookie filled with red bean paste, and that the gold detailing on it was real gold!

After resting and cooling off for a bit, we got back to sight-seeing! The next stop was a famous zen rock garden….but I won’t lie, I was a bit underwhelmed. It was neat I suppose, but it was only about 20 feet by 80 feet and swarmed with other tourists, so it was a little difficult to channel the calming serenity it was designed to inspire! We quickly retreated to the more traditional gardens outside the walled rock area, and after a stroll, moved on to our next destination.

On our way to the next shrine, we stopped for a late lunch – Masa had kept me running all day, so I didn’t even notice that it was already after 2 and I never had lunch (or a real breakfast!). I had mentioned I wanted to try real udon noodles, and Masa found us a place. He ordered some cold noodles for himself and some hot noodles for me, and even ordered some “sushi” that was named for the shrine we were about to visit (sushi-inari, for the Inari shrine!).

It was all really yummy! The sushi didn’t have anything raw in it – it was just rice and other cooked stuff (?) inside a tofu wrapper that was kind of sweet. The noodle soup was great, and was topped with some shrimp and tempura. I felt much better after a little rest, several tiny cups of iced tea and the noodles, and we set off for the rest of the afternoon of touring.

The next stop was my favorite: the Fushimi Inari shrine. The shrine itself has a couple of temple-like buildings at the front of the complex (by the way, you can tell the difference between a temple and a shrine because a Shinto shrine has simple gates and a Buddhist temple has ornately carved gates!). But the rest of the shrine winds through the hills and up the green mountains and is comprised of pathways lined with hundreds and hundreds of red gates, or torii.

Lunch!

I really thought this place was amazing! The pathways of bright gates lead up and down, crisscrossed and winding through the forested foothills. The shrine itself was built to honor the god of rice and business, so hundreds of companies have bought/donated the various gates erected over the years.

I could easily have strolled or hiked through the scenery for a long time. It was cooler in the dense trees and the contrasting colors of the vibrant gates were really beautiful. There were small sub-shrines along the paths, and cemetery-like personal memorials dotted along the hills. I dragged Masa around for a bit before I could tell he was getting a little anxious to move on, and we made our way back through the maze-like tangle of paths to the entrance of the complex.

I would love to come back to the shrine in every season – I bet it’s really amazing in the snow but also beautiful when all the Japanese maples begin to change colors in the fall! Vowing to come back and see some day, I reluctantly left.

We could only fit in one more stop before 5:30 (temple/shrine closing time!), so we headed to the temple named Kiyomizu-dera. This temple sits up on a high hill slightly outside and above downtown Kyoto. After a steep walk up the road approaching the temple and a few flights of stairs through the temple area, you are rewarded with views of the whole valley and city. We arrived as the sun was beginning to sink behind the evening clouds, and Kyoto looked pretty cool from up there!

The temple itself is known for its huge verandas made completely of wood that jut out off the hillside. The huge wooden structures were ornately carved with figures and animals, and the sheer magnitude of the buildings themselves was really impressive.

Kyoto :)

After enjoying the view, marveling at the woodwork, and wandering through all the sub-temples, it was time to meet up with Masa’s lab members for dinner. I got a fun tour of his building got to see the lab, and was introduced to the director of the institute. Post-tour, we gathered up his 4 lab members and headed to the restaurant – Masa had asked me what I wanted to eat, and I said whatever he recommended, so he made reservations for the 6 of us at a Japanese barbeque place. He also discovered I hadn’t ridden in a taxi in Japan yet, so he flagged down two cabs for us to take to the restaurant.

Kiyomizu-dera

The cabs are pretty fancy: the seats are lined with white lace and when the car pulls up to the curb, the driver can pop the doors open automatically! We piled in for the short drive to the restaurant, and arrived a few minutes later. We got out beside what looked like a walled in house…but Masa slid open the door in the wall, and we went up a flight of secret-looking stairs and were greeted by the kimono-clad staff outside the door.

After ceremoniously removing our shoes, we were shown to a room with tables set into the floor and glass walls. Outside, there was a beautiful Japanese garden! Masa asked me if there was anything I wouldn’t eat, and after I told him I would try anything, he excitedly spoke to our waitress and got the dinner started. We were brought some cold beers, hot towels to wipe our faces and hands, and a menu written entirely in Japanese.

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into! The waitress brought our first course, which was a small cup with a ball of some sort of potato topped with micro-greens. She spent about 3 minutes elaborately describing the tiny dish to my 5 Japanese dinner mates, and afterwards they turned to me and said, “Ummm…potato!” Knowing that some of the details of the rest of the dinner were definitely going to be lost in translation, I decided to just be blissfully ignorant and try everything!

Masa explained that there would be many courses, and that some would be raw, and others we would cook on the grill in the middle of our table. They ordered red wine, and the next course arrived.

Well, it was pretty…but as soon as I saw what it was I was a little nervous: there was a giant, raw egg yolk on top of what appeared to be a spiraled bed of raw beef.  There are very few foods I’m “picky” about, but ever since I can remember, I have been weary of egg yolks. As a child, I clearly remember picking out the yolk from my hard-boiled eggs, I have never loved eggs over easy, and even now as a grown up, I pop the yolks on my eggs Benedict and drain them into a little puddle on the side of my plate away from all the other food. So needless to say, I was inwardly disappointed to see this raw-egg-beef bowl staring back at me with 5 Japanese people looking on expectantly.

I was told that you stir the egg and beef together with your chopsticks and eat it all together…so I couldn’t avoid any part of it. I took a big sip of wine, stirred up the goopy mess, hoped for the best, and took a bite! I was really surprised that the egg wasn’t even noticeable, and the beef just tasted like a fresh (really rare) steak! There was some sort of sauce in the bottom that got mixed into the mess when I stirred it, and overall, it wasn’t nearly as icky as I had been anticipating :)

We went around the table and everyone gave me a one minute introduction to themselves (in English!), and after the first glass of wine was gone from everyones glass, my dinner mates seemed much more comfortable trying out their English and asking me questions about my trip so far. The next course was just a small, normal-ish green salad, and we chatted about science, Japan, California, and Masa as a new boss.

The 4th course was a pretty glass plate with tiny, gourmet portions of vegetables (edamame and squash) on one end, a teeny bowl filled with small slices of pickled Achilles tendon (?!) in the middle, a slice of smoked beef, and some sort of extremely weird looking beef flavored gelatin on the other end. I ate the veggies without hesitation, loved the smoked beef, then tried the tendon – it was weird. The texture was chewy and it just tasted like vinegar. After a polite bite or two, and attempting to gracefully accept a compliment at how great I was at wielding my chopsticks (yay me!), I gave up on the tendon. And after one squishy taste of the beefy jello, I passed on the rest of that, too.

Grilling the beef cheek

Course 5 was three pieces of beautifully arranged beef “sushi” – they were made to look like nigiri, and only one of the three was raw. The other two were smoked or roasted beef pieced over rice, and all of them were pretty tasty! After the sushi course, they fired up the grill, and after liberally greasing it with a block of solid fat to keep the beef from sticking, we began grilling the first plate of beef – there was beef cheek, heart and a couple different cuts of steak. Each was marinated differently and some came with their own dipping sauces, but they were all delicious.

Mixing the rice course

After this course, and our third bottle of wine, I was beginning to get full. We had such a late lunch, so I asked Masa how many more courses there were…he looked down at the indecipherable menu and indicated to me that we were about 1/2 of the way through! We got a whole new platter of meats for the grill, and this one included intestine, some vegetables, and a few other cuts of meat that I didn’t even ask about.

All of us!

Next was a rice and soup course, and I was served two bowls of rice – one was like a fried rice with some veggies and egg mixed in, and the second had a pile of small, dried fish piled on top of a mound of white rice. The little fish were whole and staring right back at me, but I had seen them in hundreds of varieties in a few markets already, so I was curious to try them. Well, they tasted like fish….salty, fishy, fish! Along with the bowls of rice I was served miso soup and a small bowl of custard. The custard was savory and tasted like eggs and chicken broth and was pretty good, actually!

Dessert - green tea custard

I was relieved to find out that after picking at the rice and custard, that this was officially our last course before dessert! We were whisked into a whole new sitting room with overstuffed leather chairs for dessert, given new hot towels, and asked how we wanted our coffee. I chose iced, and we were quickly brought cute white bowls with lids and tall glasses of iced coffee. When I opened the little pot I found a bright green pudding – it was green tea pudding with sweet red beans on top, and it was really yummy! After the first layer of green tea on top, the rest of the pudding was more like a sweet milk custard, and it was light and perfect after the big meal.

It was getting pretty late by the end of dessert, and two of the lab members had to catch trains, so we all thanked Masa for such an amazing meal, I thanked all of them for trying so hard to speak English with me all evening, and we parted ways.

But of course, even though we were less than a 10-minute walk from my hostel, Masa insisted in walking me back, so he and two of the other men walked me through the quiet streets of Kyoto. It was pretty deserted until we got to the area of Gion near my hostel, and I realized we were in a more popular nightlife area – there were bars and clubs, and I’m pretty sure there were even a few “red light” type establishments. When I asked about that prospect, my question was met with only giggling, so I’m pretty sure there were some under the radar activities at some of the clubs like “Love Beach.”

I made it back to the hostel, and after profusely thanking Masa for being an amazing tour guide and host, I said goodbye and passed out!!