Monday, April 10, 2006

Memoirs of a Geisha vs. Iron Chef

Friday April 6, 2006
Early morning wake up for our morning tour of Kyoto. The drinks from the night before weren’t helping us get up any faster, but we made it in time for our tour.
First stop-Nijo Castle, were the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from.

It’s hard to believe that only 100 years ago, people were walking around in samurai garb and silk robes before they were influenced by the west. When you walk through the castle, the floor makes a funny squeaking sound. Al and I tried guessing why the floors were so noisy-poor craftsmanship? Preparing for an earthquake? No, instead the floors squeaked as part of a nightingale alarm system, so that if anyone entered the castle at night-time, the squeaking of the floors would give them away--even a tip toe would result in the floors making their chirping noises.



FridayThe Golden Pavilion (Rokoun-ji Temple) was our next stop. This one definitely one of my favorite stops on out of all of the tours, the temple was originally built by the third shogun of Ashikaga, so that he could indulge in the peaceful, serene setting. After his death, it was made into a Zen temple in accordance to his will (yes, even back then people had bequests!) The temple is surrounded by a zen garden, which really does impart a bit of tranquility to the passer-bys.

Our final stop on the tour was the Imperial Palace, which is only open to the public two weeks out of the year, and we just happen to be here during one of those two weeks. The palace housed 2 emperors before the emperor Meiji moved the capital to Tokyo. Due to the unique time of visiting this palace, the place was absolutely packed, and so we only got a quick glimpse of the emperor’s seat before being pushed forward in line.

After the tour, Al and I decided to head to the Nishiki Food Market, which is basically several blocks of food stalls selling all sorts of strange, weird concoctions. We stopped at a few stalls along the way, trying some different fish, skewers, etc, and made our way to Gion, which is where all of the geisha are. We saw a few of the geisha in their day-time wear, which was pretty cool.

Our feet grew tired after several hours on foot hauling our back packs, so we headed back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner-our concierge had made reservations, but we had no idea what we would be getting ourselves into. We found out that we would be going to Ogawa’s, which is a French/Kyoto nouvelle type restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant, which was tucked behind a small alleyway, and we were led to the chef’s table. For those of you who know my husband and what a foodie he is, sitting at the chef’s table is an experience met with great appreciation. We sat down in front of Chef Ogawa, and we started with the first course (I had ordered the 6 course meal, Al got the 8). It was a little gelatin mold of asparagus and lobster, topped with a warm crab sauce. It was divine! Manna from the heavens! The next course was a tempura of asparagus and monkfish in a rich buttery ssauce with balsamic vinegar. Yum! We were presented course after course-plates of slightly kissed to the flame tuna tartarar, foe gras, an adorable copper pot of anchioves, leeks, shoots, and onions, with a crunchy delicious top. My favorites were a bamboo shoot consume, and the kobe beef that we had for our entrée-as Al said, it was so tender, you could cut it with a chopstick—and it was our first time with the real deal Kobe beef, not the American “Kobe” beef.
After dinner, we were presented a tray of desserts, and we could choose as many as we wanted for dessert. For those who know how much I love cake and sweets, this was music to my ears. But, I was stuffed from such a large dinner, so I only chose two (which sounds like a lot, but had I not been full, I could have done more). I was dumb, fat, and happy after dinner. It was by far the best meal on our trip yet.

We talked with the chef throughout dinner, and he was great—very funny, and made our experience even more delightful. We spoke a little about cooking differences, and types of cuisines, especially among the big time chef’s. We told Ogawa that in our minds, he was truly meant to be Iron Chef (I should know, I watch every damn night—oh crap, I might be missing it now), which I think flattered him quite a bit. After dinner the chef kindly helped us with our jackets and walked us to the door, AND, we got a 90 degree bow, which we had learned from our reading and our tours is a great honor. He and Al exchanged business cards, and the whole thing was so charming--we'll definitely remmond it for our friends.

After dinner, Al and I strolled the canal nearby, packed with people snapping photos of the cherry trees in the night-time. On our stroll, I got to see a Geisha—the real deal, all made up and everything, with her escort for the evening. So cool!!!

The last day: Bamboo forest, the last night would be complete without including Karaoke—how could one say no???

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