While the church celebration and "sayonara" (goodbye) party for Deanne was yesterday, today was dinner at her favorite restaurant and a special cake made by a bakery she loves.
When we were thinking through the plans for the day, we took into account that I don't like monkeys and Grandma's hips don't like stairs, and the two of us and Grandpa hadn't yet seen the Golden Temple (Kinkaku-ji). Since the pastry shop was right near there, we'd swing by to get the cake on our way back to the restaurant while the rest of the family had an adventure climbing up to a monkey park. We all would take the tram there together though.
The Arashiyama district was full of shrines, including the sprawling complex at Tenryu-ji. We first made our way through the bamboo grove, crossing over some high-speed train tracks to get to little loop through the "woods." There was a shop selling all things bamboo that called to us, and we meandered along for the majority of the morning.
We were back at Tenryu-ji (which we had passed by the exit from the tram) around noon, because I had read there was a Buddhist restaurant inside the temple grounds - little did I know it was $30 a person for lunch!
Valerie and I had shared a bubble tea, thankfully, so I was happy enough wandering the garden without much food in me. The gardens were between the various temple buildings (which we didn't go inside) and the line of hills, though built up on the side for a great view over Kyoto.
We found a single cherry tree blossoming, with a few other shrubs and flowers starting to bloom, but the majority of the plants were pretty bare. Just made the mossy banks of the streams that ran into the wide reflecting pond all the prettier.
We were now in search of street food - I especially wanted to try takoyaki, which are pancake balls with octopus in them. After shuffling along with the crowds over the bridge, we found a few stands that more than satisfied me. I'm not sure if I like my steam bun with meat, Dad's fried curry biscuit, the takoyaki, or the cherry blossom dumplings I had for dessert better!
I mean, if you add in the green tea with mango ice cream that I got afterward, there no competition. That stuff was delicious. And Grandpa didn't find his green tea soft-serve all that bad either.
Since the three of us had broken off from the group after lunch, I had had the "pocket wifi", so I found the buses that would take us to the Golden Temple. We ended up walking past the first stop when I misread the map though, so we watched a bus go by us before we could make it to a stop.
This was about the time that we also realized that we had ¥2000 (about $20) of cash between the three of us. Cash is king in Japan, so I spent the extra time before the next bus searching for an ATM that would take my card, to no avail.
We still had our bus passes, and the cake we were picking up was pre-paid, so the worst thing that would happen is that we just pick it up and go home. Thankfully, the Golden Temple was only ¥400 a person.
Not only that, but twenty steps into the temple, Grandpa found a ¥1000 bill on the ground! We were rich!
The Golden Temple was crowded, but they clearly know how to deal with crowds. The line to get tickets was long but efficient. A single path led from the entrance to the exit. We showed our tickets, then were ushered to the photo spot, where we got our first look at the lacquered gold temple reflected in the pond in front of it. Little islands dotted the ponds, each with a tree or two, and rocks that were donated by contemporaries of the first abbot (around 1400AD). We wound our way slowly along the path, finding a sunning loon perched atop what I'm sure was one of those donated rocks. The other side of the temple was the same, though the lack of the pond in the foreground made it less picturesque.
Next, we wound up the side of a hill to a lookout with a mediocre view of the temple, but a wide view of Kyoto. We attempted to pronounce the names of each of the little attractions we passed, such as a teeny waterfall, a little house for prayers, and - my favorite - a cup that would ring like a bell if you threw a coin at it just right. (My two attempts failed.)
Right after the booth where you could buy happiness was an old tea house. They rebuilt a modern one next door, with a ¥500 green tea and dessert fixed menu. Well, since we were now rolling in it (¥1800, with Grandpa's little find), we treated ourselves.
The cake was divine. Probably good we didn't have any more cash or I would have bought far too many of the rich (in both senses of the word) treats. Sugar encrusted a red bean paste; the frothy green tea was warm, which was needed, but nothing else to write home about.
Our final coins were spent on some postcards outside the temple complex. No more cash for us!
We had an hour and a half before dinner, and the cake shop was a bus stop or a six minute walk south. The line of people was at least three dozen long, and the buses pulling up were already a bit crowded, so it was inching along. We decided to work our tired feet a bit more and made our way to Patisserie de Ange.
The cake was ready, and the baker gestured at the paper where it said 1 hour. It was a chilled cake, and I guessed that I meant that we should eat it or refrigerate it within that time. I exchanged a few texts with Mom via Google Voice (only needed Internet for me!) and decided we'd drop it off before arriving at the restaurant.
I'm very glad we did, because we made it to the restaurant, were seated, and the rules were explained. The grill in front of us was to cook the meat, and we could order as much as we could eat, in batches of three.
Valerie and I were excited about the grilled vegetables, Dad less so, but we got plates of marinated meat with onions, mushrooms, and something like butternut squash to roast as well. We had two hours to have at it!
We ordered shrimp, scallops, salted Japanese chicken necks, along with more of the pork and beef. We had met back up with Maria, and their table had some pork ribs then far too many sausages for only them - so we cooked some on our grill. Needless to say, neither Valerie nor I have been getting our normal ratio of meat to produce, but I had to admit, it was a great choice for Deanne's celebration dinner. We were eating right up until the very end.
The group of tables next to us (which is why our reservation was for the sunken table) was a group of adults, with all their rightly 8-year-olds grilling their own meats. There was only one large flare-up that we witnessed, but lots of hilarity from the orange-juice-drinking boys and girls.
We stopped at a convenience store to grab another round of breakfast foods, then bused back home, with a gorgeous strawberry-and-cream cake waiting. A slice of that sugar, on top of the meal of meat, made it easy to be asleep before 10. There was also the fact that we had a few showers to take in the morning before leaving at 8:30am.
No comments:
Post a Comment