Sightseeing and the best tempura in Kyoto!

Time to explore Kyoto! I rented a bike at the hotel and took of as soon as I woke up. Much to see and I only have until 4 pm when I am taking the train back to Tokyo.

My first stop was Kinkakuji Temple - the Golden Pavilion - an incredibly nice pavilion in a lovely park.

I continued to Ryoanij Temple and stone garden.

It was a very comfortable stillness all over this place, so I sat down and gathered energy before I rode on to Nino's castle.

I started getting hungry and was craving to eat more of what tasted best at the dinner yesterday - tempura. I Googled "best tempura in Kyoto", got up the place Tenyu on tripadvisor that had very good reviews, checked the location Google Maps and it was only 1 km away, on the way to my next stop. Perfect!

So very nice place and way to eat. All the guests sits around the chef, who stands cooking in the middle. You get served one dish at a time straight from the deep fryer. Shrimp, Japanese mushrooms, corn, eggplant, pumpkin, etc.. Awesome!

With new strength, I went south in the town of Fushimi Inari Shrine - the temple which is ranked no 1 in Kyoto. Very pompous.

I walked and walked in the corridors as above, but they just went up and up. My train did go at 4 pm  and after going for half an hour and the time was 2 pm, I asked some guys who were heading down how far it was to the top. An hour they answered. No way I would have time for that, so I turned down again a little reluctantly.

I biked back to the hotel and had video chat on Skype with Gustaf and Filippa. Really miss them now! Then the bus down to the train station. Once at the platform, I had only five minutes to spare, a little too tight, maybe, but I managed.

 

Now back to Tokyo and last night in Japan!

Karaoke in Kyoto!

I was on my way home when I was spontaneously invited to a private karaoke club! I walked past a place where I heard loud music and I gently opened the door to have a look. A Japanese woman quickly came up and said "sorry - private club". A Japanese guy then arrived and said - "No, come in.". So I stepped into a small karaoke night where I excelled with singing ABBA songs and hummed with the best I could in the Japanese songs. The Japanese offered beer and drinks and it all felt quite surreal. But very fun!

Bar hopping in Kyoto

I went down to the bar area of Kyoto - gion - which is just five minutes from my hotel. Very different selection of bars etc here. In ordinary houses are bar after bar on each floor, quite dead outside but very lively bars if you open the door. Lots of gentlemens clubs where it costs 5 to 10,000 yen to enter, others where it costs even more...

 

I was not looking for that kind of bar, and went to a small bar in this shady alley.

At the far end was a bar where I went inside. There sat two Japanese guys who were a bit surprised when I said hello.

I ordered a sake - I have not tested that previously here. I got an instruction on how I should drink it in an overflowing glass.

The Japanese left and was replaced by a family with nice Americans who after three days in Kyoto already appointed this bar to their favorite. Awesome nice owner of the bar who also spoke good English.

But, I don't have patience or time enough to stay in one bar all night no matter how nice it is, so I continued my lonely wandering in gion. Apparently, most clubs are only for the Japanese, so there are no poeople trying to talk me into the bars I pass by which is nice.

Anyway, after a while I found a French whiskey bar - "H du pont" with a really wide selection of whiskey and a nice bartender.

Here was my absolute favorite whiskey Springbank - in a Duncan Taylor dimensional, 18-year-old.

And also another favorite - Glenfarclas - here a private reserve from 2003.

Dinner in Kyoto at Manjiro

I quickly got used to traveling alone and that includes most of the times to eat unaccompanied. Today, maybe it went to extremes when I have an entire floor at the restaurant for myself, but it was not intentional!

Low chairs and table, my kids Filippa and Gustaf would have liked this place. However, they might protest a bit over the food:

Tofu made from eggplant, topped with onions and shrimp, served in soy sauce.

Minimum jar: tofu with wasabi

Middle: cucumber with small pieces of white fish and rum

Green bowl: some form of chicken liver pate, jelly with chicken, some kind of fish with egg yolk.

Tofu topped with mushrooms and apple peel.

Sashimi of tuna, squid and white fish,

Grilled fish with baked eggplant, roasted peppers and small potato rolls.

Fishing reel with onion and seaweed, fish pudding, green beans, a pudding of some sort and lime peel.

Tempura of green beans, corn, mushrooms, potatoes and japanese shrimp.
 

Rice in broth topped with mini shrimp. Pickles on the side.

Japanese peach, green-tea ice cream, pudding.

This was perhaps the most mysterious dinner I've ever eaten. Well-prepared, only locally produced ingredients as far as possible, beautifully laid out. But the flavors in general a little too different for me to appreciate everything that was served, to put me very diplomatically ... I think I managed to keep a straight face, however, because when I went came both the waitress and the cook with out and waved me off!

Book a table - impossible!

Part of autumn Kaiseki menu on Roan Kikunoi
- Dried konoko. (Image from http://kikunoi.jp)

I thought I would try to book a table at a nice restaurant in Kyoto and found a restaurant on TripAdvisor that seemed really good, Roan Kikiunoi in Kyoto with two stars. Stylish and clear website but no email address..

I tried to call but the woman who answered could not speak any English at all. (Guessing that most tourists in Kyoto are native so they do not bother to hire someone that speaks English, bit it is still surprising as I have been able to use English to make myself understood in all the other countries I have been to in the past).

Got stroke of genius to write my message on Google Translate and played up the translation over the phone, but then she replied in Japanese! I added in the text that I do not understand Japanese and played it again, and then got the answer "one person no". Unclear whether this means they do not take bookings for 1 person, or if you do not need to book if you are one person.

So, I have to try to make a reservation with help of the hotel when I arrive in Japan instead!

Plan for sightseeing in Kyoto

Photo: http://foodsaketokyo.wordpress.com/

I'll take a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto on Friday 13/9 and will arrive around 11 am.

At 14:00, I have now booked a place on the whiskey tour on Santory. I guess I'll spend 2-3 hours there including tasting, whiskey museum etc. But what should I do more in Kyoto? Is so very much to see that a week would be needed.  But with the proper planning, I am sure I will fit it all into 2 days!

The blogger Food Sake Tokyo writes about Nishiki Market , Kyoto's fresh food street market. There, one should try deep fried Tofu, a specialty of Kyoto.

Cooking class in the home of a Japanese family? Seems so fun! I thought of taking one in Tokyo but they also have courses in Kyoto. The most known is the one with  Emi Heryima that have got great reviews on Food Sake Tokyo. But when I tried to book it was already full. Plan well ahead if you would like to take this course!

Kyoto also have several excellent restaurants, many of them with 1-2 stars in guide Michellin.

And there are many temples, shrines and beautiful parks in Kyoto that I don't want to miss.  TripAdvisor has a good list of which I am most eager to visit the following places:

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shring (picture from TripAdvisor)

Golden Pavillion

Golden Pavillion (picture from TripAdvisor)

Eikan-do

Eikan Do (Picture from TripAdvisor)

Kiyomizu Temple

Beautiful temple with a lookout platform with awesome views!

Kiyomizu Temple (image from TripAdvisor)

Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle (picture from TripAdvisor)

Neighborhood Gion, known as "Geisha District".

Geishas in Gion, the picture from TripAdvisor

Guided tour of Suntorys Yamazaki Whisky Destellery in Kyoto - booked!

Now that I have more or less scheduled how to spend my week in Japan and booked the accommodation in Kyoto, I tried to reserve a seat on the whiskey tour on Suntory . On Suntorys web there is only a telephone number and despite attempts to try googling up an email address, I did not find a single one. (Nor was there a single person on Santori in Japan on LinkedIn). When I accidentally ended up in a thread on TripAdvisor about this tour and read "However bookings are essential as the tour Proves popular. When we phoned three months in advance there was only a few spaces left on the date we wanted to go" I began to get a little nervous.

However, when I called today, Monday 2/9, it was no problem at all to book a place exactly on the day and time I wanted (Friday 13/9 at 14.00). So my fears were unfounded.

Called with Skype for iPhone by the way, so convenient and cheap with their mobile app where you can call out to ordinary numbers worldwide and it costs almost nothing.

Is Japanese whiskey any good then? At blind tastings, it is impossible to distinguish Japanese from Scottish. Last year, the  Yamazaiki 25-year-old whiskey´was named world's best Malt in Whisky Magazine , this year it was beaten by Ardbeg Galileo but kept the place as best Japanese malt whiskey. By coincidence, it is precisely this Yamazaki that is manufactured in Kyoto so I will be sure to try it out. (Though perhaps not in such large quantities, as a bottle costs around 1000 USD:-)

How do I get there then? By train from Kyoto:

• JR Kyoto Station to JR Yamazaki Station (about 15 minutes))

• The distillery is located about 10 minutes on foot from JR Yamazaki Station and Hankyu Oyamazaki Station.

Whisky Bars and whiskey tasting in Japan - Tokyo and Kyoto

Whisky is one of my great interests and since over 10 years, I am with the whiskey association "The Barrel Boys", which in turn is a member of the Swedish Whisky Association. Our club owns whiskey casks located at storage in Scottland, at Bruichladdich and Glengoyne . Every other year we head over to Scottland to sample the drums but this year there will be whiskey tasting in Japan for me instead. I got in touch with a Whisky Club in Tokyo and asked for advice and got a whole list of good whiskey bars. The list seemed a bit out of date though, so after checking up the different bars online, this is the updated list:

In Tokyo:

• Cask Roppongi ( Website only in Japanese as I run through Google Translate, seems to have closed)
• Wodka Tonic (Unclear website , on Google maps, it looks like an apartment building!)
• Helmsdale (Scottish Gourmetpub, maybe not what I'm after when going to Japan!)
• Speyside Way (looks cozy! )
• Mashtun (looks good)
• Bar Highlander (Scottish bar, goes away for me for the same reason as Helmsdale)
• Bar Talisker (Ginza). Seems to have no website, but the address info available here .
• Shot Bar Zoetrope (Shinjuku Japanese whiskey specialist). Clearly the bar I am most eager to visit. Whiskymag , writes "The owner of Zoetrope, Atsushi Horigami, formernvideo games designer, set up this cool little bar as a shrine to his two great passions: Japanese whiskey and American movies". They might have one of the world's best selection of Japanese whiskey.

Shot Bar Zeotrope

And in Kyoto:

• Rocking Chair (difficult to understand the web in Japanese)
• Bar Y'ya (find no info at all on the web)
• Common One Club (find no info at all on the web)
• Yatta (restaurant and bar upstairs-near to Common wealth One Club)
• Tozan Bar (within the Hyatt Regency Hotel )
• Kanga'an (a restaurant & bar within atemple).

Here, Google Maps with Street View very useful, in several bars you can for example go in via Google and see how it looks inside the bar!

Bar Talisker in Tokyo in Google Maps - looks lovely!

Helmsdale Tokyo - do not look quite as cozy ...

So, I will "enter" all the bars via Google and prioritize those that look best!

I also got tips on that particular week I'm in Tokyo, it is also Tokyo Autumn Tasting Week in Bar High Society. A weekly event where they presents many new whiskeys. However, the image on the Bar High Society is not so appealing. For me - whisky bars should be small, dark and have walls full of whisky!

Bar High Society in the Park Hotel, Tokyo

In Kyoto (2.5 hours by train from Tokyo) is one of Japan's top 10 destelleries - Suntory - and it will be really fun to visit. They make the Yamazaki whiskey there and hold guided tours, tastings, etc.. Suntory will probably be one of the highlights in Japan!

At Suntory Museum

Plan for sightseeing in Tokyo - start at the Japanese Embassy!

I have started writing a list of everything I want to do in Tokyo and Kyoto, and Google Maps is fantastic in many ways to understand where things are located. But still, I find it really hard to understand what I am looking at as I have not the slightest idea of the city

Google maps - great but not easy when starting researching

To understand the big picture and see where things are in relation to each other, I think a normal map in paper is the best and came up with the idea that perhaps the Japanese Embassy could provide me with maps. Very true and it was just swinging by on Gärdesgatan 10 and pick up maps of both Tokyo and Kyoto, for free! Smoothly. The next step will be to put little notes on the large map of all the places I want to visit and plan the optimal way to take me around.