deep kyoto

Vanilla is a stylish location for lunch, dinner or just a simple coffee. They do a very good coffee.

The interior is decorated with cool, mellow Scandinavian furnishings. Presumably there is some connection with the “Nordic Countries” store downstairs. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Wednesday was the anniversary of the day Mewby and I first started dating… Time for a big posh swanky dinner! I let Mewby choose the venue this time and she chose Guest House Cono. Contrary to the name it’s not a guesthouse. It is in fact a big posh swanky restaurant. The interior is simple, soft-lighted, elegant comfort and the only decoration is occasional Buddhist statuary. I’m not sure why. Maybe the Buddha’s presence is meant to have a calming effect. Anyway, we had a private room which was very comfy.

Now, the food was gorgeous. We chose the Awase course which consists of the following:

A selection of tasty hors d'oeuvres.

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Sean Roe invited me out to this place ages ago. “￥380 a beer,” he said. Very hard to resist. So I went. And here’s what I found:

Kanso is a bar, and an art installation combined. Its concept can be roughly summarized as

drink x cans = fun

The art here is nothing precious,  consisting as it does of cans. Big cans that you sit at like tables and walls of cans to dazzle your eye. Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and again I am overcome by a terrible yearning for junk food. But not just any old chain-store-Big-Mac-style-mass-produced junk food. I want junk food with character. I want junk food of superior quality. I want to eat it in some comfort and away from the common horde. And I want to wash it down with beer too. In all these respects Speak Easy satiates all my more sordid culinary desires. They have burgers of every description (even vegetarian), and mexican food,  and bagel sandwiches, and really unhealthy but oh so tasty looking American breakfasts with bacon and eggs and french toast and hash browns and all that jazz. And booze. They got booze too. (Hence the name, eh?)

On our last visit Mewby opted for a cheese burger. She likes her cheese burger with bacon and guacamole.

Cheese Burger (￥750) + Bacon (￥80) + Guacamole (￥100)

I on the other hand declined the meat options and had myself a big old greasy slab of gluten.

The vegetarian Gluten Burger (￥750)

It goes down really nicely with a glass of Sapporo draft beer (￥600).

The Speak Easy we frequent is on the north side  of Nishikikoji doori between Takakura and Higashinotoin. There’s a much older one up on Kitayama by Shuugakuin though. You can find maps to both locations here and take a look at the menu here.

Speak Easy on Nishikikoji is open Monday to Wednesday from 11:00～20:00
and Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 11:00~23:00
Closed on Thursdays
Tel:075-241-9388

Jennifer Teeter writes:

Many of you have probably already heard about the new Peace Boat
Initiative US for Okinawa. In solidarity with their event on Jan 31st to gather support for a no-base Okinawa, there will be a similar event in Kyoto on the 30th with Kyoto Action.

Kyoto Action is a group of people living in Kyoto campaigning to close
down Futenma Air Force Base and stop the construction of a new U.S.
military base at Heneko in Okinawa. The group meets every
Saturday, same place, same time, to show their opposition to U.S.
military base constructions in Okinawa. On January 30th, in
solidarity, Kyoto Action will also be distributing information about
Peace Boat’s new initiative, US for Okinawa “Peace Action Network.”

INFO IN ENGLISH HERE.

It will be a good chance to meet other activists in Kyoto that are
working on the base issue, which is directly liked with the
preservation of biodiversity. If you’d like more information, let me
know:) It would be great if some of you could come! We’ll be meeting from 5-630 at the Sanjo-Kawaramachi Arcade.

Just a quick reminder that award winning documentary maker Mara Alper is in town and this Sunday will be giving a presentation at the Kampo museum on the Huichol people of Mexico. Mara has been very busy this past week exploring and filming around town. Here is her video of the Toshiya archery contest at Sanjusangendo last Sunday.

Mara’s lecture “Visions of the Huichol” will take place on Sunday January 24th from 2:00 pm. The Kampo museum sits on the intersection of Reisen and Okazaki streets due east of Heian Jingu. Here is a map.

Related: Interview with Mara Alper
The Glorious Art of José Benitez Sanchez

In the movie “Lost in Translation”, the character of Charlotte (played by Scarlett Johansson) takes a day trip alone to Kyoto. As she wanders through a temple and a shrine her sense of being lost in this alien land is compounded by the fact that she has absolutely no idea at all what she is looking at. This is a very common experience for foreign visitors to Kyoto. Even if you were to hire a guide, how to make sense of a culture with which you are entirely unfamiliar? Kyoto is rich beyond belief with sites of historical, literary, artistic and religious importance. The average Japanese tourist, on visiting these legendary locations, instantly recognizes his or her own heritage and is thrilled. However, the average foreign visitor, lacking cultural background, is left nonplussed by the sheer volume of unfamiliar names and dates. How to tell your temple from your shrine, your maiko from your geisha, your Momoyama jidai from your Muromachi era? How much would you need to study, even to begin to get to grips with it all? The thought is overwhelming. Well, next time you visit Heian Jingu, thank the gods for Kyoto: A Cultural History. In this fine book, John Dougill has done your homework for you.

Whether you are a long term resident or a short term tourist, this book is an excellent primer to this great city’s history, traditions and ever vibrant culture. Divided into eleven themed chapters, it lends itself to use either as a leisurely continuing narrative or as a work of reference to be dipped into at need. Early in the book, we learn that Kyoto was originally laid out symmetrically in accordance with geomantic and Confucian principles. This gridlike structure of parallel streets survives today and makes Kyoto, unlike most Japanese cities, very easy to navigate. Similarly the book also has a fine, many faceted symmetry and is equally easy to explore.Two stories stand like reflecting mirrors at the book’s beginning and end. The first chapter details the birth of the city as Heian-Kyo under the Emperor Kammu in 794. The last describes Kyoto’s reinvention of itself as a modern city after the departure of the Meiji Emperor in 1869. Within these bounds are five vital chapters that focus on those particular aspects of the city’s culture that have shaped it so profoundly: Buddhism, Noh, Tea, Geisha and Zen. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some pictures and a video from Sunday night’s International Love Cabaret. Unfortunately, I had to leave early and only saw half of the acts. Here however, are some arresting images from Sanae Kuroko’s dance.

And here is a rather grainy video of Mitsu Salmon (who you can mostly see) and ryotaro (who you mostly can’t see) – and not the whole performance mind you, but just a few raw cuts of “sushi” – to give you a small and savoury idea of what they are about. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a nice quiet place for coffee and cake. Mewby and I found this cafe last Saturday and spent a pleasant afternoon there enjoying the tasty fare and the cosy mood and burying ourselves in our books. Tucked away down an old residential machiya alleyway it’s not a place you’d find by chance. It’s word of mouth that gets you there, and Quarirengue has clearly earned its reputation as a place of quiet retreat and fine confections.

Let’s take a look at those cakes shall we? This chocolate cake (自慢のクラシック・ショコラ – Classic Chocolate Pride) will set you back 550 yen. And yes folks, those are real blackberries you see on that plate.

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As today is 成人の日 (“seijin no hi” or “Coming of Age Day“) it seems timely to post Ian Ropke’s article on the kimono. First though here are some pictures of some  brand new adults sporting their kimono’s for the day, and one other of a lady I spotted at Ebisu shrine. Click on the pictures to see them in better detail.

An industry caught in time

An enduring and potent symbol of traditional Japan, the kimono is caught in time. Caught somewhere between being an out and out artefact and an as yet necessary stage prop or costume for rare occasions. Read the rest of this entry »