Planes, Thrills and Meals: SQ to Kansai, Osaka , Kyoto and Universal Studios Japan

[yflyer]

A ladle of brown sauce, and a sprinkle of garnish…



…and the dish is done, and presented to you with a flourish...

This is the half sized dish of omu-rice...



…and the full sized version of this dish…



The omu-rice was spectacularly delicious, we finished it all very rapidly…



The beef stew was excellent too...



A wonderful meal and experience as well, with Chef Motokichi making us all feel welcome and at ease without ever speaking a word of English. Reservations essential!

[yflyer]

The next day, we took a train to Nara, to visit the famous deer park there.



Nara is a small but very pleasant town to visit. Perfect for a day trip.

A stroll along the main street on the way to the Deer Park.





This signboard got my younger girl a little worried…



In the event, the deer we came across were very good natured…



…although it was my elder girl, Miss yflyer No.1 who really got on with the deer best. And I mean really well – almost Deer Whisperer well!



For wild animals, the deer seemed quite aware of traffic rules, crossing the street close to the zebra crossing, and in any case, all the cars there gave the deer right of way…





We caught an evening train back to Kyoto.

[yflyer]

The next day, we took the short walk up the hill behind our machiya to Kiyomizudera Temple, one of the leading temple attractions in Kyoto.



This is a beautiful temple complex set high on a hill, overlooking beautiful autumn foliage, and the city of Kyoto in the distance.











Some parts of the temple are under renovation at the moment, but it is still a stunning temple to visit.

And in the vicinity of the temple, there are a couple of bustling shopping streets with a range of shops selling traditional crafts and souvenirs on sale, that were quite pleasant to walk through, provided you don’t mind crowds of tourists and visitors.

[yflyer]

The next day, we headed into the city to explore the shopping streets and markets.

The main shopping street…decked out in Christmas décor, and amazingly, Christmas music piped loudly through speakers onto the sidewalk…no escaping the festive atmosphere in central Kyoto!



There were also covered shopping streets here, as in Osaka…



The main traditional market in Kyoto is Nishiki Market…



Again a sprawling street market showcasing local food and produce…







Fresh wasabi…very different from the powdered, packaged stuff…



Different varieties of Japanese rice… short grained, stickier, and in many ways much tastier than the Thai rice typically served in Singapore.



Shirako (Fish milt) was a delicacy in season this time of year.



Shirako can be consumed raw, sashimi style, or prepared in several different ways.

It is very tasty to eat, as long as you don’t think too much about what the stuff actually is…

[yflyer]

We had lunch at Nishiki Daiyasu, one of the restaurants in Nishiki market, famous for oysters and other seafood.



Apart from oysters…



…we tasted a range of sake’s, conveniently offered as sampling flight of three…



…and tried a couple of spectacularly fresh sashimi dishes…





…and shirako prepared two ways…

...shirako fried with mushrooms and onions…



…and shirako tempura…



Elsewhere in Nishiki Market, there was also a famous knife and cookware shop…



…where many items were hand made by artisans, with mindboggling price tags to match…that’s not cookware, at those prices, that’s almost jewellery!

[yflyer]

There is a butcher along Matsubara Dori, a narrow winding street that leads from Higashiyama (And Kiyomizu-dera) down to the Kamo river and the Kyoto city center, that we passed by several times during our trip.





They had superb cuts of Japanese beef on display, and the stall was manned by a team of butchers dressed in white, almost ninja-like in appearance and skill with their knives and implements…



Again, the 10 digit cattle ID number of this premium meat clearly stated on the rack…



…based on the ID this is Japanese Black Hair Wagyu from Kagoshima.

There was a branch of the Fresco chain of supermarkets close to our machiya, as well as outlets of the ubiquitous convenience store chain FamilyMart, with Lawson also slightly further up the road. These convenience stores were perfect for picking up beverages, snacks and other convenience food for our stay.

[yflyer]

I bought some beef from the butcher, and Mrs yflyer also picked up sashimi and other groceries from the markets and supermarkets, to cook for dinner in the compact kitchen in our machiya.

Between the two of us, we typically arrived back at the machiya at the end of each day with ample ingredients for a sumptuous dinner.



We inevitably began with seafood, typically sashimi…



…although on some days it was hard to resist the uni or crab as well…



Note that all our seafood platters came with real garnishes…real flowers, real leaves, not the plastic stuff you typically get in supermarkets outside Japan!

Mrs yflyer cooked the steak and thinly sliced beef in a variety of ways, including Japanese sukiyaki-style…







We ate the beef with delicious Japanese short grained ice, with either white rice or fried rice easily available pre-cooked and reading for reheating, from both Fresco supermarket and FamilyMart.



A special callout to the full flavour of the vegetables as well, even the broccoli had a crunch and intense, fresh flavour mostly absent from the broccoli we got back home.

[yflyer]

When it came to beverages, what also stood out on our trip was the easy availability, and reasonable prices in both supermarkets and convenience stores, of sake, beer, whisky and other beverages.

Lovers of Japanese whisky would appreciate the availability of both small and large bottles of whisky, including premium Yamazaki and Nikka single malts, at prices far lower than in Singapore: for example 200ml bottles of Yamazaki Single Malt for JPY 1231 (SGD 14)…



Some supermarkets even had a bottom shelf of PET bottles of whisky going for JPY 5948 (About SGD 70) for a 4 litre bottle!

[yflyer]

On a couple of days in Kyoto, I went for long runs along the Kamo river. These runs started from the machiya, down Matsubara Dori, and then along a beautiful and scenic trail by the river right up to where the Kamo river forks, then back down the river along the opposite bank and back to the machiya.

Matsubara Dori is a busy street during the day, but is fairly quiet in the early morning, and evening, however I felt very safe there (And everywhere else in Kyoto for that matter).



There were small Koban, or community police posts, throughout the city, as well as along Matsubara Dori, and this is a great police concept that seems to have worked very well in Japan.



In fact, I believe the neighbourhood police post and community policing system in Singapore is partly modelled after the Koban system.

On my first run along the Kamo river, the sky was fairly overcast…



On my second run the next day, it was bright and sunny, and there was a lot more activity along the river than on my first run…



The Kamo river has always been a part of life in Kyoto. All along the river, there are signs and posters describing the history of the river and the city around it.



One of the bridges along the river…notice the solitary fisherman sitting on a rock right in the middle of the river…



I ran on two consecutive days, on both days the same guy, at the same spot! Fishing must be good there!

Some history behind the bridge…



Apart from bridges, you could also cross the shallow river by jumping along a a series of stone rocks, some shaped like turtles…



Birds in the river…

[yflyer]

A few kilometers north up the river, the river forks…





This is a really beautiful spot along the river, with mountains visible in the distance.

At that point, I crossed over to the other side and headed back south…



…passing riverside eating establishments, which are brightly lit at night, revealing diners at low tables within…



An elderly couple were by the river feeding the birds and ducks…



...once again, on both the days of my run, it was the same couple at the same spot. Probably the same birds and ducks too...



I thought that this route up and down the Kamo River was truly idyllic.

My route on the 2nd of my two runs started at the machiya, close to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. I headed down Matsubara Dori, then turned nothwards when I reached the river, running along the Kamo River path north until the river forked, at the 5km mark, before heading south, back down the river along the opposite bank and then back to the machiya for a total distance of just over 9km.

[yflyer]

On our last day in Kyoto, we took a taxi to nearby Arashiyama for lunch at a well known restaurant, Temra Matsu.



This restaurant is located at a very scenic spot by the Katsura river close to Arashiyama, on the opposite bank.





The restaurant reservation was made in advance, with the help of the staff at the Hotel Ichiei in Osaka.

The main dining area was on ground level…



…however we were shown to a private room on the 2nd floor.



This room was set up with a table for 4, and had a stunning view of Arashimaya.



We ordered the less expensive of the two omakase courses on the menu, and a child meal for our younger girl – and after ascertaining whether we had any food allergies or dining no-go zones, all further decisions on cuisine were made by the chef and staff…a sure sign that we were in for a real treat!



I ordered a bottle of chilled sake to go with our meal, and this came not in a bottle but a very cold tube of bamboo…icy to the touch with frosting all round.

[yflyer]

Our first course was a bamboo and rice “soup”…a nice way to start…





Our second course was a fillet of delicately grilled Tai fish, served with skin and edible scales intact, with several slivers of fried vegetable on the side. This was so subtle and light, with no hint of oil…



For whatever reason, each course was brought to the room by a different member of the staff, whether by coincidence or design, it was quite interesting to have a different person describe the dish, in the best English they could muster, with Mrs yflyer scribbling copious notes in her notebook on what the dish actually was.

The next course a steaming hot bowl of oyster and mushroom soup, with the cooked oyster served in the oyster shell…



Each dish was a marvel of flavour and presentation, and came at just the right pace, not too fast and not too slow…

A beautifully presented plate of sashimi came next…short of flying the fish across from Japan supersonically, is there any way to obtain such fresh tasting sashimi in Singapore?



We were now on to a different bottle of sake. Another frost-covered bamboo tube was brought out, with a different glass this time.



The next dish was crab, which was served to us by the female proprietress of the establishment, who personally ladled onto each plate a small topping of precious crab roe from a large crab shell.



She described the crab and where it was from, emphasizing how special this particular type of crab was…this was “High class crab!” and really tasted wonderful.

[yflyer]

Green tea was served at this point in the meal…



…and then yet another wonderful dish…rice in prawn stock and tiny sakura ebi…the flavour of this dish was intense and intoxicating…



And then came tempura, individual portions of vegetable and seafood tempura, with each piece freshly fried, crisp and light…





Tempura sauce was provided…



…but the flavours were so delicate that I ate most of the tempura just dipped in salt.

[yflyer]

To end our meal, a portion of cold udon was served.

Needless to say the udon, served in dipping sauce with a small egg, was delicious, but what gave it the wow factor was the fact that this was served in a godzilla-sized ice cube…



The four of us just stared open-mouthed in delight…this even impressed my two girls, who as members of the youtube and social media generation, are not as easy to impress as old fogeys like myself and Mrs yflyer.

Apart from eating the udon, it was quite intriguing to watch the udon slowly melt through the block, tracing fine lines in the clear ice…



Mmmm…



And the towel is there for a purpose, after the udon is finished, you could hold the super-cold ice block with the towel, and drink the soup by bringing the heavy ice cube to your mouth!



Brilliant!

After slurping up the udon very loudly, I stared at the ice block for a very long time, thinking that an ice cube of this size would, if used as a cup, be a wonderful, if over the top, way to enjoy fine Japanese whisky too…

[yflyer]

Dessert was a plate of mochi…in a sweet sauce and lightly sprinkled with kinako powder…



A truly amazing meal, and one of our most satisfying dining experiences ever.