where you goING?

We were easily susceptible to English words. “Rocking Bar” carried a promise delivered, but not at all how we expected.

The small room lite in warm incandescence played music at an average pitch. The level of dank fandom for the Rolling Stones flapping from the walls are, endearing. The Stone song loop through the night, reaching deeper and deeper with each drink passed.

The music is a change from most of Japan (at least what we saw) and change of good—but the menu here is better. With an array of two-part cocktails and food of this country classified as “ethnic” I hardly knew what to to. I don’t recall what I ordered, but it was probably the Dita Pine because I enjoy disappointing myself.

ING
Japan, 〒604-8022 Kyoto, Nakagyo Ward, 西木屋町通蛸薬師上る南車屋町２８８－２０１ 京都ロイヤルビル２階

kyotoingbar.com

Hale

Hale is had to find. Entering the Nishiki Market at night, may of the bustling vendors were closed. A slice of gold in the blue night revealed the narrow passage to a mostly organic and I’m pretty sure all vegan converted home. The small restaurant hold two table dinning tables in the backside of the market.

Surrender to whims of the kitchen, seasons, and staff—because you really have no choice. Nor why would you want choice when the set menu extracts such delights from the simple statement:

• Pickles
• Fresh Chilled Tofu
• 2 Seasonal Dishes
• Steamed Organic Vegetables
• Yuba and Mushrooms Rice Bowl
• Kyoto Tea

I can’t tell you what pickles were presented—but they were light, crisp, slightly salty and did not taste like watermelon despite the obvious watermelon color.

Ordering a beverage at dinner is mandatory. The bar counter looming at eye-level brimming with sake, so we order that. Which one, I don’t know.

Surprises land on the table at a set meal. And in a country that does not share my language, I may never truly know what I get. Without explanation, without expectations, I found myself forced to lay into the present moment. Examining mounts of what I assumed was yuzu zest-topped knots of sauteed curly spinach and a shoyu seasoned mash of okara (soy milk pulp) with root vegetables scraps. Behind it, a bowl of fresh tofu, likely the end product of the okara process.

This, to me, is Japan. A bamboo steamer of fresh vegetables. From skin on kabocha squash, to the natural geometry of lotus root, to the unexpected spring of fresh nama-fu (similar to mochi but made of wheat gluten).

The basket comes with a trio of dipper: A ground sesame seed paste, a chili soy slurry, and a pinch of local salt.

The deep fried course offers new textures. A chip of crispy yuba skin clamshells over balls of deep fried tofu flecked with vegetables and hijiki (a wormy brown seaweed that all good kids ate with glee).

You cannot not have a bowl of glistening yuba in over rice at Hale. The light gravy, given bite with a swath of wasabi perched on the side of the bowl, is not nearly as slimy as it looks.

Passing through this small garden, I found the bathroom and experience my very first squat toilet. No pictures, sorry, but I assure you its all going to be OK.

Hale
604-8055 Kyoto, Nakagyo Ward,
Higashiuoyacho, 198

Website: http://www.kyoto-nishiki.or.jp/stores/hale/index.html

Everyday Kyoto

Outside the temples lay the everyday Kyoto. A city that shows it age, wet with humanity, crumbling through time as the plants slowing take over.

 

Fall into Tofuku-ji Temple

This would not the most dramatic display of autumn leaves in Japan, but at the time we didn’t know that.

We crossed the  Tsutenkyo Bridge–a breezeway over the turning maples that  chattering beneath us in a ravine. In the air you feel surrounded by color, busts of life turning towards exquisite death of a winter we would not be here long enough to see. Across the way, a covered platform cantilevers over the long shadow the bridge creates.

We come down, into the ravine, where the red leaves crinkle under our feet and the shadows turn cold and quiet. No one speaks, our eyes too full for conversation. Passing through the autumn cover, we silently head into the evergreen grounds to the temple.