First full day in Kyoto

Yesterday was a full one to say the least.  We took buses, trains and feets to go see a tea “plantation” (not like you saw in Elephant Walk, more like an in-town big garden) and its matcha factory in Uji, the 2nd biggest tea-growing region in Japan.  We had a lovely tea ceremony.  Everything is Matcha in Uji!  I was so proud of myself because I recognized that the tea bushes in some rows were different than others.  They were hybridized from original.  They had one tea bush that was at least 300 years old, might be 600 years old.  While walking down by the river (beautiful place, too bad we aren’t here in cherry blossom time), there was an old, old weeping cherry — probably knew that tea bush when they were both young.  What a labor intensive and skill-based business tea is!  From leaf pickers to stem pickers to grinders — though now they have machinery to do the grinding, we got to try our hand at grinding by hand.  HARD WORK.  Our hosts have won national awards for their tea.   After lunch at a little place that makes its soba noodles by hand using 100% soba flour, not like most soba that has about 20% wheat flour to make it easier to work with,  They also hand cut the soba noodles and they all look the same, and like factory cut ones.  I can’t imagine that skill at all — since I can only cut big chunks of anything.  I think we came back to Kyoto, but neither of us is sure of that, and I think we were in Inari (pronounced in-a-ri, not E-na-ri as I have always said) area, but, really, how would a roundeyes know???.  Anyway, we went to a dashi workshop.  Now, we talk about another labor-, time- and skill-intensive business.  Dashi is broth made of bonito flakes and kombu.  We learned how to make bonito flakes and you would not believe how hard bonito becomes after boiling, drying and infecting with mold (like blue cheese mold, she said).  The piece we were given to try our hands at making flakes was literally rock hard.  You would never identify it as fish or food.  And it is hard to flake, too.  Yet another skill that we don’t have down.  Here’s what we learned:  you don’t boil dashi.  You make it at 60 degrees C.  First, you must steep the kombu (seaweed) for at least two hours, or even overnight if you want.  When ready, you bring the kombu water up to just under a boil and add the bonito shavings and turn off the burner.  Take out the flakes, strain the remainder and you have dashi.  Add some miso paste (Daniel, she did not have a miso muddler, she used a fine strainer and a kitchen utensil whose name I cannot remember at this moment, it has rubber tip (I’m not sure hers was rubber) on a handle — what the hell is its name?!? — to melt the miso) and there you are:  miso soup.  Miso soup the way it is supposed to be, not miso soup made with water, but with dashi.  Both Yoriko, our guide, and the woman teaching us (we didn’t get her name) were scurrilous about young people who make miso soup with water.  Bah!, they said, lazy people!  This workshop makes an instant dashi that while not as rich and deep as real dashi, still is way more flavorful than water.  Daniel, we got several sheets about kombu, bonito, etc, etc, and it appears we left them there.  We will have to see if we can get them back somehow so you can see.

Our next jaunt was to Fushimi Inari-Taisha monument — a shrine dedicated to rice and sake.  The shrine goes all the way up a mountain with the walk filled with torii, kind of memorial “gates”.  They were built to commemorate donations to the shrine, with the name of the donor (probably nowadays most likely companies rather than individuals).  Getting there, we walked a long street filled to the gills with food vendors and tourist shops.  All over there were young women and men dressed in traditional kimono and whatever name of men’s outfit is (Yukata).  They rent them!  There were several businesses vying for customers to come rent their outfits.  For women, such rental comes with a hairdo, too, that includes hair decorations.  Beautiful colors and patterns, but Yoriko said they were not good quality.  I guess if you’re only renting it, you don’t care that much about quality.

Another train, another bus and we were back at our hotel, dead-dog tired!  We were going to take ofuro (bath) at hotel, but we couldn’t make ourselves move that much.  Perhaps tonight.  Today is cooking class and it is almost time.  We have to walk to the cooking school, so will have to take extra time to ensure we find it.