Tim and Marg Arrive: Our First Guests

Tim, Marg and Sachiko

Heian Garden

Heian Garden

Rain on Ume Blossom

Four young Maiko and B & W

1-5 March 2012

Tim and Marg arrived last Thursday evening. We went to dinner at our local restaurant and put them to bed.  The next day was rainy, but we were enthusiastic.   Tim and Marg bought see-through umbrellas, and off we went.  We started at Nishiki market, where Tim and Marg were amazed by the many strange vegetables and sea food, sampled pickles, etc.  We went to the Heian Shrine in the afternoon and had a leisurely walk in the foggy, drizzly Heian garden (see photos above).  It was, uncharacteristically, almost deserted at this time of year. Dinner was at a nearby conveyor belt restaurant (sushi), in a hotel, with a "happy" kanuki out front.  Marg giggled. Saturday the weather improved.  We went to Nijo Castle in the morning, walking along the corridors with their singing "nightingale" floors,  and exploring the large, subtle garden and moats.  Then we met Sachiko,  a business woman in her 20's, who came all the way from Tokyo for lunch. She had stayed with Tim and Marg several years ago, when she was an exchange student at the Gulf Breeze Middle School.  We had lunch at Omen,  an old,  famous, udon  restaurant. We spent the sunny afternoon seeing Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavillion) and strolling down the Philosopher's Walk.  Dinner was at Giro Giro, Kyoto's popular kaiseki restaurant, where we sat at the counter and not only enjoyed the food, but had ring-side seats for the performance of four guys and a girl, cooking, serving, and cleaning up, joking and shouting in their closet sized  kitchen.

The rain returned on Sunday, but we went to Gion in the morning.  Being a "pleasure quarter", Gion is dead on a Sunday morning, but much to our surprise, at the Simbashi Bridge, along came four young Maiko (apprentice geisha) and a photographer, who encouraged us to pose!  Hence the above photo.   Then we went to Chion-in Temple (the center of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan) and watched a service for a while, then walked through more of Gion, and then to Kasagi-ya, a very old, small, dark tea shop, for tea and sweets (Tim and Win just about filled the entire space) We ended our walk by the Yasaka Pagoda and came home for a rest.  We had dinner at one of Kyoto's oldest tempura restaurants: Takasebune.  After dinner we walked up Pontocho in the rain, passing up the many "soaplands" and "lady's bars" and took a taxi home.  Tim and Marg left Monday morning in the train for Nara, taking (still needing) their new umbrellas, and our Japanese phrase book.  Unless we have to go out and rescue them, we will meet their train when they come back to Kyoto next week.

We send love