Sayonara

Kyoto on Sunday morning

2 November 2014

One last Japanese breakfast, and then with a few hours to spare, we walked over to the Museum of Traditional Crafts and then to the Museum of Modern Art in between downpours.  We watched an artisan painting silk and another embroidering with fine silk thread.  At the Modern Art Museum, there was quite a fascinating collection of pieces from the 1930's curated with the idea of showing western influences on Japanese artists.  (Of course there was the reverse trend in western art as well...)  Then a quick lunch and off to Kyoto Eki and the airport for the long, but mercifully uncomplicated trip home.  Since I am writing this from home, I am sitting with a stick of sandelwood insense burning so as to keep the fleeting sensations of Kyoto with me a while longer.

  But of course it is also nice to be home.

Painting Silk

National Museum and Soba Noodles

1 November 2014

As predicted, a rainy day, necessitating the purchase of clear plastic umbrellas at the combini.  Kyoto is a sea of umbrellas on a rainy day - just two drops and everyone puts up their umbrella.  We met Berg and Somdev by the Kyoto National Museum, open after 5 years of renovations.  Actually, the permanent collection is housed in a new building, very large and light, with a bamboo garden in the back and a reflecting pool in the front.  It houses a wonderful collection of National Treasures, of which the ceramics and the 15-16th century painting of birds and seasons particularly stood out.  The old part of the museum, a grand Meiji era building, will now house special exhibits, but the current one (the famous frolicking animals) would have meant a two hour wait in the rain...

We had a good lunch, caught up on news etc.  Berg will soon get her PhD on ancient Sanskrit poetry, and they may stay on beyond 4 years in Kyoto.  We had tea later at Ipodo do, which I will greatly miss (the ritual of cooling the boiling water to 80 degrees and brewing for 50 seconds to make the sencha just so).

At dinner time we met Akiko and went to a terrific Soba restaurant (Goji dori and Marutamachi dori but I can't remember the name).  They grind buckwheat and make the noodles there, and use the noodles to make a silky broth for cooking fish and vegetables and then for cooking the soba.  Soba "nuts" are used for garnish and then finally soba tea.  Very nice and fun to be with Akiko who has her first job teaching, as well as doing clinical work in several locations.  A good last night!

Transparent Umbrellas in Kyoto

Frolicking Animals