Both of us were feeling just a little below par first thing this morning; nothing specific but probably the sensory excesses of the last week or so, combined with the slight over-indulgence of last night’s wonderful meal.
We agreed that we’d make it a light touring day after the short morning activity we had pre-arranged – a tea ceremony.
We had quite a long list of things we fancied seeing, but most or even all of them could wait until tomorrow if we didn’t feel like doing much, which we didn’t.
That was the plan.
But then, we all know what can happen to plans.
The tea ceremony was very interesting and great fun. A courier with the unconventional Japanese name Jim took us to the venue, then disappeared. Nine of us in a group, hosted by the Women’s Association of Kyoto – WAK. And what a “waky” experience it was too.
Daisy and I had done a tea ceremony before, at Yaohan Plaza “back in the day”, but it wasn’t then explained as comprehensively as this and frankly I recall not much liking the taste of the matcha – i.e. powdered green tea, when I tasted it at Yaohan.
The Kyoto style demonstrated by the charming WAK lady is a frothy style of matcha, far less bitter than the stuff I recall from Yaohan. Daisy still didn’t like it much, but I am now a bit of a green tea aficionado and really enjoyed the Kyoto tea ceremony tea – slurp slurp.
Of course, the ceremony requires everyone to bow and follow a strict ritual of manners in an environment that has been very specifically set out to be a tea room – the explanatory leaflet we were given at the end of the visit runs to 16 pages for goodness sake. Most importantly, if you like the tea you slurp the last drop.
One couple in our group were relatively young honeymooners from London who, it transpired afterwards, are great fans of Atari-Ya – our Japanese fishmonger and supermarket, but they use the Finchley branch. Daisy also spoke at some length with an Irish lady from Waterford who was there on her own. There was another couple, in their case from Yorkshire. The final pair was from France (a grandmother and grandson combination I guessed, but perhaps a wealthy lady taking the current French Presidential age difference fashion to an illogical extreme.)
Revived by our cuppa and inspired by the improved weather, we decided to go to the Kyoto Botanical Garden, as Daisy wanted to see bonzai trees and we knew there was a regular exhibit of many of them.
We were near a subway line and I had worked out that the mere two subway lines could nevertheless whisk us to a few of the remaining places we wanted to see for the small investment of 600 Yen (if you were prepared to forego the right to suffer on the buses).
That subway pass investment paid a dividend almost immediately when, as I ventured to procure our entry tickets to the Botanical Garden, the nice ticket lady spotted my pass and announced a small discount on our entry tickets as a result. The sums involved are trifling yet I’m sure I looked pleased to have scored a few dozen Yen and she looked delighted to have helped me.
The Botanical Garden is a very charming place and was a great opportunity to see all manner of plants and flowers which especially interests Janie but also (in such a pleasant setting) also pleased me.
We spent quite a while there, meandering around the various well-labelled and well set out exhibits, also looking at many small show gardens which were getting ready to be judged in a competition. Some were a bit gimmicky (e.g. the Halloween and dinosaur themed ones) but many were very beautiful and tastefully symbolic.
We took some ice cream (chestnut again, I thought not quite as nutty and whippy as Tsumago, but Janie thought just as good) at the cafe in front of the central lawn. I pondered the possibilities for said lawn as a cricket pitch – you know what I’m like.
Then we looked at the bonzai trees and then felt replete with gardens. Except we still hadn’t seen the sky walk and sky garden at Kyoto Station, of course. That was a simple few stops away on the subway. So we went on there.
It still took some finding – it’s not exactly signposted but once you start going up escalators it is obvious what you should do next, whereas wandering round at ground level with our baggage the previous day looking for signs had been hopeless.
Up we went and of course the architecture of the place is stunning and some of the views of Kyoto also worth the effort. Mostly it’s the place itself, though.
Then we thought we might try to find spare batteries for our LUMIX cameras, as our models, which suit us fine, are becoming dated and/but the bit that is most likely to go first is the batteries, which are already displaying signs of holding less charge than they once did.
Almost miraculously, while I was trying to navigate around the station to get to the “camera shop near me” recommended by Mr Google to the west side of the station, we quite by chance spotted a promotional stand with what looked like Yayoi Kusama pumpkins on it.
It transpires that the Kyoto Contemporary Art Museum is showing a retrospective on her and it is open until 18:00. That museum was on my “possibles list”, although I had discounted the possibility that we might see many, if any Kusama pieces there.
We resolved to head for that place after sorting out the LUMIX battery business. We found the camera shop but sadly were informed that our particular LUMIX batteries can no longer be found in Kyoto. We should have more luck in Osaka.
The camera shop – more like an electronics and chemist department store – was able to supply us with some nice mineral bath salts and one or two other chemist-type products, so we hadn’t completely wasted our time there.
Next stop, Sanjo Kehan station, on the fringes of the shopping district and the Gion district. The shopping side looked dull whereas the lure of the Forever Modern Art Museum was greater, especially when Mr Google told us it was a mere 15 minutes walk away…
…or rather, it would have been a mere 15 minutes had we not bumped into Martin and Jane, with whom we had done the food and culture stroll around Takayama only a couple of days ago. It was really nice to see them again and to swap stories from our different adventures of the last 48 hours or so.
Soon we realised that we would need to stride with purpose if we were to be sure of getting to the Yayoi Kusama in time. We did make it and were astonished to find that it was a substantial retrospective exhibition – basically the Forever Modern has been entirely purposed for this exhibition. After all that fuss in Tokyo and knowledge that Kusama’s London show is also sold out – this excellent one in Kyoto we just walked up and paid to get in on the door. Daisy was like a proverbial pig in shit.
I also enjoyed the exhibition but my goodness we were both tired when we came out of that place. We had meant it to be a light day of touring.
We resolved to eat at the hotel, intending it to be a light evening of eating too – we both had a crazy craving for some Western food. But the set menu looked so tempting, both in terms of the dishes on offer and relative price (exceptionally expensive place for food, the Hyatt), that we relented and enjoyed Caesar salad, clam chowder, ribs’n’beef with mash/veg and an “apple pie” which was in truth a cross between Grandma Jenny’s apple pie and mum’s apple strudel. Nice wines too.
A fine end to a fine day.
All the pictures from Day Eight can be seen by clicking the Flickr link here or below:
