Kawadoko – Riverside Dining to Beat the Heat

Kyoto, surrounded on three sides by mountains, is known for its cold winters and hot summers. In the days before air conditioners, people devoted a lot of time and energy to beating the summer heat, and one of the things they came up with is the elegant custom of kawadoko, riverside dining.
If you walk along the Kamo-gawa River in central Kyoto, you will see a lot of restaurants with platforms built out over the side of the river where patrons go to get cool and enjoy food or drinks. Another famous place is Kibune, a tiny village north of Kyoto. There’s a long, winding river through a ravine with a lot of old, high-class Japanese inns and kawadoko restaurants.
I went there a couple of years ago, and the kawadoko restaurants were a little pricey for me, but it was a really nice place for walking and taking photos.
There are some excellent descriptions on these blogs and websites:

Gaijin Report: http://www.hotwire.jp/repo/vol4.html (general overview)
Kyoto Travel Plans: http://www.kyoto-okoshiyasu.com/en/see/kawadoko/kibune.html (restaurant list)
Secret Japan: http://www.secret-japan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=220 (general guide to Kibune and nearby Kurama Onsen)
Kibune official site: http://kibune.jp/ (Japanese only)
Google Maps: http://www.google.co.jp/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=ja&geocode=&q=%E8%B2%B4%E8%88%B9%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E5%81%9C&sll=35.104392,135.767498&sspn=0.048872,0.069437&ie=UTF8&ll=35.113485,135.763378&spn=0.024433,0.034719&t=h&z=15

Getting there:
From Kyoto’s Sanjo Station, take the Keihan Honsen Tokkyuu (Limited Express) bound for Demachiyanagi Station. Change to the Eizan Dentetsu Honsen (Eizan Railway Main Line) bound for Anba. Get off at Kibune Guchi Station. It takes about 36 minutes from Sanjo Station, and the fare is 620 yen. From there, you can walk about 1.3 km or take the bus. The bus schedule is here. It’s in Japanese, but the two columns on the left are for weekdays and the two on the right are Sat., Sun., hol. (departure from Kibune Guchi on the left and return on the right) . The buses only run on weekends from around Dec. 8 until Shunbun no Hi (First day of Spring, around Mar. 20). The fare is 160 yen.

Here’s a Google Earth view of the area (click to enlarge):

Chocolate Natto

Mito’s meibutsu (famous local product) is natto, a goo made from rotten soy beans. It is, as they say, an acquired taste. I once ate it every day for three weeks, testing out my theory that a person can get used to any food. I gave up  because I just couldn’t get it down without gagging. This souvenir stand is trying to make it more palatable by adding chocolate to it.

By the way, I’m moving tomorrow, so there probably won’t be any posts until next weekend.

What is a “Jesus Body?”

There are already a lot of blogs and websites devoted to Engrish, and I think there are enough of them already, so I don’t want to make this kind of post a regular thing, but I’m more than a little curious about what a “Jesus body” might be. The product is a diet supplement and its spokesperson is Kaori Manabe, a television personality and gravure idol. Here’s what a “Jesus body” looks like:

These are my theories about what a “Jesus body” might be:

1. An emaciated body like Jesus after his 40 day and night “diet” in the wilderness?
2. A body that makes you say “Sweet Jesus!” when you see it?
3. Something about stigmata?
4. A reference to the Eucharist. Maybe the diet pills are in a wafer form, representing the “body of Jesus”?
5. A perfect body.

Got an idea or explanation? Leave it in the comments, please.

Kyoto Foodie

This is the first food blog that I’ve ever spent more than five seconds reading. I guess I got taken to McDonald’s one too many times when I was a kid, leaving me sadly incapable of enjoying a 10,000 yen kaiseki dinner any more than a bowl of ramen. Despite my lack of interest in food, though, I find it quite entertaining.

I started reading Kyoto Foodie a couple of weeks ago, though, after finding it while searching for information for a book on Japanese manners that I’m translating at work.  I came on this interesting post about namagashi, beautifully decorated rice cake and sweet bean paste sweets that are often served during the tea ceremony, and have been finding it surprisingly interesting.

Anyway, the blog is full of interesting food stories and great photos of Japanese food, and also has lots of good suggestions for restaurants and foods that you won’t find in your guidebook. Check it out at: http://kyotofoodie.com/

Edible Dragon Sculpture

Every four years, Osaka is home to the International Festival Utage (Shokurankai in Japanese). It sounded pretty interesting – foods from around the world, cake making contests, and tons of free samples. Unfortunately, it was so crowded that you had to line up for about an hour to get anything to eat, and sometimes there were so many people it was hard to move. It’s also really expensive – 2000 yen per person. The only interesting thing in the whole exhibition was the edible sculptures. I think this one is made of sugar.  The exhibition is being held again this year in April, but I can’t say as I really recommend it: http://www.shokuhaku.gr.jp/en/index.html