Sightseeing in Kyoto, and a minor culinary meltdown...

I started the day with breakfast served to me in my room (!), which is evidently standard service for ryokans. The woman who brought me my food spoke enough English to point out a few of the things on the tray, which comprised a very diverse Japanese breakfast with losts of food I didn't recognize, either by appearance or taste. (Picture to follow when I get a chance.) Suffice it to say, the meal was a challenge, and I can't say I liked everything. But I found enough things to eat, and in a bind, one can always pig out on rice, which is always provided in abundance.

After lunch I set out for a grueling day of sight-seeing in Kyoto's eastern hills, which contain the best collection of high density, quality sites (according to both my guide books). I hit the pavement at around 8:30, and to get a better feel for the city, walked the entire way to the first site, even though I probably could have used the bus system to get there faster. At one point I walked through what was clearly the red light district, and man stepped out of a rather shady looking establishment as if to hail me, but after taking a look at my appearance (decidedly un-japanese, and clothed in shorts and a tee-shirt), he stopped and doubled back through the door. Anyway, I toured the sites, starting the south and worked my way north: Sanjusangen-do, Kyoto National Museum, Kiyomisu-dera, Kodai-ji, detour to Teramachi for lunch, Konchi-ji, Nanzen-ji, the Philosopher's Path, and finally, Ginkaku-ji. (Picures too follow when I get a chance.)

Unfortunately, I did not choose wisely in my drink choices for the day (leaving me dehydrated), and I was also tired and a little stressed from navigating on foot all day (it was now roughly 5 pm), so I had a pretty brutal headache and over an hour walk back to my hotel ahead of me. By the time I got to the hotel, my head was really pounding, and all I wanted to do was take a nap. Unfortunately, I had arranged for my special kaiseki meal at 6:30 in my hotel that evening, which was only about 30 minutes after I finally got to my room. To put then even more properly in context, I had eaten lunch late in the day, so that I was starving when I finally sat down. Then I ordered a set meal, which included all kinds of weird Kyoto-style dishes of little bits of unrecognizable foodstuffs flavored with unrecognizable spices. I am a pretty adventurous eater, and like a pretty wide variety of food, but I was pretty tired of the strangeness after lunch. (It was a soba restaurant, and I swear, only two out of the ten dishes had any soba noodles in them. I figured soba was a sure thing, but I guess in Kyoto, famed for this culinary "refinement," even soba is a challenge.) When my kaiseki meal came, in combination with my strange-food fatigue and my headache, I wanted them to just take it away and let me go to sleep. Of course, that would have been unbearably rude, so I choked down as much of it as I could. The highlights were the little bits of teriyaki steak, the tempura, and the fit of shabu-shabu (some fish, vegetables, and noodles). The weird marinated or pickled vegetables composed at least half the meal, however, and, I'll be honest, most of them were gross. I forced myself to try everything though, so I didn't miss out on anything. Alas, I can't day I enjoyed the experience, but when one constantly tries new things (as I've been trying to do while on this trip), occasionally one strikes out.

On the plus side, my headache finally went away as I fell asleep.