Category — reviews

We recently went down for the last day of boating on the canal for the spring season, and after that was over we went to Sherry and Hirofumi Nakanishi’s Kyoto Nama Chocolat near Heian Shrine for lunch. This is a machiya cafe, meaning it is in an old kyoto-style residence, a machiya. We ate at the garden table in back. Once the other customers saw us go out into the garden, they got curious and came out for a look one-by-one.

They server delicious organic lunches, and since Hirofumi is a chocolatier, the dessert is unforgettable.

They are again participating in the Rakumachi Rakuya event that just got underway last weekend and continues for a month. Kyoto Nama Chocolat will present Korean music on the afternoon of Monday, June 9.

Father’s Day surprise from Yoshiko and Greg. New York trad vs. Lynchburg weirdness in an Over-The-Top-Rope Battle Royale. Open up that belt a notch, this is a war I can get behind. The slice on the left is Papa Jon’s Father’s Day special Jack Daniels Chocolate Cheesecake. Coffee jelly on top adds a touch of sour to balance the bite of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey and chocolate mousse layer below, with chocolate cheese below that. Papa Jon’s link.

Another shaky handheld video clip (RealVideo, 6.5MB) from the Country Dream jamboree last weekend. I thought I’d seen some good harmonica players, but I’ll probably never see anyone approaching the skill of Charlie McCoy, who didn’t miss a note all night as far as I could tell. You don’t get into the Smithsonian collection by faking it. He has been coming to Kyoto for years as a guest of Kenji Nagatomi. Here he is playing the classic bluegrass railroad tune “Orange Blossom Special” at maximum velocity, swapping two harps and trading verses with an equally fast fiddler going only by the name “Haruka.”

Zen and Kyoto is a new (published Sept. 17, 2004) softcover book by John Einarsen, founder of Kyoto Journal. History and development, approaches, guide to zen temples in Kyoto, clear explanations of connections with other Japanese arts, a lengthy glossary and a list of resources. Brief sidebar features throughout the book enrich the practical information. So many foreign authors on Japan simply wave a few sticks of incense and deploy a smoky cloud of tired “exotic and mysterious Japanese” phraseology, because it sells. Einarsen’s deep background knowledge of both subjects, Kyoto and Zen Buddhism, brings clarity and understanding to this book. In keeping with the subject, the design is unadorned, with monochrome illustrations and photographs (by Stewart Wachs?) throughout. 135 pages, Â¥2,500 Zen and Kyoto (Amazon Japan , Japanese)

In addition to meeting Tom Cruise, Yoshiko waited first in line to get tickets to Saturday’s sneak preview in Kyoto of The Last Samurai, in advance of the December 6 (in Japan) wide release of the movie. We had the best seats in the house

My review:

Postmodern society has equipped us with a refined ability to preemptively dismiss everything as a contemptible sham, in case it turns out to be embarrassingly unpopular or embarrassingly popular; once you realize that there are only 36 possible movie plots, it’s easy to snicker at any movie and call it hack or formulaic.

Tom Cruise as the hero in a samurai movie?

Line up on the left to pick up your tomatoes, on the right for sarcastic insults. Or if, perchance, for just a moment you can let down your fortified walls of ironic self-awareness,

GO SEE THIS FREAKIN’ MOVIE!
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Hiiragiya is widely regarded as the finest ryokan in Kyoto. It’s said that every corner you turn in this place presents a meticulously designed and landscaped view. Hiiragiya (tel 075/221-1136, fax 221-1139) is across from Kyoto City Hall on the south side of Oike Street, but you can’t see much from the street. Very private, and renowned kaiseki ryori, a Kyoto course dinner. Hollywood big shots and captains of industry stay here, so prices go into the thousands of dollars, but you can have the Hiiragiya experience for as little as Â¥15,000 ($130) per night per person (Charges at ryokan are per person, rather than per room). The cheaper accommodations are in a nearby building, Hiiragiya Bekkan(tel 075/231-0151, fax 231-0153), but I’ll bet it’s pretty nice for the price, considering they attach their name and reputation to it.

I recommend this map book if you are traveling to Kyoto and Osaka. I bought one in California, and it has been the best of all my kyoto maps.
Kyoto-Osaka: A Bilingual Atlas. Published by Kodansha, ISBN 4-7700-1610-7 . Of course, you can get it at any of the big bookstores after you get here, mine says ¥2,100.

The person who invented Sobe Green Tea should be dragged out into the street and beaten. Not to within an inch of his life, but enough so that he remembers to never ever do such a thing again. Bad! Bad inventor man!

The same goes for Sobe Oolong Tea.
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