Kyoto part 4: Kinkakuji, Daitokuji and the imperial palace

The first time I went to Japan I did not visit Kyoto. I had to wait until my second trip to Japan to actually se the old Capital and its wonders. At the time, we had been introduced to friends of Miyako, living in Kansai, Osaka and one of them took a day off to come with us to Kyoto. We went by train and tried really tasty tea, sweets on top of visiting the prettiest of the multitude of Kyoto temples. Not being really good with geography, I had literally no clue of where we went, how we did and remember no names of restaurant and tea shops we visited. That is quite a shame, because, among other things, I did not find the tea house we had gone to at the time. It was all made of a bright beige wooden structure, with many separated sections. When ordering matcha one had the opportunity to whip it on his own instead of getting the tea already prepared and the sweets were amazing. Then again. Japanese style sweets meant to be eaten with tea are usually amazing, wherever you get to try them.

Noticed the bird on the left?

This time I learned a lot more about the city itself, since we basically ended up right in the middle of it, with only ourselves to figure out where to go and what to do. Such a big city Kyoto is...

But I am straying away from the subject here....

While in Kyoto, there were many interesting temple sites we could have visited, without having necessarily to go all the way to Kinkakuji, as I had already seen the place. However, when I went the first time, I bought a matcha au lait with gold fragment in it that I could never forget... I had to go back, even if only for the tea.

My brother took the pictures we have of Kinkakuji. The place looks calm and peaceful, but that is all due to his photography expertise: the site was filled with hundreds of people. I loved the weather that day, cold - I had to keep my coat on - but not windy, and very sunny. That made the lakes and trees look still as if time had stopped.

Enjoy a couple of the clichés we have of the Rinzai-Zen temple covered in gold sheet.

My brother literally took pictures of every angle possible, while I went up the mountain to buy my tea.

The third temple we visited was the buddhist temple complex Daitokuji, a complex with a lot of small houses with Rinzai-zen garden. We did not stay this long at the place, but enjoyed the peaceful feeling of it and left to eat a quick lunch before heading out to the Imperial palace, of which we were told was a must-see whenever coming to Kyoto.

This type of thatched roof are made with the fallen pieces of bark, which make it easy to
bend according to any kind of shape. The imperial palace roof are entirely made of those

We later went to visit the imperial palace, and learned on the spot that following a tour guide was mandatory to visit the site. This was probably, sadly, the less interesting of all the visits. The tour took nearly 3 hours, standing in the sun. Being used to go to our own pace - staying longer where we feel like, and shortcutting where we felt like it was more what my brother and I were after. I never really liked to wait for tour people to explain everything. I like it better to have a friend who knows her stuff give me the answers to questions I ask. All in all, I must admit: the palace IS amazing, and I did learn a lot of interesting random facts about the construction of the palace and the way people lived in it. The only shame is that the visit took so long that I was honestly praying for it to end. Here are a few pictures. Sadly enough, we ran out of battery at the palace, so on top of not having appreciated the visit as much as we should have, we don't have much visual memory to remember it by.

Another example of the thatched roof. Interesting fact here is, after 25 years the roof must be changed, for there are
many weeds that grow on it and the bark starts 'rotting'. However, it takes a very long time to restore those roofs and
thus, when they are done restoring the entire palace, they need to start again, at the place they started.... poor things

Bistro Jezz - Food Review

[2016.5.10 EDITED Unfortunately, Bisto JEZZ has closed down...few bad decisions when economy is low has had it with it...]

Okay, Whatever will be following in this post will be totally biaised, because I just love the place... However, I will try to be as good as I can in just relating facts. So here we go~~

I will first refer you guys - those who speak French, or at least, can read it - to Michel Julien's blog on his 'coups de coeurs', he made a small article on Bistro Jezz. Also there is a restaurant review on Internet - again, in French - with nice comments on the place and the food, so I don't feel too bad in praising the place.

Last may 28th, Jézabel Pilote, the owner and chief of Bistro Jezz was invited for the second time to cook at Des Kiwis et des Hommes to talk about regional food. You can find her in the second and fourth part of the video, plus a link to the recipe she and her friend from Témiscamingue made. Sorry for the lot of commercials between the parts...

Bistro Jezz opened last year around mid-may, I was still in Montreal at the time so I missed the opening. While there are actually quite a lot of interesting places in Rouyn-Noranda, my hometown, whenever a new place opens it is still quite exciting, not like in a big town where you just end up walking by and realize it opened. In a smaller-scale town, you often know the people who opens the place, and you hear about the opening from many random places before it actually does. In this case, Bistro Jezz was opened by a former high school classmate of my older brother, the one I went to Japan with last winter. 

The food in bistro Jezz in Fusion Cuisine, so basically a modern adaptation of French cuisine. My boss highly values regional products so she buys regional stuff the most she can, is highly imaginative in her recipe and really knows her stuff: she learnt cooking on her own and did, among other things, work in farm and in the forest to actually learn the basis of food, how it is made. She is someone that I respect greatly and she respects every single step in the making of food: the people who cultivate it, the people who make it, but also the waiters serving it, the guy washing dishes for cooking to be possible. While I think she often takes a bit too much on her own shoulders and it seems hard on her at times, she can be proud of what she achieved, while doing her best to take care of her two kids. 

Below I will show you some of the stuff she made for the restaurant, and for her caterer service (I looked up for "traiteur" on Internet and "caterer" is what came up so I hope the translation is not inadequate). I will keep the names in French because I find it quite hard to translate food terms, but feel free to help me out translating...

Carpaccio de Kangourou, mayonaise épicée, servi avec parmesan râpé,
pousses de tournesol et radis. Décoration avec huile d'olive et épinards

Je ne suis plus certaine de la sorte de viande... je crois que c'est du boeuf,
avec sauceau poivre et vin rouge, purée de panais et épinards frits.

Foie Gras confit aux canneberges avec pousses de Dat Soy

Araignée de boeuf Vitalipré sauce tomatée sucrée, fromage de chèvre et salade de roquette

Croustillant de cerf servi avec confit d'oignons, raisins rouge et caramel à la Guiness

Confit de dinde avec chips et purée de patates douces,
servi avec légumes et pacanes caramélisées

Torchon de Foie Gras, servi avec figues fraîches, confit d'oignon, réduit de vinaigre balsamique et croûtons

Let us fall in the Dessert part, because desserts rule my life, and Bistro Jezz makes awesomeness possible....

This plate was the dessert plate offered at the first anniversary party of Bistro Jezz
A mini Tiramisu, a chocolate and a home-made dessert Club-sandwich and salad (so
basically white vanilla cake for bread, chocolate mousse for bacon, white chocolate
mousse for mayonnaise, basil leaves for lettuce, strawberries for tomatoes, and a honey
dew melon mint salad for the coleslaw) beat that you f**kers...oh no, swearing is bad

cheesecakes with raspberry mousse and sauce

Tiramisu cakes

Crème Caramel à l'orange

Chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, maple cream sauce and strawberries

 Bistro Jezz has the good point that it opens until late (10 pm) but as many small scale restaurants, it closes between lunchtime and dinnertime. Regular working hours are Monday to Friday from 11-2 and Monday to Saturday from 5-10. From Monday to Wednesday the place usually is not full so reservations beforehand are not really a necessity, but we have two services from Thursday to Saturday nights: the first one starts at 5-6 and ends at 8:15, and the second starts at 8:30 and ends when we close, around 10.

Most of what was shown previously is part of the evening menu, that basically changes every day/weeks, depending on the quantity the owner buys for the restaurant. Below is the regular menu, that is available at all times in the restaurant with an idea of the price of the items.

The magic Blue slippers...

Summer 2009, I went to China for the first time. It was not my first experience in Asia, so I was familiar with some of the intrinsic Asian habits, so everything was not entirely new. I do not have the pretense of saying China is the same as Japan, even saying that it is similar, is close to blasphemy. However, compared to Western countries, China and Japan do have a lot in common. 

The wearing of slippers in the house for example is similar. If you think about slippers in Quebec for instance, you get the woolen slippers, meant to warm up one's feet, especially in winter, from the cold floor. Mot of the slippers we have in mind in the West, are soft ones, that have a range of looks between an interior 'boot' to a home made knit slipper given by grandma.

In Asia however, they wear slippers winter-summer-autumn-spring. The purpose of slippers is basically to make sure your feet don't get into contact to the floor (with the exception of Japanese tatami mats, which require people to be wearing socks only, or barefoot so they don't get worn out quickly). Their slippers usually looks like sandals, with only the tip of the foot covered, and are not necessarily meant to keep warm. In Japan, it took me a long time to get used to wearing them. felt so much simpler just to take my outdoor shoes, and walk in the house, than to bother putting on those damn slippers. Now, when I am home, I cannot walk on the ground of houses barefoot: I can't stand the little dust and pebbles getting stuck to my feet. 

...

In China then, when I arrived at the hotel we were to stay at for 10 weeks, I was not surprised to see two pairs of plastic slippers for inside the room - one for me and one for my roommate. They were pretty ugly: def meant to wear inside, more for comfort than looks. They were pretty cool actually, as in, they had a small bubbly surface that help the foot breathe and enhanced comfort. 

Those slippers were the trademark of the Pekin 2009 cohort. Everyone - of the 90 students in the program - had those, and some even wore them outside (I did do that as well actually) when going out for a short time to get food or drink on the street. They came to mean a lot to me and I ended up bringing them back home.

Those blue slippers represent my 3 University years. They are now worn out, uglier still than when I got them, dirt never really gets completely off when I wash them and still are really out of fashion.

I have tons of shoes. 

I wanted eventually to make a couple of blog entries to show off my shoes, so I decided that this one, would be the first entry about my shoes. My magic Blue Slippers.

Let us end this with a picture, worths a 1 000 words.

Maybe I should just have posted the picture, instead of the 1000 words I just wrote, but I feel they needed a little history, to show how cool they are.

京都、その３：ヨンバンチ

祇園の近くの東山川のあたし達は借りてた家は三泊三日だったの。その後はＹｏｎｂａｎｃｈｉ（＜四番地＞住所から名前つけられた）というB＆Bで二泊三日した。ヨンバンチは江戸時代の終わりに神輿堂（しんよどう、書き方あたっているか分からない、ローマ字でしか見つからない場所の名前）を任せられた天皇様のいとこという侍のお宅だった。とても奇麗なところだったの。その上に、家の主人は日本人と結婚したフランス人でした。そのおかげでお兄ちゃんは久しぶりに他人とフランス語で会話を出来るようになった。

そのB＆Bは仏教寺と神道神社の真ん中にあった。初一泊の翌日に、お兄ちゃんと神道神社の所に行ってウロウロした。それで、気づかずに山上って帰ろうとした時、降りたら違う所に着いた。変な感じだった。やっぱり森の中の神社だったから簡単に迷子になる．．．だけどなにか変な感じ．．．違う所に着いたときは何別の世界に

下にある写真はヨンバンチでのうちらの部屋だった。和風がとても好きなあたしと兄ちゃんは直ぐ気に入った所。

下の写真はヨンバンチの中庭：全部で三つの中庭がありました。

神道神社を守っている狐だ。何かを口にしている何ですけれど、何の意味があるのか知らない。玉名の神社で、神社を守っている龍達の口は＜あ＞と＜ん＞をしているのが悪の全てを＜あ＞から＜ん＞まで守ってくれる意味だと学んだけれど今回は説明してくれる人がいなかったの。

　

あたしは頭が悪いからよく覚えていないけれど、神社で占いを取る時に悪い事だったらその占いがかなわないように木とかある決めてある所ににつけるの（あっている？）

神社でウロウロして迷子になったのはあの階段を上って森の中で歩いて行った時だ

京都にいたのは約６日間だったけれど、その間、約一日は京都駅の中で過ごした。過ごしたって言うのはま、駅が大きくて迷子になった位っていうものかな、笑。

行く前にはあたしにとって京都は小さくて古っぽくて、おばあちゃんおじいちゃんの多い田舎だと思っていた。．．．それは大間違いでしたと、京都に着いた時に気づいた。ま、古い町は確かだけど、歩けば一日で全部見えるんだと思ったらあまい考えだ。

京都駅も同じだ。普通は駅を見回りするには興味ないです。でもやっぱり京都駅で迷子になるのはいい事かも。素敵なもの一杯見えるから。

駅の中でショッピングセンター沢山あるし（お菓子も色々買える☆）ビル自体はアーキテクチャ的でも凄いです。でもやっぱり人が多いから、荷物扱いを見つかる場所は無理。あいている所中々ない。おいてゆける所を見つけるまでには（迷子になった時間を入れて）約一時間半かかったと思う、笑。

ヨンバンチに着いた次の日に自転車を借りて、京都の色々な所に行きました。その中では竜安寺を見にも行きました。週末だから早く起きて生徒達が沢山いる前に行こうとしましたが、結局はそれでも人がいっぱいで誰も映っていない写真を撮るには大変だったの。それでも、下の写真を見れば、中々よく出来ました。時々、一人で静かに歩いたりものを見たりしているようにも見える。

写真ではよく見れないけれど、扉に描いてあった絵はとても奇麗だった。何も壊さないように部屋には入る事が出来なかったから写真はその位でしか撮れなかった。

Stupeur　et　Tremblementという、日本で生まれたベルギー人が自分での日本会社体験について書いた本からで来てあった映画の中で龍安寺の石庭で撮られたシーンがあった。奇麗な所だな、って思っていたから、石庭に着いた時につい、あたしも石を眺めている所を写真で撮られたかったの、笑。

京都を出て東京に行った後にそこでの友達に言われたのは龍安寺の石庭でどこから見ても見えるのは並んである石の数よりも一つ少ないと言われた。残念ながら、石庭を見に行った時にそれを知らないあたしは確かめる事が出来なかった。

龍安寺を見た後は大徳寺、金閣寺と京都の皇居を見にも行きました。でもそれは次の便新にするわ。今回のはちょっと長かったから。。。。