Snowy "Ume" Blossom; Seasonal Sweets Making Class

This is "Ume" plum blossoms that bloom first during the year. Although the flowers were topped with snow in this cold and snowy day, "Ume" tells us the spring is on the way.

My friend's cheek turned red like the color of plum blossoms because she was not accustomed with the cold weather. So we headed to warmer place.

Just before we enjoyed "Ume" blossom, we had been sweet making class that is held in traditional confectionery store located in Higashiyama district. One of the confection that we made was formed into shape of "Ume".

 She is making “Kinton” by using chopstick very well. Green colored mushed paste represents the leave of pine tree. Pine is the part of “Kadomatsu” traditional Japanese decoration of the New Year placed in front of homes. Actually we could see it at the entrance of the confectionery store.

We also stopped by Toyokuni Shrine located nearby the store. Whole shrine was covered with snow. When I visited here last spring, magnificent cherry blossom was bloomed besides the torii gate that you can view in my FB page. Still now they are waiting for upcoming spring.

This shrine is associated with the historical figure of late 16C, Hideyoshi Tyotomi. I have already written about him in the other article.

September 19, 2016 Relics of the tycoon Hideyoshi

Here you can see magnificent gate that is the relic of Hideyoshi’s castle. Nearby the shrine, there is also the relic of Toyotomi family, the historical bell of Hokoji temple.

In the Shintoism shrine, you can find wooden tablet called "Ema" and each shrine has its own shape. Here you can see tablet shaped with his symbol "hyotan" kind of gourd. The other tablet is the shape of "Zori" straw sandal that is related with Hideyoshi's life story.

It was a cold and snowy night, Hideyoshi warmed up straw sandals of his master Nobunag by putting them inside his cloth. Nobunaga appreciated his effort and Hideyoshi successfully showed his loyalty and warmth to his master. Unfortunately I didn’t have warmth to put my friend’s shoes inside cloth as well as Hideyoshi. What I could do for her was to find some warmer and comfortable places.

We also enjoyed Maiko's Dance Performance held at Miyako Messe. It was nice place to avoid the coldness and attract with traditional Japanese culture. Maiko, apprentice of Geiko was wearing ornament and Kimono designed with “Ume” blossoms. Wearing seasonal costume is one of their work. This cold and snowy day, we had enjoyed “Ume” many times in different places.

Maiko Café Art that we enjoyed when we took breakfast at the station.

Rickshaw and Sukiyaki; Japanese inventions to catch up with the West

 "Sukiyaki" is traditional cuisine consists of thinly sliced beef and vegetables simmered on sauce pan. It was the great among all dishes that I've enjoyed with my Argentine friend. Her country is famous for its large amount of production and consumption of beef. Also Argentine has traditional beef dish called "Asado" that literally means "grilled" or "barbecued" in Spanish. Maybe she would enjoy the different cooking style of beef. That's one of the reason why I had chosen Sukiyaki for the dinner.

 One thing I was concerned about Sukiyaki is that it is served with bowl of raw beaten eggs. After it was well cooked, we picked some pieces of beef and dipped them into the bowl.

How was the verdict?

¡Qué rico!
I'm happy because she really liked it. Actually the mixture of Sukiyaki sauce with beef and raw beaten eggs is melt in your mouth. That also made my face melt like above picture. I have to admit I was so relaxed with enjoying Sukiyaki in traditional Japanese room. Japanese Sake also goes well with Sukiyaki.

This Sukiyaki restaurant uses only soy sauce and sugar as seasoning. As the sugar melt and mixed with soy sauce and oil from beef, it produced the distinct aroma. It gave me the sense of nostalgia that took me back to good old days of Japan.

Sukiyaki was invented in the time when Japan opened its port to the West. That dates back to late 19C. Originally we didn't have the custom to eat meat because of the Buddhist teaching. As western people brought their meat to Japan, people were influenced by their food culture and then Japanese invented own way to enjoy beef dish. That was the origin of Sukiyaki as we know it today.

Not only food but also veichle was also invented in that period. That was Rickshaw, veichle pulled by a man. It is called "jinrikisha" in Japanese, "jin" means human, "riki" means force, and "sha" means vehicle. So it literally means "human-powered vehicle" and the English word "Rickshaw" is derived from Japanese word "rikisha". We tried it when we visited Arashiyama after enjoying Studio Park in Uzumasa.

It was perfect transportation for us to enjoy the views of Arashiyama efficiently. Olden days, Arashiyama was one of the resort for aristocrat to escape from daily life and they trip to there by using Ox-Cart. For Samurai lord or ordinary people in feudal Japan, there was the other human forced transportation “Kago”, kind of palanquin but it took place for rickshaw in late 19C.

Rickshaw was faster than Ox-Cart and “Kago” palanquin and it spread rapidly just after Japan open its door to the West. Maybe Japanese needed faster transportation to catch up with Western civilization. For that purpose, we also needs nutritious food such as meat so “Sukiyaki” was encouraged by cultured people, for example, Yukichi Fukuzawa, the man you can find on ten thousand yen bill  recommended Japanese meat consumption to be stronger. Maybe “Sukiyaki” contributed for Japan to make its military and economy stronger.

Although we spent a "Yukichi" ten thousand yen for the amount of Rickshaw and Sukiyaki, it was worth paying.  We could save and gain out energy by taking rickshaw and eating Sukiyaki for the next day activity!

Snowy Studio Park

I have an Argentine friend who is studying Japanese in Tokyo. She came to Kyoto on her school days off and we enjoyed snow all around the city!

At first, she'd like to go Universal Studios Japan (USJ) where you can enjoy some attractions of Hollywood movie and modern culture. It is not so bad idea but we had only 2 days and the entrance fee is expensive for us. That's why I suggested her to go Japanese movie theme park located in Uzumasa instead of USJ. Despite of some negative reviews, it was a perfect place for us to experience traditional Japanese culture.

It was a cold and snowy day like above picture...As soon as we got to the theme park, it started snowing. There are a lot of snowy scenes on Japanese movie, for example, the final act of "Forty-seven Ronin (Chūshingura)" takes place on a snowy night.

"226: THE FOUR DAYS OF SNOW AND BLOOD" depicting the coup d'état in Japan 1936 was also taken on snowy day. Both of them are based on historical incidents. Fortunately we couldn’t encounter any revenges and military incidents.

There were some shows and attractions and we avoided heavy snow inside the theater. One of them was “Street Performance Re-Enactment”, an actor played the role of a mysterious oil vendor from the Edo period.

He cut folded paper with oil pasted sword to prove the effect of it. As small pieces of white paper flying, it was like snowing. Olden day, Japanese movie studio used the device of scattering paper to depict snowy scene.

The quarters of the Shinsengumi who policed ancient capital Kyoto. I wrote about the Samurai Show of Shinsengumi held at the Nijo Castle on my blog.

November 5, 2016 Castle witnessed rise and fall of Tokugawa Shogunate

Because of bad weather, we could not take "Samurai Sword Fighting Lesson", but we enjoyed souvenir picture with actors of studio.

Not only historical movie sets but also you can enjoy some funny devices. Suddenly Nessie surfaced off the pool of studio with her screaming sound. Seemed like that Nessie also had enjoyed snowy day.

In spite of additional fee, Trick Art'Museum was also fascinating attraction. We took several funny shot like following pictures.