Wakayama, Osaka, Kyoto…
Right now I am seating on a bullet train to Tokyo, and I decided I will write now the blog, unfortunately yesterday ( Sunday) I had no time to write. Yesterday for the first time I had two Japanese students, they were both young tenors and very talented. I was very happy to teach here in Japan, and I want to thank Akiho for helping me with the translating and getting the students.
This week we started it with a trip to wonderful Wakayama region with Akiho's family. We visited the family grave in the middle of the mountains and forest, went to a river nearby and also crossed a very rusted bridge. We then had dinner in the middle of the mountains in a cottage like restaurant, very small and local with shelves full of mangas and many different decoration (toys, figurines, clocks, plants, pottery), a bit too many objects but all somehow made sense and the feeling was a very cozy one and I wanted to stay there longer and talk to the chef who was smoking after preparing our food. Then we headed to an Onsen (thermal waters) in the middle of the mountains and it was amazing. Then we spend the night in Shirahama (white beach) in a very nice and spacious apparment located on the 13 floor with an amazing view towards the sea. Next day we went to the beach and walked along it, then we headed towards the Sandanbeki cave and beautiful rocky cliffs. It was amazing. I took lots of photos. This Japanase area is really something special.
Back in Osaka we got ready for the next little trip to Kyoto. It is the second time I visited and still did not see even half of what I wanted to see. We spent two days there, going from shinto shrines to temples and walking in the Gion district and many of the traditional streets in beautiful Kyoto. Among the highlights was to climb Fushimi Inari (it takes around 50 min to the top) among its hundreds of red/orange Tori gates. We went very early in the morning so that we avoid the crowds so we could take some nice photos and avoid the really hot weather in the middle of the day, and we were lucky. Inari is deffinitly a place I am happy to come as many times as possible in the future. Another Highlight was to visit again the bambu forest in Arashiyama and also the monkey park (the monkeys were really cute and not streesed that day. Kennin Ji temple was also a very beautiful place to visit and it's dragon paintings and mural. I could go on and on with all the details. It is incredibly difficult for me to leave out so many things on this blog but otherwise it would be more a little novel veyr badly written than a blog very badly written.
Ah! I almost forget to mention, I had the most incredible food experience so far, and it is something special. Here in Japan I have tried many of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. This third visit to Japan has been one that I have eaten many specialty things and traditional food. Perhaps one of the most simple food, yet it made me have goosebumps and almost tears came from my eyes, was the soy milk pudding I tried at the Tenjinbashisuji Shoutengai. This little local is in the longest Shotengai here in Japan. This shop guarded by a very sympatic old man with a huge smile and very checky eyes. We made small conversation and his hobby is to go fishing , he even has a huge photogtaph hanging on a very dirty wall, of him and a friend of him holding fishes after they catched them. He mentioned his record is 20 times going fishing in a month. The soy milk pudding was an amazing experience, it was creamy and soft, slightly sweet and it comes with a little syrup of black sugar, but believe me it does not need it. I tried with the syrup and i was nice but I prefer it without it. I had two soy puddings and I would have had another 10 of them. He also gave us to try for free soy milk that he himself prepares and it was equally delicious, I never had such rich and creamy soy milk in my life. I always imagined how a soy pudding would taste, and even in Germany where I found out throw Aki that there is very soft tofu, I asked her if they had in Japan Soy pudding and she said yes. At that moment I created in my brain an idea of how it would taste and how the consistence would be. When I tried for the first time this soy pudding at this old man shop it was exactly how I have imagined it and more... At this very tasty note I leave now.
Take care and see you here next week.
