We Will Never Eat Sushi in LA Part Duex

Boro Kimono at Amuse Museum

Senso-ji Temple

Beef at $ 450.00 a pound!

Grilled Mackerel

Red Snapper

Tuna (Toro)

Uni (Sea Urchin)

Sea Eel Sushi with Sweet Miso Sauce

Corner View From Our Room at Four Seasons

We awakened to a non-rainy day! We decided to walk outside for a bit, then returned to our room for breakfast followed by our last visit to the hot springs, soaking up the hot volcanic water. We sadly checked out of Gora Kaden and were driven down the mountain to catch the Shinkansen train for the short ride to Tokyo. We had reservations at the Four Seasons Hotel. A representative from the Four Seasons met us at the station, gathered up our luggage and walked us the short distance to the Hotel. No taxi, no car just a short walk.

Our room overlooks the tracks at Tokyo Station. That might sound weird but it is wonderful. It is like looking down on a giant toy train set. Every minute or so, multiple trains come zooming in and out of the station. This is one of the busiest train stations in the world. It is fun to watch (especially after you have had a couple of glasses of wine).

We headed out to Asakusa area of Tokyo taking the Ginza Line Subway. I really enjoy figuring out how to navigate the Subway. I only wish we had such a comprehensive transportation system in Los Angeles.

Asakusa is an area of Tokyo that still reflects the old city. It is dominated by the incredible Senso-ji Temple which is giant Pagoda. The reason we were headed to that neighborhood was to visit a new museum: The Amuse Museum. It wasn’t about appetizers, but rather the show was about Boro. Boro is a textile tradition in Japan where old clothing is constantly repaired by patchwork. Nothing is thrown away, the poor, mostly farmer families would constantly repair garments they wore by recycling and attaching small pieces of other garments. Nothing was ever discarded. It is the ultimate recycling. Surprisingly, these old patched garments, look like current fashion items. The documentation of the textiles was in English and Japanese and was outstanding. The collector of over 20,000 garments, Chuzaburo Tanaka, has meticulously documented his collection of Boro and in addition has written extremely emotional descriptions of the women who labored to create these garments. It is an excellent show.

We then headed by subway back to our hotel, but had to make a stop at our favorite department store anywhere: Mitsukoshi. Unlike American Department stores, not only do they sell clothing and house wares but they have a combination of both groceries and takeout food that are unbelievable and extremely expensive. You can’t help wondering who can afford to but all these delicious items. We love walking through the store.

Once again, Tokyo overwhelms. We have a corner suite and I could stay up all night watching the trains and looking at the incredible architecture. I don’t think any city has more interesting architecture than Tokyo. The city is incredibly wealthy. It reminds me in a lot of respects of the movie Blade Runner. It is like stepping into the future. The downside of course is no one can find anything. We got in our cab to go to dinner, we handed a map to the restaurant, in Kanji to our driver and he proceeded to get lost finding the restaurant. It is typical. With all of their GPS and technology, he eventually called the restaurant and then dropped us off on a small street and pointed in a general direction. Of course ALL of the signs are in Japanese, and we could have been directly in front of the restaurant and wouldn’t have known if we were there or not. Suddenly a woman ran up to us and said “Mr. Meyer?”. The restaurant sent her out to look for us.

We were going back to Tomoki Sushi. We ate there at the beginning of our trip, and we knew we would never get Sushi like this in Los Angeles. The Husband and Wife owners are adorable and the sushi was great. We didn’t order anything; they just brought out course after course. Highlights were the Salmon Roe, Red Snapper, Sea Urchin, Sea Eel Sashimi with sweet Miso.  In reality, all courses were great. When we left the restaurant we needed to hail a taxi. The wife came out stood in the middle of the street in our chef whites and halted a cab for us. She told the taxi driver to take us to the Four Seasons and I handed him a hotel card with a map and the address in Japanese. As he approached the Hotel, he continued past it. I said the hotel was behind us now about 50 yards. He pulled over, let us out and refused any payment. This time the taxi gods were with us.

Hakone in the Rain

Okada Museum of Art, Hakone

Trees turning at Gora Kadan

Shrimp Dumpling Soup with edible Chrysanthemum, Red Spinach and a touch of Yuzu flavor

Thinly Sliced Toro Sashimi

The Tenderest Meat Ever for Shabu-Shabu

Hot Dashi for Dipping Meat and Vegetables 

Outdoor Public Mens Bath with steam rising

We woke up to a rainy day on top of our mountain in Hakone. If you are on vacation and its raining, what a place to be: Gora Kadan is an incredible onsen and there are nearby museums. We took a long bath outside in the rain enjoying the hot volcanic waters. The trees are turning red, especially the maples in the quintessential autumn weather.

After a long soak, Hiroshi brought us a feast of a breakfast. He continually reminds us we don’t have to eat it all! After getting dressed the staff drove us to the Okada Museum of Art. This is a brand new museum and just opened on Oct 4^th. It is typical of many Japanese museums (now that I think of it, American too) where a business tycoon buys a ton of art and builds and endows a museum. Think of the Norton Simon Museum, The Getty Museum, The Broad Museum, The Huntington Museum, The Hammer Museum all in Los Angeles.

This is a splendid museum, devoted to Oriental Ceramics, Japanese Painting (mostly on screens), and other arts. It covers 5 floors of a brand new building. We spent almost 3 hours enjoying the art. The museum is having a soft opening (very Japanese) and we were practically the only people in the museum. We had a great time. It amazes me that there are large ceramic vessels that are from 2500 – 3000 BC, still in existence. How they found there way to this collector I am sure would make a great story. If you are wondering how this esthete mogul made his money the answer is simple: Slot Machines. He is one of the biggest manufacturers of them in the world. Who would have thought?

We returned to the hotel and relaxed before our massages. After our massages the rain had let up and we walked around outside, returning for some champagne. Another long soak in the natural hot springs off of our room was next on our agenda.

We had a multiple course dinner again. I can’t believe how much they serve. Hiroshi said again, we didn’t have to finish it all. A few of the standout dishes were the Shrimp Dumpling Soup the dumpling was like the lightest matzo ball ever, of course since it was filled with shrimp, it wasn’t exactly kosher. The Sashimi was spectacular. You used your chopsticks to roll the sashimi up and eat in one or two bytes. We had never eaten Shabu-Shabu before. I can’t describe how tender the meat was, you dropped it in the bubbling dashi and it cooks in less than 30 seconds. The meat as you can see in the picture is incredibly marbled. We had three different sauces to use with the cooked meat and vegetables.  They served us a giant platter of meat, we only ate about half of it. Later tonight will try the public bath here at Gora Kandan. Tomorrow we leave from our mountain top and take the bullet train to Tokyo.

Taking the Waters at Gora Kandan

Looking from our dining room thru bedroom to private garden and pool

Our Pool and Garden

Landscaping at night

Hiroshi Serving Plum Wine

How to serve Sake

Grilled Spanish Mackerel in Miso Sauce

We could get use to this

White Miso Soup with King Prawn, Spring Onion and Japanese Mustard

Sashimi

We checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the train station to board the  Shinkansen (Bullet Train) heading for the city of: Odawara. Before boarding I bought a Bento box to eat on the train. This is very traditional, and most of the people on the train bring Bento boxes. They are sold in the train station and are of every variety of food. I chose pork cutlets.

Flawlessly (as all the connections are) as soon as we stepped off the train and exited through the turnstiles, our driver was waiting for us holding up a sign with our names. He spoke no English at all. We then drove for 40 minutes up a very windy, narrow two lane mountain road. We were headed for the small city of Hokone to Gora Kadan our home for the next two days. This was the former retreat for the Imperial Family. It is breathtaking. Gora Kadan is an Oncen. That means it has natural hot springs for bathing. Our room has a private outdoor pool just for Cathy and I. They also have public bathing facilities (men and women are separate).

You needn’t pack your clothes when you come here, because our butler, Hiroshi, dresses us up in Yukata for our stay. You never wear western clothes in the Oncen, just the Yukata and its matching down vest. Hiroshi, shows us how to dress and does everything for us. There is no public dinning. We eat alone in our room served by Hiroshi. The whole idea of coming here is to decompress, there are a few museums in the area that we will visit, but essentially it is relax, eat, drink, massage, bath – repeat until you leave. We took our first hot spring bath, then walked around Gora Kadan taking in the architecture and the beautiful natural setting.

Dinner was served to us in our dining room it was a classic Kaiseki dinner. We had nine small (and not so small courses). The highlight for us was a white miso soup the Sashmi and the grilled Spanish Mackerel with miso sauce. Of course two carafes of sake made the dinner perfect.

As full as I was I scheduled an after dinner massage at 10pm. What an introduction to Gora Kadan.

Bang The Drums!

Entry Way Garden

Every had a Tofu Doughnut?

Bandō Tamasaburō in Amaterasu 

American Food: Steak

Today was our last full day in Kyoto. We have spent 6 days here and have barely scratched the surface of the city. We do feel at home here and love to just wander down the streets. After a finally shopping spree we returned to our hotel to get ready for what turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. We went to the Minamiza Kabuki Theater. We did not go to see Kabuki but to see the  musical dance play "Amaterasu". The production features glorious dance by Tamasaburo Bando as the sun goddess Amaterasu, and Kodo performers playing taiko, koto harps, flutes and singing as they depict the gods who appear in this well-known Japanese myth.

Tamasaburo Bando is a male performer that has been awarded the title of: “National Living Treasure”. This is a way that Japan recognizes great artistry. We have seen Kodo drums many times and we always appreciated them. This was different. The giant drums were integrated into this performance. They actually were able to take on personalities. Tamasaburo Bando plays the role of the Sun Goddess with incredible dignity and dominates the stage. The drummers (they even have a female drummer) are exhausting just to watch. They never stop drumming, dancing and even singing. The audience predominately, Japanese, gave the longest ovations I have ever experienced. There must have been at least 10 curtain calls. It was a fabulous performance.

We returned to the hotel and organized our clothes. Japan has incredible delivery services. Since we were taking the train to our next destination, we were shipping some of our luggage back to Tokyo where we will be re-united with it. This shipping of your luggage, is very inexpensive and reliable. Everyone does it, rather than schlep your luggage with you.

We then when out for dinner, choosing a western style restaurant. Woops, when in Rome do as the Romans do. We should have gone for Japanese food. Typically although we had the name of the restaurant in Kanji, a map to the restaurant and the taxi driver had GPS, after calling for assistance twice, he couldn’t find the restaurant. He got out of the car and walked with us asking people where it was. Finally, I took mercy on him and made him realize it was ok, I knew we were in the general vicinity and I would find it. He left, we took 10 steps, I looked up and saw the restaurant sign. Feel sorry for the taxi driver, he will forever think he couldn’t find the restaurant, but he actually did. He just couldn’t read the sign, which was English. We walked home after dinner. Tomorrow Taxi, Bullet Train and Driver to our next destination, Hakone.

To the Sagawa Museum and on to Tempura

Exterior of the Sagawa Museum

Gossamer Textiles Illuminated by light thru the water

Raku Displays

Noodles with fish, Yum!

Sashimi Appetiser 

Frying Tempura

Shrimp Tempura

Scallop Tempura 

Rice with broth and Vegetable Tempura

Dessert

Garden at the Yoshikawa Restaurant

We are happy!

Robert Yellin had suggested that we visit the Sagawa Museum. He said they have an incredible display of Raku. The museum is not located in Kyoto but in Moriyama in another prefecture. We decided to go. Getting there was fun for we had to negotiate the JR Train system and figure out the correct train to get us there.

The museum is very modern and is surrounded by water. There are several different aspects to the museum but we were only interested in going to the Raku Exhibit. The museum is below ground level under the pool, light flows into the museum thru the water. Every aspect has been thought through. This is Japanese elegance distilled to its essence. Very few people were in the galleries. We essentially had the museum to ourselves. Actually there are very few Raku pots on display, maybe 20. They are lit perfectly in very dim light. It forces you to really concentrate on the objects. In addition there are beautiful textiles that are displayed. Perhaps they are showing no more than 10 or 15. By just highlighting a few items in a perfect setting the impact is breathtaking. We loved the experience and highly recommend the Raku Museum. Thanks Robert, or we never would have ventured to this museum. After lunch at the museum (Noodles with whole fish, it was great), we trained back to Kyoto and returned yet again to the Some Museum only to discover it is closed between shows. It was worth the taxi ride there, for Cathy spotted a great clothing store nearby.

We decided to have Tempura again. After our very expensive experience in Tokyo, I am happy to report we had a more satisfying Tempura Dinner in Kyoto. Yoshikawa Tempura Inn is a small ryokan hotel. It looks hundreds of years old, but since it is made of wood, I am sure it isn’t. It is charming, with old lanterns, sliding doors, a great koi pond, and fantastic tempura. They only seat 10 guests, and course after course is made in front of you. The chef speaks almost no English, so you can’t really chat with him. I consider it a victory if I can figure out the correct sauce to use. Some Tempura gets dipped in salt, others in lemon juice, others in a sauce. It was all great. For dessert they have you move from the Tempura Room to a separate room in the Inn. The night was cool and it was perfect being inside of this old building.