Socializing in Kyoto - Cafés

Scattered around Kyoto, and in every shape and form - the cafés, highly acclaimed in the foreigner's guidebooks as 'the heartbeat of Kyoto'. You can find them everywhere, even in the small streets you wouldn't expect to find anything special. Some of them are weird, some of them even weirder, but most has this European feel to them - a cross-breed of cheap French bistro and Italian trattoria, a place when you can sit with somebody for a brief chat, or just take your (nowadays e)book and relax for a bit. (I read it somewhere that the cafés played a special part in lives of 1970' Kyoto inteligentia, unfortunatelly I can't seem to find any interesting and reliable sources of information to recommend).

A coffee made with me in mind by F's friend in Italy :-)

I've been to two of them so far, rather due to the lack of money than any deliberate reluctance - an interesting European-style one with really tolerable coffee (oh, the little luxuries...) just a stone throw away from Saiin station, and a really quirky and bohemian one called Dal Poo (yes, I know...), somewhere not far away from Nijo castle. The second one even had a hidden art gallery on the top floor (what a pity some of my photos are trapped in my broken computer, I had such lovely pictures!). There also is more than quite a few around Kawaramachi and Teramachi area, including the Ninja Café I absolutely need to visit, and a café full of real cats, where for around 1500 yen incuding coffee you might play with the cats - what a pity I personally can't stand them, and most of my friends are allergic :-/ My aimiable German friend tells me of some recently-found post-punk one we have to go to and visit, we'll see...

I wish they were affordable. They are not, unless you're on some Fulbright or other JASSO scholarships and have additional money from the student loan company and your parents AND your own savings - then you can dine there every other day. A coffee is rougly 600-700 yen, and the food usually 1000yen up, but I have to admit it's usually really edible and made on the spot. It has this home-made quality feel to it, if you know what I mean.

The author of this Kyoto blog is very fond of cafés, and likes to explore the city looking for them - you can explore the city with him, while I return to my boring life with my boring book (this month: OL１０年やりました。or: 'I worked in the office for 10 years.' Sounds fascinating, I know. Found it in the リサイクル for just 50 yen).

A Major Breakthrough, or: the case of digusting Japanese food

So, you're going to Japan. If you're interested in all the rumours of the dieting world, you've probably heard of the benefits of so-called 'Japanese diet', and looking forward to all the pounds you're going to shift. Let me enlighten you on the subject here: unless you're lucky enough to live with a host family where the host mother doesn't work and devotes herself to cooking the elaborate Japanese dishes all day long, or you have a hell lot of money to spend on food in 料理屋, riouriya, traditional Japanese restaurants, chances are that instead of being head over heals with great Japanese food, you'll be eating unimaginable crap. And I mean - CRAP. 


If you happen(ed) to know me in the real-life, you'd have probably noticed with fair clarity that I'm an omnivore. More to that: I generally am a really non-fussy eater, every host's dream - a kind of omnivore that would not only eat two portions of everything, you placed in front of them, but even lick the plate clean. Equiped by Mother Nature with no interest in the field and very limited cooking skills performed occassionally and VERY reluctantly (mostly because of my most hated activity that inevitably follows the process, meaning washing the dishes), foodwise, I really don't expect miracles. I am far from giving food the extraordinary healing powers and life-changing qualities. I can't be bothered with unnecessary efforts or diets. I do hold respect for the people who can tell the difference from shiitake and porchini mushrooms (remembering this this episode of Sex and the City, girls?), but it doesn't make me stop laughing at them. And I seriously can't produce a dish tasting exactly the same each and every time, probably due to my recipe dislexia. Hence - I didn't have massive expectations about Japanese food. Sorry, correction here - I had none.

How surprised were I to discover that the Japanese food sucks. Yes, I'm standing my ground here - it SUCKS. It sucks for me, person brought up in the country of proper cuisine and culinary traditions (Poland), and then although British at heart, following mostly Italian/Mediterranean diet with few international exeptions, because it suits my pallatae best.

Firstly, It's the taste, or rather the lack of it. Japanese food is just bland beyond my understanding. Let me just say that there is the reason why Korean and Chinese food are so popular here, and every Japanese knows what キムチ(kimchi) is... It's even more surprising when you realize it somehow manages to stay this tastless despite  the fact that it's ouzing with salt and the really salty say sauce.

Looks quite innocent, but believe me - that was one of the most disgusting things that ever came from under my fingers, made exactly according to Japanese specifications.

Secondly - it is plain boring. It's just rice with rice, on rice. Or with rice-made dessert, which almost always contains anko, sweet red bean paste, no other filling, unless you encounter some カスタード (kasutaado, custard - believe me, it has nothing to do with the real thing) or チョコレート (chokoreeto; in theory chocolate, in practice ib idem). Occassionally you'll find some noodles here and there, that are mostly a/ overcooked, and b/ you've guessed it, bland. There is no variety when it comes to carbohydrates. It's just rice and occassionally Chinese-style noodles. The bread and other baked goods here are absolutely inedible and bland, and it drives me crazy when they call it 'French' or 'European'. It proves the ignorance, I guess, the closest I can think of, with full respect, is American, but they would choke on the lack of taste as well.

Thirdly, it's too time consuming to prepare for what it's worth. It might look simple, but unless you apply the precise amount of ingredients in a specific order, dig them under the full moon in a damp soil and add a very secret ingredient that not only costs an arm and a leg, but is completely useless for any other recipes but  one - it will simply not work. If you're very visual like me, and prefer Nigella Lawson's style of cooking (just a bit of that and that, now that, you can replace that and that, no worries, just relax and cook), you will come to this conclusion, too.

I managed to somewhat recycle the shrimps from the previous culinary disaster, though. This 'curry' invention was surprisingly edible.

Fourthly, the ingredients are riddiculously expensive. Food is really expensive here. Few trays of meat cost less than a basketful of three choosen vegetables, unfortunatelly the meat is far from particularly tasty as well. It's mostly pork (豚肉, buta-niku) or pork and beef blend (牛豚肉 gyuubuta-niku), a chicken here and there (鶏肉, niwatori-niku). The better beef is more expensive, and usually imported, from Australia or New Zealand. I've once encountered American, but it was an exception confirming the rule. All in all - it makes Japan one of these weird places in the world where, illogically, eating out is more affordable than preparing food at home. But it does not necessarily mean it's any good, though.

Fithly, the Japanese don't use the oven. That leaves most dishes to be boiled, fried or, you guessed it, deep-fried. They do boil and steam some foods occassionally, but oil-ouzing deep-fried goes a long way here. And it's really dripping with oil. When I get a piece of deep-fried chicken occassionally, it takes 5-6 sheets of kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. There is something here called microwave oven, which basically combines a microwave, toaster and an oven, but unless you spend significant amount of money on a very good one, I doubt the results will be remotely similar to our ovens, even basic electric ones. I do have a microwave oven, and it was a very good decision to get one as soon as I got here, but the food prepared there is a far cry from what you can make at home, unfortunatelly.

Mushroom and beef curry, it was... edible. Enjoyed from a tupperware lid due to the on-going dishwashing crisis and aversion to the activity. And yes, I know it looks like a chicken that fell into a pit of manure...

Sixthly, there isn't enough space to cook/keep the ingredients. Japanese kitchens tend to be really tiny and crammed, with little or no kitchen equipment. Just to give you the picture, my 'kitchenette' that probably is a symbol of a proper kitchen here has one electric stove for only one pot. Cooking requires not only putting things together, but also thinking about the order of cooking stuff and the space to put them. The stove surface heats up quickly and uncontrollably, mostly burning your things, then cools down forever, so no fine cooking with subtle temperature variations is even possible- no 'bring to boil and then boil on a low heat'. (And then, after half an hour of cooking, some emergency switch turns it off automatically without a warning, leaving you wondering why the heck isn't that curry ready yet. Probably the best option from the viewpoint of the student house management, according to whom students are too stupid and drunk to remember to switch the boiling pasta off.) Even when you're one of these who don't heat up their food, I'd like to see where you'd put all that vegetables, assuming you could afford them. I'm not a big veggie fan, but I still need to keep this symbollic amount all around the room, because there is not enough space around kitchen area. 

And lastly, the (pro)portions are weird. I wouldn't call them too small (although my Texan friend would disagree on this one), but... ill-proportioned. There seems to be too much carbohydrates in the relation to protein and fibre. This doesn't satisfy me and my energy needs. I am too active, both mentally and physically, to eat just 80% instead of 100% stomach capacity, especially when it's in a form of rice that seems to burn out in an hour after a meal. And it's just unbelieveable that something that calorific (it has a hell lot of calories, when you compare it to other sources of carbs) can leave you that hungry so quickly after a meal. I guess Asian diet is just not for me.

SO, can you actually imagine my delight when for the first time in my life in Japan I actually managed to cook something that was not just edible, but also didn't give the fright of possible diarrhoea AND was satisfying on the deeper, emotional level? I even remember the date - November 3rd, 2011. Here it is, in full, long-ago eaten glory: an okonomiyaki-style homemade invention. A major breakthrough.

I was prepared for yet another disaster... but it was so nice to eat something so edible and even tasty!

比叡山延暦寺 - Mt. Hiei and Enryakuji Temple. 20/03/2011

Kyoto from above, one of the hills leading to Mt. Hiei and Enryakuji, 20/03/2012

Couple of days ago I had an amazing opportunity to form a hiking team with few international students to join our lovely dorm manager (whom we nick-named ninja for his amazing personality and ability to achieve/ obtain/ fix the impossible) on a tiring but nevertheless brilliant hiking in Mt. Hiei to see Enryakuji temple, one of the most important temples in Japanese buddhism, and itself a Unesco National Heritage Site. The day was lovely, and we all had a great time (and delayed-onset muscle soreness, that's for sure, but it was certainly worth it! :-) 

Setting off through the giant toori gate marking the local shrine grounds.

We climbed a very steep ravine slope of Kirara-zaka, so very quickly the bird-eye views of Kyoto started to emerge.

Our steep path up! In the photo - F, my great Italian friend. She's gonna kill me for this one, but I will risk the statement that it's one hell of an energetic beast in her natural habitat. :-)

Sacred statues scattered around the woods. Some of them so weathered you can't see the details anymore.

Beautiful views on the way.

Yup, it really is snow up there!

That little patch between the hills is one of the tiny Kyoto nearby cities. Note the sky - doesn't it look like Magritte?

Tiny bit of Kyoto... and still unidentified white chapel-like building on the slope over there... Ninja-san suggested it might be a part of a film studio, Hmmm...

Approaching Enryakuji... more and more sacred statues.

The carving presenting Pure Land Buddhism Amida Triad - Amida Buddha in the middle, Kannon Bosatsu (representing compassion) on the right and Seishin (representing wisdom) on the left; more valuable information on this great site

Japanese cypresses (hinoki), planted by the sacred area below. They were MASSIVE!

Steep stairs leading to the Buddha Hall. See that person in red jacket not using the stairs? Guess who can that be, if not a real ninja!

Bad fortune omikuji tied up to the tree to ward off the bad luck.

The Great Buddha Hall. It was really beautiful and fragrant inside, I wish I could have taken a snap or two (unfortunatelly, not only forbidden, but there was also a very strict-looking Japanese granny sitting there, keeping an eye on things, I wouldn't stand a chance)

A bell. For a humble donation you can bang it yourself for good luck!And that's of course, what I did, applying slightly too much power and enthusiasm into it... My right ear's hearing will never be the same again...

As the kind monk explained to us, it's one of the old sanscrit letteres for Buddha's name, therefore cherished greatly.

Believe it or not, but down route was much steeper (and potentially more lethal) than climbing one! The water over there is lake Biwa, the biggest lake of Japan.

At this point, we were so tired we just wanted to run to the station and sit in the train...

An old shrine at the foot of the mountain. Felling Spirited Away, anyone? :-)

Socializing in Kyoto - Clubs/ Circles of interest

As the title of the blog suggest, I am quite boring a person. So boring and old-fashioned, in fact, that you would rather find me in my room reading the Japanese translation of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' (for the curious: オースティンの自負と偏見 （じふとへんけん）, O-sutin no jifu to henken) than hanging out with a bunch of uninteresting people with nothing to say, just for the sake of the so-called 'language practice'. Which is not much help, even if practice, when they a/ keep on mumbling in their local slangs, whether Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo-ben, b/ seem to know less kanji than you and are fairly useless when it comes to seriously problematic issues like keigo, academic writing or even analyzing the text that isn't from a manga or a magazine, c/ expect you not knowing anything about Japan or Japanese and speaking English all the time, teaching them. Maybe I'm harsh on this one, but I'm too old for an unrequited language exchange - if you don't want to share the language fairly, then sorry mate, 3000 yen per 1.5 hour of quality class, please. Well, that's my opinion, and I'll stand my ground here. I guess that if I had a chance to come to Japan while still young and unbiased, I would have been more charitable with my time. Now it just seems like such a waste of quality time I've spent studying, reading and learning about the world, to talk to people half generation my junior about things like dramas they saw, how drunk they were at the party and which bands have かっこい, kakkoi (handsome, cute) members.

Socializing has never been my main purpose of coming to Kyoto. But if you are a fortunate owner of a sociable, easy-going and aimiable personality, there is a number of activites/places that might be just right for you. Take, for instance:

  

image source

Club/circles of interest

If you're a student, do take your time and browse through a list of clubs/circular activities (部活（ぶかつ）, bukatsu, サークル活動(かつどう)，saakuru katsudou) the university has to offer. Chances are that whatever your favourite sport, hobby or even a language you speak - there is a club for it. Some of them are free, but most of them requires at least the joining fee, if not further monthly contribution. Fees depend on whether or not the club needs to provide materials for the activity (like 生け花, flower arrangement, 2000 yen/month), equipment (sport clubs), the amount of activities it organizes, etc. Based on 京都外大 booklet for 2011-2012, it could be anything from as little as 300 yen joining fee with no monthly fees, to even 650 yen joining fee and 2300 yen monthly.

They seem to be worth the money though, plus they would allow you to make some Japanese friends while enjoying your favourite activity. Be prepared to sacrifice sufficient amount of time for your clubs/circles, though, as they take attendance and participation really seriously (they're Japanese after all, right?), and some sport clubs can require few hours long daily trainings. As a general rule, clubs are more strict than circles.

Now, whether the foreigner is a desireable addition to the club - that's a different issue. I don't want to spoil the fun, I just wish someone had told me all that before. In the language clubs you'll be treated like a king because your skills are very sought-after. In most sport clubs you shouldn't have much trouble participating because of the 'easily transferrable skills' in the field. But even in that language-barrier transcending oasis of activity certain limitations apply (my Canadian friend was kindly asked to leave the American Football club, as he was too tall and strong for the petit Japanese). Some clubs are more verbal than others and require you to be able to communicate on a certain level of Japanese, otherwise you won't be able to enjoy them fully and will possibly feel left out a bit. And then you'll find clubs that, although giving friendly and welcoming impression at first, for many reasons (intimidation? fear of the foreigner? not speaking any language other than Japanese? inferiority complex? superiority complex?) will make you feel very awkward and not wanted in their club. The last one applies especially to the clubs based on the initiation system, where you don't really enjoy any privileges unless spending a year in there first. Always remember - if anything similar happens, it is most likely NOT your fault. A club is just as much as a bunch of people, after all.

In a nutshell (or for those who couldn't have been bothered to read all the above): it is all worth the effort - it will definitely enrich your stay in Japan! 

Here's the webpage of the extra-curricular activities you might try at KUFS, 京都外国語大学. Each university should have similar one.

Still interested in socializing in Kyoto? Check this and this post out.

I'm back!

First of all, I'm sorry that I went silent so unexpectedly. The reason for that is as banal as, let me say it, the Japanese - at some point my dear 4 year old Toshiba called Antonia (my computer) refused to cooperate. It was about time she had some problems, really, as apart from some minor memory card surgery & downgrade of an operation system, performed by my dear 恋人 and a battery change, it never really needed any serious professional assistance. Thankfully, it didn't go bust in flames and the cacophony of cracking noises, so maybe nothing that serious happened. After a week of showing some signs of tiredness, one day it just failed to start the operating system at all, keeping it on the opening page and not loading anything. I was forced to retreat to using my small one (thank goodness I'm so interactive to have 2 computers!), the beautiful red Vivienne Tam edition of HP Mini, which was never designed to be the main computer, and the processing speed of which leaves a lot to be desired. But anyway, we'll see how that goes. I might be forced to use fewer images, I'm afraid, as uploading even one image seems to drag forever. And it doesn't really help that most of my previous photos are imprisoned in my old computer anyway.

So how has your Kyoto Ryuugakusei been lately? Not very well. The school holidays seem to drag FOREVER (almost two and a half months, from February 1st till April 11th), the weather was mostly grey, unexpectedly cold and plain boring, and it didn't really help that most foreign students could afford to go home for riddiculously long time when I had to stay here, in my room, after the sudden realisation came that despite saving for so long I were not in a finacial position to use the holidays to travel around Japan. Getting to know the Japanese people and their 'personalities' better simply added to the general disappointment, resulting in a massive seasonal depression. But it's getting better gradually. I'm expecting my dear Polish friend M to come and visit me very soon, and the classes are just about to begin (this time I'm going to fight to be in the highest possible level, as the last time I was placed in one much below my abilities that just wasted my time, really). The weather seems to get gradually warmer too, and that reduces the stress of exaggerated heating bills. And the Italians came back, finally! I'm so happy to have them around, especially F, my lovely Energetic one. The future looks much brighter now.

Not to mention that I have so many new ideas for the blog, and possible posts, some series, even, and plan to continue it even after finishing my year abroad! I hope that my grumpy experiences with Japan, the Japanese, kanji etc. will be of some use! :)

Till we meet again! (and I promise we will, this time regularly)

Kitano Tenmangu shrine, Plum Garden,  28/02/2012

時代祭, the Historical Festival of Kyoto. 23/10/2011

- So, Jidai Matsuri is basically old people and horses? - asked my Peruvian friend, a very amiable guy whose playful personality can brighten up the gloomiest of days. 

I laughed out loud, as I couldn't think of more perfect description of the actual event. To make it complete, I would only add '... in historical clothing'.

As a serious Kyoto history and art geek, I was preparing to see the 時代祭(jidai matsuri) for weeks. I was scrutinizing the map, investigating the most picturesque places to take pictures from. I read about the historical clothes on the internet, and learned the kanji for them. I even circled the day of the festival on the calendar and was actually crossing out the days to see it, my first ever festival in Japan. And then even more waiting, because the event was postponed... I seriously couldn't believe such an event could be so... well, disappointing, really. And immensely boring. 

We stayed till the end, but most of the crowd dispersed after the first hour. I guess they also had a different idea of 'the festival'. We were taking pictures, but at some point they all started to look exactly the same. The only attraction were the occasional women in beautiful kimono and state-of-the art makeup, but there were surprisingly few of them as compared to the horsemen in more or less the same 'interesting' outfits. To be honest, at some point our main attraction was betting on whether some horse, tickled by the elaborate outfit it was wrapped in would break loose or kick somebody... 

I know. x_x

These are the best of the pictures I managed to take. The procession presented the periods in Japanese history in reverse order, starting from 明治時代, Meiji Jidai (1868-1912) ending on 平安時代, Heian Jidai (794-1185). Of course, in my general awesomeness I already managed to mix the pictures up all together, so no informative order anymore. Sorry! Still hoping you'll enjoy them though!

An fine example of kasane-no irome, the Heian period art of kimono-layering. For more information check this great webpage: http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/garb/garb.ch14.html

Expression on the face of the woman behind the princess - priceless!

And now tell me you didn't think this chap was talking on a mobile ;-)

What an elaborate armour!

These kids in the bright red wigs scared the hell out of me...

On this picture you can see how strong some of the horses were. Some were so impatient that we just waited for an accident to happen...

I think it's one of my favourite pictures - this grandpa looks so pleased!

Very young kids were accompanied by mums/grandmas.

Equipped with cutting-edge technology - historically attired brains behind the entire operation.

A mysterious balloon that appeared over the sky during the Jidai Matsuri... It reads ミラクルひろば, mirakuru hiroba, and that would be 'a miraculous corner' or 'a nook of miracles', but what it could be - I have no idea.

And now time for the digression.

Actually no, not really, as it's on the topic.

Roughly a week before the festival, our great Ninja janitor left a box full of these on the table in the common room: (by the way- how he does it, I have no idea, but he often treats us to something really nice from some shrines/shops/companies. Of course, nothing is impossible for a ninja, but it's still intriguing!).

These were manju, a sweet buns with azuki beans centre, in two colours representing the colours of the national flag. Apparently, it was the gift from the Heian Shrine for us to celebrate the Jidai Matsuri. I was so happy! So pleased, in fact, that I applied all my feeble willpower so as not to eat them the very evening, and I stowed them away, especially for the day of the festival.

What was my horror when after the matsuri I finally sat down to relish on my manju, just to discover THAT:

 Yes. Japanese sweets simply don't keep that long, regardless of how well you actually store them. I felt cheated, but I had no choice but to throw them away, swearing under my breath for being such an idiot and not eating them when I had a chance...

And therefore I still have no idea how the real Japanese manju tastes like :'(((. And I still feel cheated by the bloody Japanese sweets. At least I learned two memorable lessons: first, eat your Japanese sweets the moment you get a hold of them, and second - it's better to do something and regret doing it than not doing it, regretting you haven't done it. 

From now on that shalt be named: The Philosophy of the Rotten Manju.