Cultural Affairs

Last week saw us on a bold and brave quest. After salivating over the delicious burgers we'd eaten one time at J.S. Burgers near Shinjuku Gyoen (park), Calle and I were in search of the best burger in Kyoto. We needed a slice, or in my case, a large plateful of Western food after staring at stir-fries and noodles for far too long.

After Internet-trawling, we found a recommended place called Speak Easy in the north of Kyoto, but only ~1.5km away from Kyoto University's main campus. It was gorgeous day and so Calle and I set off, accompanied by James and Victor, his classmates (it made it two all for the Brits v Swedes).

Nearly an hour later, we were wondering why we had failed to cover 1.5km. To this day, I am still fairly confused as to how that happened.

Let me set the scene. It's hot. There is no shade. We're almost too late for lunch time. The turning is still not in sight. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I'm tired. I see Obama. And a friendly pet shop.

Eventually we find Speak Easy. It looks small, brown, shabby and.... closed. On Thursdays only. Hurrah. Cue awful meal at a coffee cafeteria place. Sigh.

Nevertheless, on Friday night, I decided it was time we hit the town. The crew plus Marco, our Italian neighbour, settled ourselves into an izakaya which had delicious food at really amazing prices....even if the food pictures on the menu didn't exactly look like what was brought to us. When they say stir-fry containing cow, apparently it means any part of the cow they fancy. That didn't go down so well.

The evening ended with another desperate grasp for western food. Sadly Baskin-Robbins isn't a patch on Haagen Dazs but the guys enjoyed it!

Having been failed so utterly in our western outreach program, the weekend was a time for Japan, Japan, Japan. Heading south in the city, we stopped by Tofukuji, a Zen Buddhist temple complex which dates from 1236 but has naturally been rebuilt many times since. Slightly underwhelming, Lonely Planet sold it to us as a beauty with an amazing moss-covered garden with chessboard squares. How they should have described it was "Think Zen spartanism and minimalism combined with stone and moss." Still, I did manage to take a trippy picture of the "wonderful" chessboard garden....

And I got to be Mistress of the Torii (stone gate):

Next we headed straight to Fushimi-Inari Taisha lunch. I was starving. And I found my hamburger. Japanese-style. You can tell that because it got served on a bed of spaghetti, with a creamy brown and mushroom sauce, fried pork, Caesar salad, rice, and cream of sweetcorn soup. It was delicious. You can check out my review on my all new food blog.

Next, we really did make it to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a truly amazing shrine with torii (big orange gates) that stretch 4km up the mountain, with cemeteries stretching out into the woods. The torii are packed so closely together that it's like walking through a tunnel in places. It was a lovely experience even if we did decide to take the narrow forest path back which did take us down, just that "down" can mean down on any side of the mountain. Oh and it was pouring with rain. Not the best time to get lost.

Check these photos to get a feel for the place. It really is worth a visit if you're ever in Kyoto (I've actually been there twice now!)

Couldn't resist the token shot of the spider. Although I spent ages trying to make my camera focus on him. And then Calle pointed out - he is a crippled spider. Why did I choose a spider with only 7 legs?!