Rain, rain: go away!

Yesterday was sunny and warm. Today, not so much. Hopefully we will see the sun again tomorrow.

This morning, we left our ryokan early to visit Fushimi-inari-taisha, bright orange shrine gates (torii) from the 8th century that are dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. A pathway wanders a couple miles up on a thickly wooded moutain, and it’s quite a sight to see.

For our sushi class, we were picked up in a taxi. The drivers are much more formal than in the States. They wear an official uniform including white gloves and a cap, and the backseat is covered in a doily-like fabric. You can’t open the doors yourself since they are operated automatically by the driver. Pretty cool.

We had a lot of fun cooking with our host and her daughter. The program is run by WAK Japan, which is an organization that helps housewives and other women to build a business by teaching Japanese customs like ikebana (flower arranging), kimono-dressing, cooking, etc. It’s an amazing program, and we were happy to support it.

We prepared spinach and sesame, sushi (eel, cucumber and crab), rice (see the pic of Gina fanning it and me mixing it to ensure it’s the perfect sticky consistency), tempura (fried veggies, including lotus...our host said you can see the future through its holes) and miso soup.

We’re getting used to feeling like celebrities since so many people stop to stare at us, so we didn’t blink an eye when our hosts asked to take photos with us. Fun!

Jetlag started to set in a bit today, so we napped at our ryokan and then visited Shiori-in, a machiya (old town house) with a beautiful garden that I read about in a book at the library before our trip. The machiya is a dwelling and a workplace since kimonos are hand dyed, embroidered and sewn on-site. It’s also open to the public as a museum to view the garden, beautiful Japanese screens and kimonos. The fabric was gorgeous! I floated room to room completely enraptured by all of the gorgeous colors and patterns.

After dinner, we browsed through some arcade shops and bought woodblock prints and Japanese pastries made from sweet bean paste. It sounds weird, but trust me, they are AWESOME! One of the shops had a baker in the front window making the cakes. Mmmm!

Tomorrow, we’re going to try to get tickets to Miyako Odori, the annual maiko/geiko performance during cherry blossom season. Fingers crossed! Since it’s our last full day in the city, we also hope to see Nijo Castle.

Chopstick Taboos

Here are the four primary rules for handling chopsticks. I have broken half of them just today.

• Skewing chopsticks: don’t impale food with your chopsticks (whoops)
• Pointing chopsticks: don’t gesture to people with your chopsticks
• Double chopsticks: two people should not eat food from the same dish (guess Gina and I weren’t supposed to eat tonight’s dinner family-style)
• Standing chopsticks: don’t stick your chopsticks in your food and leave them there. This position is associated with death because of the similarity with incense sticks offered to the dead.

I’m guessing that not twirling your noodles on your chopsticks like spaghetti would be another one. Guilty as charged.

Lost in Translation

For the most part, Gina and I have been doing a bang up job of maintaining conversations via the few Japanese words and phrases we memorized. However, there have been a few laughable exceptions...

At Chion-in yesterday, a woman in kimono came up to us and asked us where we were from. When we said Ohio (which, incidentally, sounds like “good morning” in Japanese), she said she had been to Pittsburgh and asked us if we heard of Century Misery.

Translation: St Louis, Missouri

Our guide through Gion last night was making suggestions for restaurants to visit and mentioned dishes with squirrel eggs. I went right along with it (???) until Gina called her out and said squirrels don’t lay eggs; they’re mammals.

Translation: quail eggs

At dinner last night, our server didn’t speak much English. After ordering, she asked us if we wanted sourdough. We were curious about the Japanese version of bread, so we said yes.

Translation: salad (“sa-ra-da”)

(In Japanese, “r” is pronounced like “l,” which keeps throwing us off. However, Gina today actually said Flank Lloyd Wright (instead of “Frank”) without even thinking. Hilarious!)

And, Phil might just have a new nickname, ganko, which is my new favorite Japanese word. It means stubborn, old man. Ha!