Dinner in Japan

Monday 29 October - Sydney – Singapore

Robyn and I were delivered at the airport by Jo just in time to meet Lynn by 4:15pm. Deb and Janet arrived very soon after and as that was the total number from Sydney we proceeded to our flight with a bit of time for coffee before it left. The flight to Singapore was over 8 hours so by the time we landed there at midnight and met the quilters from other states at the next departure lounge we were exhausted.

Singapore – Kyoto Tuesday 30 October

Our flight to Kansai (Osaka) left at about 1:30 am and was a further 6.5 hour flight so by the time we met our guide, Ikuko, we really were zombies. Some of the quilters had added to that up to 7 hours wait at Singapore between flights. We then boarded our bus for the 1.5 hour drive to our hotel in Kyoto, the New Miyako Hotel just near the main Kyoto train station.

As we could not get into our rooms we cloaked our bags and walked through the station mall to a fantastic craft shop, Yoshikawa, with everything crammed into quite a small space. Robyn and I decided to get a small piece of fabric each from each shop we visited and if we need to we can share these when we get home. Our purchases made (of course more than one piece of fabric) we headed back into the mall for lunch. Most of us had Japanese style sandwiches and coffee.

The group then split up and while some went elsewhere in search of a Japanese art paper shop, some of us decided that enough was enough and slowly made our way back to our hotel to unpack, shower and have a short nanna nap before dinner to catch up on lost sleep.

Much refreshed, Robyn and I went in search of milk for our tea/coffee and mugs as the ones supplied are tiny green tea cups. We found milk easily at Harves but mugs eluded us. We then met the others and Ikuko took us to Kimuraya, a traditional Japanese shabu shabu restaurant where we sat on the floor (but the secret was there was a hole under the table for our feet). We all thoroughly enjoyed our seven course meal:

1. two sorts of tofu with tiny portions of some vegetables
2. beef (wagu by the looks of the marbling) extremely thinly sliced and vegetables all to cook in a common bowl of boiling water.
3. Raw fish and salad (sushimi)
4. teriaki chicken
5. tempura prawns and tempura ocra
6. noodles to warm in the boiling water which was now delicious soup
7. jelly cube dusted in green tea powder

Wow, were we full!

Robyn and I went to the 100 YEN shop to buy mugs as the ones supplied in the hotel room are far too small. They are meant for green tea. The girls at the shop were able to tell us that the Japanese writing on the mugs said 'freedom'.