An early lunch because we needed to catch the train for Kyoto in the afternoon. Junko's Mum and Dad picked us all up in their people carrier and off we wentthrough the Tokyo suburbs to a shopping centre. Up to the 5th floor and turn into an unexciting looking doorway and suddenly its another world - somehow a space in a modern building has been made to look like a very traditional Japanese interior, calm, quiet and peaceful with beautiful caligraphy on the walls and waitresses in tight rolled tube skirts and loose kimono style jackets. We were shown to our table and given the menu for the set lunch. We had been told that this restaurant specialised in soya cake - which didnt sound too exciting but as the meal unfolded we realised how wrong we had been.
I think I have only had two other meals of similar complexity and delight and both of those were in Italy. I cant describe all the courses of this menu in the detail they deserve, I really wish I had taken notes! Course one appeared in a little blue and white three tiered china box with tiny tastes of delicious things in each box.
Altogether there were 15 courses, sometimes just one thing arrived, other times things arrived in sets. The most dramatic was a bowl with tofu blocks wrapped in something and placed in water. The dish was then placed on induction loops which were at the centre of each table and we had to let the water come to boil and cook for 8 minutes. The water was from a mineral spring and on boiling turned white - very health giving apparently.
Brian and I got two tiny but so delicious squares of steak to cook on hot stones brought to the table when everyone else had raw fish. There were tiny dishes on cooked vegetables and dishes of pickled veg. Finally we finished with a choise of deserts. I had soy ice cream with what tasted like balsamic soy sauce - if there is such a thing - as a topping.
It really was the most delicious, beautifully presented meal I have had and such a treat to eat with our Japanese family including the wonderfully well behaved Michiru, not yet three.
Immediately afterwards we were off to the station by the metro. We bade fond farewells and away we swept to Tokyo station and our first Shinkansen or bullet train, one with a few stops on the journey to Kyoto but still pretty fast. We knew the train was due when the gang of ladies, smartly dressed in pink - right up to their sun visors arrived on the platform. The train comes in,pasengers off,pink ladies in with a notice across the doors saying no entry cleaning. They clean two or three to a carriage, turn the seats 180 degrees so you face forwards, collect their cleaning stuff after every surface is cleaned, exit the carriage, bow and then the neatly queuing passengers alight.
The journey was fantastic, quick, quiet very smooth and WE SAW MOUNT FUJU! It was a lovely sunny day, blue sky and there she was, very close to the railway line and we got a good view - actually got some of the Japansese passengers to take notice of their national mountain and we got some pictures.
Tess
ps photos to follow - another of those PCs that refuse to recognise our card reader.
3 comments:
Are you collecting the Shinkansen station stamps in your journal? We have some fading ones from when we were there and they're full of little details of the local area.
And so glad that you got to see Fuji-san in close-up at last!
Like Cath, we're all looking forward to an evening in with all the best dishes lovingly prepared by Tessa. (Or, we could nip down to Waitrose!)
Back in the UK, the meeja are going wild with stories on Pigfluenza. We're up to DEFCON 5 now, and the public are believing it less and less. I guess it's the same where you are.
Or not. :)
[later]
Scarily, the Word Verification letters spell out 'cough'. Really!
Oh, you should have tried the raw fish!
xxx
Brian, yes to the stamps. Noticed one of the several million old ladies collecting them and doing likewise!
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