Good Food and Views are Worth the Journey
I balked when a friend suggested that we have pizza in Kyoto. The thought of giving up one precious Kyoto experience for an Italian street food item elicited a reluctant agreement from me. But I had faith that my foodie friend knew better. And so it was - the best pizza I’ve ever had.
En Boca, with a branch each in Kyoto and Tokyo, is a gourmet pizzeria that uses the finest seasonal ingredients. Besides the traditional Italian choices (e.g. quattro formaggio), there are Japanese...
It’s possible to get an overload of temples in Kyoto. And with beautiful sites easily accessible, the imperial gardens of Shugakuin and Katsura Villa may be overlooked by non-Japanese tourists. Certainly if you have a shortage of time, you may not want to allocate two hours to the imperial sites. However, I certainly think they are worth a visit - the landscaping is remarkable. These were residences after all, of Japan’s former royal families.
Between the two, Shugakuin is...
I took this picture back in December 2000 using Fujifilm Velvia 50 positive film (slide) on either a Yashica or Contax body with a Carl Zeiss lens. Those were the days! Both Yashica and Contax stopped making cameras in 2005 but the equipment I have still takes really good pics although I’m really lazy to take them out these days. Anyway, she was a girl in the market in Yangon and it was just fortuitous that her eyes happened to be in the stream of light coming through the awnings. It was also lucky that for once I had my settings right as she was just there for a fleeting moment.
I was fooled. I ordered what I thought was a minced pork ramen at Mamezen and found out even the “meat” was made of soy. This vegetarian ramen restaurant makes its noodles from soy, its broth from soy milk and of course, as it turns out, its garnishing from soy and other vegetables. Taste-wise, I don’t think you’d realize that the meal was soy based other than from the milky appearance of the soup. My husband, a major carnivore, and I were both amazed by the richness of the broth....