Kyoto: Day 1, part 3

Warning: Content may not be suitable for children or grandma : )

Night-time in Kyoto is definitely when I wished for a traveling companion the most. I had returned to the hostel to take a much needed shower and hopefully meet up with some of my roommates. Unfortunately, they were all already out for the evening, so I plucked up my courage, slipped on my sundress, and headed out to the neon lit, crowded streets of Kyoto.

I had already seen a lot of the Gion district, so I decided to head in the opposite direction across the Kamo River. I walked about four or five blocks down Shijo Street before I came upon a large shopping arcade. Just one amongst hundreds, I had a good time wandering through the shops and taking in all of my surroundings. I was also keeping an eye out for something to eat.

Finding a good restaurant is not an easy process. In my experiences so far, the best Japanese food can usually be found in some small hole in the wall that you can only find if you’ve already been there before. I also get a little self-conscious when I’m in a Japanese restaurant by myself. I somehow feel like I’m being watched and judged, therefore I’m more likely to stick to the dishes I’m familiar with and less likely to discover anything new. That said, I found several foreign restaurants that looked interesting: Tandoori chicken and bhatoora at an Indian restaurant, lamb kebabs at a Turkish restaurant.

Eventually, I found myself at a restaurant called Paris 21e. Despite the name, the food was much more Mediterranean than French, and I was hooked by a delicious looking paella in their display. (Many, if not most, restaurants in Japan display plastic versions of their food to attract customers. It’s weird, but I have found it do be a great help when deciding on a place to eat.) Anyway, I hadn’t had a good paella in a long time and was very excited about it. Paris 21e also had a good selection of imported beers which was welcome – I don’t mind Japanese beer, but I was definitely in the mood for something darker. So I enjoyed paella with some of the best garlic bread I’ve ever had and a couple pints of Birra Moretti La Rossa. It was delicious. Now, before you scoff my lack of adventure in ordering something I’ve already had before, let me say that I’ve never had paella quite like this. It had the usual clams and mussels, but the shrimp was whole and unpeeled. I’ve never eaten shrimp like that and let me say, it was quite a challenge. There was also some Serrano ham which was an interesting touch and what I believe were escargot. You read correctly. I’m not positive, but that’s certainly what it looked like and escargot was on the menu, so I’m fairly confident that’s what it was. They actually resembled mussels in flavor and texture.

By the time I left Paris 21e, most of the shops along the arcade were closing and everyone was abandoning the brightly lit shopping areas for the bars, etc. which, unfortunately for me are located in what we would call small, dark alleyways off the main streets. Kyoto, and Japan as a whole, is much safer than the average American city, but I still didn’t feel entirely comfortable wandering around dark alleys by myself, so I stuck to the larger, slightly more populated streets. And despite the large number of tourists and Westerners in Kyoto, I still got a lot of looks as I walked around and the later it got, and the more the people on streets had been drinking, I had many different people trying to talk to me. There was a particularly amusing man who claimed to be from Cuba and was in Japan for a judo competition. He was a little in his cups, but essentially harmless and his teammates dragged him away after a minute or so. I also had a lot of Japanese guys stop as they saw me coming and wait until I reached them, then wave and say ‘hi’ very enthusiastically. It was kind of funny at first, but got a little annoying after a while. At one point, after a couple of guys flanked me and said ‘hi’ very loudly, I replied ‘Iie’ and kept walking. ('Hai' in Japanese– pronounced the same as 'hi' in English – means 'yes'. 'Iie' means 'no'.) I felt bad. They were just trying to be friendly.

Anyway, I decided I wanted to try and recreate the Lost in Translation scene with Bill Murray in the hotel bar. Unfortunately, I was told that most of the bars in the bigger name hotels in Kyoto have a one-time 3500 yen charge – that’s about $35 - and a four hour limit. It’s a great deal if you’ve got the time and desire to drink enough to make it worth it, but I wasn’t looking for anything like that. Instead, I found a place called Hello Dolly which advertised to be a jazz bar. Close enough, I thought. Instead of a bad lounge singer in the background, there was Bill Evans on vinyl. And instead of a large room with a view of the city, this was a tiny room with just enough room for a bar and eight barstools – fairly typical for a bar in Japan. Behind the bar was the owner, a middle aged woman who spoke excellent English, and a young man who was bartending. On my side of the bar, I was joined by four older gentlemen, obviously salarymen who had just finished their day of work. I contemplated ordering Santory whiskey like Bob Harris, but found that I just couldn’t do it when they had perfectly good Scotch behind the counter. So I enjoyed a couple glasses of Glenfiddich, Bill Evans on the piano, and the oddly relaxing cadences of the Japanese conversations going on around me. Occasionally, I could catch bits and pieces of what they were saying and they asked me several questions which the owner translated. When they found out I was from America, many of them told me about the time they or some member of their family visited the States.

All in all, I had a good time and though the nightlife was only just getting started when I got back to the hostel a little after 11 o’clock, I was happy to change into my pajamas and get ready for bed. Happily, I made plans with a few of my roommate for the next night. They were going to take me to an English pub they found.

- Jenny