Kicking Up Our Heels in Kyoto

Palace Side Hotel

Great Selection

I need my coffee!

We’re missing the day we missed in Kyoto but are doing our best to make up for it.  We started our day yesterday at the Imperial Palace. They have the route laid out beautifully and along the way staff members explain the areas in more detail.  A relaxing morning stroll through the Imperial Palace grounds with a bit of snow showers thrown in for drama.

On the Grounds of the Imperial Palace

In the afternoon we went to a Japanese Tea Ceremony with a Tea Master hosted in a machiya (wooden house). We selected the option that included complete kimono dress. One review we read said that they can stuff anyone into a kimono. Guess what? They can! We learned about the origins for the tea ceremony as well as how to drink the green tea. We stumbled through the Japanese phrases we were to use but loved her patience as she repeated them over and over with us. Akeiko and Tomeiko were wonderful hosts, very lovely and very organized.

Not Quite Ready for Gilbert & Sullivan

After the ceremony on the way back to the hotel we wanted to stop in a Japanese bar.  We couldn’t find one so where did we end up?  In an Irish pub drinking Killian’s beer.  The bartender was a young woman from Hanoi, studying in Japan.  A quite amazing person who learned her English not just from an instructor but from the Disney channel.  I had to ask her where she grew up because she had an American accent.   The next shift came in, a young man from England and a young woman from France. They had great stories of their travels and we were well-entertained.

The World According to Dennis...
The tea ceremony was fun. In particular, I enjoyed being wrapped up in a kimono, given a samurai sword, and told to look fierce. What twelve year old boy doesn’t like to play soldier? I also learned to make and serve tea, bowing as I did so to Cindy.  I think it gave her ideas that I won’t find much fun.  Tea? Well, I prefer Sake but that’s going to be tomorrow complete with tastings.  Yum!  I too enjoyed the Irish/Japanese bar on the way back from tea. Not cheap though. Four beers (2 each) and an order of chips (fried wedges of potato) was about 40 bucks. Oh, and it was happy hour so 10% off!