Give Me Bananas

 

Some of you might have noticed that I still haven’t written the second recap of my Japan holidays (and for you new readers: I was in Japan from 30 December – 8 January. Check out Part 1 of the recap over here!).

Since today is a very boring day (food-wise) I decided to finally share the rest of the goodies with you all. I hope you don’t think it’s lame that I write a recap about something that happened almost two months ago.. (Time flies!!!)

 

Kyoto

So we left off where we headed to Kyoto. (Remember? ). Being the cheap people that we are we decided to go by bus and not by the super fast but super expensive shinkansen. It took us approximately 4 hours to get to Kyoto but that was ok because I really like “long” journeys as long as I don’t have to drive .

We arrived at 6pm and were starving after check-in (more about our dinner later!). Our hotel was located in the city centre and the room was lovely. The view was stellar too.

Yep, that’s a graveyard. My mum called them the “silent neighbours”.

After dinner we were surprised by our aunt who brought us gifts and wanted to say goodbye (again). Ah I love her! She’s fantastic.

On the next day (which was our only “real” day in Kyoto) we did all the touristy stuff. Kyoto is well known for the temples and shrines and we did the whole grand tour.

 

New Years is very important in Japan. Since it was only a week after New Year’s there was still lots going on at shrines.

 

These wooden plates can be bought there too. Since it’s the year of the tiger, all of them are tiger-themed. (Huh, makes sense, right? )

Everyone who gets one of those (except the tourists who buy them for souvenirs) writes a wish on them. The heart-shaped plates are obviously for those who wish for something that involves romance. Weird things are sometimes written on the plates too (no matter what the shape ) like: “I finally want to get divorced!”. Ha!

I think it’s a very nice tradition though. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I love traditions (that aren’t super silly). The white paper notes (see above) predict what happens this year. Mine was pretty average (wheww.. thank god for no family/boyfriend/work/injury/money.. problems ) but I remember that Selina’s said that she shouldn’t get too involved with trade but if she has to she should only buy/sell silk and pottery.

We got from one place to the other by a normal city bus. Much cheaper and cooler than a stupid tourist/sight-seeing bus.

Next stop was the Kinkaku-ji, aka the Golden Pavilion. What a beauty!!

K + S in: “The silly tourists”

 

SO postcard-worthy, don’t you think?

This was actually our last touristy spot that we visited in Kyoto. During the day we also walked through the markets a lot. Which brings me to a very important part of our Japan trip:

 

Food

Some of you might wonder how it’s like to survive in Japan as a vegetarian. Here’s the truth: It isn’t that difficult (when you’re cooking for yourself).

I generally ate much less than at home (aka in Switzerland) because I was a lot less active (I just didn’t need that much food). I ate all sorts of traditional food but also “western” dishes.

Here’s an example of what I ate at my grandma’s place:

Pickled veggies, rice, sautéed mushrooms and spinach with sesame seeds and an omelette.

See how big that apple is?? I LOVED it

 

Mochi. Oh how I love theeee. My grandma and mum made them on 1 January (which is an other tradition in Japan – making omochi on 1 January).

Edamame. Too good for this world!

I almost screamed out lout when I saw WW toast. Whole wheat products don’t have a huge fan base in Japan.

I also had a lot of green tea.

A typical Japanese style breakfast that my sister had looked like this:

Eating out was a whole other story..

Being a vegetarian in Japan is easy. When you’re staying at home that is. I didn’t really want to be a burden but sometimes I was so annoyed that there were no veggie options at all.

We went to a “kuru-kuru sushi restaurant” in Kurashiki. You know, it’s that kind of restaurant where the sushi goes around and around – how do you call that?

Anyway, we went inside and I was like a 5 year old, happily watching the sushi pass by.

The thing is.. most sushi contains fish. Nevertheless, I still managed to grab 4 fish-less plates.

My mum and sis on the other hand are sushi killing MACHINES!

 

On the first evening in Kyoto it was almost impossible to find anything vegetarian on the menus. I almost felt desperate and was really sorry for my mum and sis because it was because of me that we had to wander around with grumbling tummies.

…Until we found a gem of a restaurant.

 

Well it might not look super exciting but the menu said that there were tons of vegetarian options. Plus everything was organic. Totally my kind of place .

I had a bunch of yummy things to eat like tempeh, veggies and a salad.

We went back to this restaurant for the second dinner too.

Other random stuff…

We strolled through the markets of Kyoto and saw a lot of fish.

And a lot of veggies.

Oh and shopping for groceries is just as fun as anywhere else on the world…

Oh and let’s not forget about the pastries!

This was called a sweet potato boat..

+ this looked like.. you know.. But it was good!!!

I only bought this because I was intrigued by the awful grey colour but I loved it! It was stuffed with beans and sesame seeds. Mmmmm.

 

Looking through the picture makes me want to go back!

Though I would happily skip this meal…

(But just to be fair: Airplane food has definitely improved over the years)

Oh and let’s end this post which a fantastic treat..

Matcha latte. LOVE.

Sorry for the super long post but I hope you liked the recap nevertheless .

Have a great Friday!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.