BREAKFAST AT THE CHINZAN-SO:
October 12th, 2013, 10:45am.
So we just finished eating breakfast at the Chinzan-so hotel! We ate at a restaurant called, "Miyuki." This was special, because my Uncle Real's first name, and my Grandma's first name is Miyuki. My Grandma passed away in 2001, so eating at this restaurant felt like we were honouring her. It was the most japanese restaurant I've ever eaten at. I thought lunch yesterday was bad... Well, this morning was even worse. We had a free meal coupon, so we used that, but it limited us to one choice. (Not that the other options were any better...) I decided to go with the flow and enjoy whatever they brought to me. First, they brought a dish with 3 smaller dishes on it. It has very tiny fish in one, (Yes, eyes and everything.) an interesting looking thick sauce in the middle one, and what Real thinks was a plum in the last dish. There was only one set of chopsticks laid on top, so we waited for the rest of our meal to come. They brought us green tea, and real squeezed orange juice. The green tea was brown, though. Real said it was roasted and that it tasted different than normal green tea. Once our food came, we quickly whipped out our camera and took pictures of all the mini dishes on our trays. Everything was so beautiful! There were tiny vegetables cut out in patterns, leaves placed to please the eye, different colours set in each dish on purpose. My uncle explained to me that this could be an example of Buddhism in itself. He said that Buddhism is all about each moment, and with these tiny seperate dishes, and how they were presented, draws your attention to each individual meal. Each dish is an experience in itself, and the way the colours and food are positioned draws your attention to just that.
After enjoying the look of the food, I quickly realized that I knew none of what anything was. The only thing I recognized was the bowl of rice, sitting on my left. There was tofu, miso soup, some kind of other soup, a weird salad with squid, (I think) salmon with horse radish, just a million things that I was not looking forward to eating. In honour of my grandma, though, I decided to try a little of everything. Real was apparently really impressed. And sitting here, knowing that I'm not still hungry, is a huge accomplishment for me! Yahoo! I did have two bowls of rice though. And I didn't eat much of anything else. Real says that I better stalk up on snacks here because in Kyoto and other smaller places like that, there's going to be nothing that I'll like anywhere! We'll see how that goes.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that during our walk in the park, I saw yet another act of kindness. I was scratching a new mosquito bite that I found, and a Japanese elder lady came up to me spewing something to me. Of course, I didn't know what she was saying, but she motioned to me to wait. She went into her bag, and pulled out some sort of after bite. She then put some one her finger and rubbed it on my arm, where the bite was. It was so sweet, I don't think I've ever experienced something like that in Canada. She obviously knew I didn't speak Japanese, but she decided to do something nice for me anyways. Later, I saw someone walking along the side walk, and he walked past a bike. A small flag had obviously fallen off the bike, since it was laying right beside it. The man stopped, picked up the flag, and played it gently back onto the bike, this time, making sure it wouldn't fall off again. Then he was on his way! It's just things like that that make me fall a little more in love with Japan every day!
Real is freaking out about our first hostel stay, so I think I better go help him. I'll write again soon!
Love always,
Lindsay Lehr