Gion Matsuri and sake

This morning we had tickets to have front row seats for the second Gion Matsuri parade. We ate quickly at our hotel and then took a cab to our check-in point. It was already about 38c by 9am, so we were thankful that our reserved seats also got us a tote bag with water, a frozen electrolyte drink, fan, and commemorative scarf! The parade originally began in 869 as a way to rid the city of the plague. This was a popular strategy - if something bad was happening, either create a diversion or move cities. Anyway, apparently the plague did subside although it seems unrelated to the creation of this parade!

All the floats are built with wood and rope. There are no nails, screws, or glue used. They are all pulled on wooden wheels by men with large ropes. When they need to turn a corner, the entire structure is lifted and moved.

The parade began at 9:30 and the floats were incredible to see as we were so close to them. There were 11 floats in total and each one referenced history or mythology in some fashion. Although it was hot, we were so glad to have seen this special parade!

After the parade finished passing our seats, we went to the Kyoto Museum to see a show by Marimekko. I had always assumed she was Japanese, but today I learned that the artist/designer/architect was actually Finnish! Anyway, it was really neat to see the history of her print making, fabrics, clothing, and collaborations, which go back to the 1960s.

We thought the traffic snarl caused by the parade would be over, but we were wrong. We walked quite a ways before catching a bus to our hotel. We quickly dropped off some of our swag and tried to cool down. We grabbed a quick bite at the bakery and then were back in a taxi to head to Fushimi, the sake brewing area of Kyoto.

We were the only people on the tour, so we had our guide to ourselves! Our guide was a financial advisor, but he decided to do tours to improve his English instead. It should be noted his English was quite good, which is notable because most people do not speak any English here. Anyway, we started in the sake museum so we could learn about historical and modern sake production. Then, we tasted three of the largest and most historical brewery’s sakes. It was interesting how different they were from one another even though the appearance doesn’t change. Next, we walked to another sake brewery to see their products. We took our sake from the second brewery with us as souvenirs, as they were small bottles and we had an 18 sake tasting come up!

Our last stop was a complex that had 18 different sake brewery stands as well as food stands. Our guide got us the 18 tasting, but rest assured, we did not drink them dry! The idea was to try different ones to decide what type of sake you like. I, apparently, like low alcohol sakes. Brad liked the punchier ones. During our tasting, we had gyoza (delicious!), grilled edamame (good!), and the chef’s choice nigiri (the fish here is perfect!). The tour should have stopped there, but our guide wanted to buy us treats from a bake shop that he felt we needed to try. We were so full that we had to save them for later, but they look good!

We headed back to our hotel via subway and rested for a bit before deciding it was time to get supper. Brad found a place that specializes in unagi (eel) and so we attempted to catch a bus… that never came… and then we got on a different bus and headed to the main shopping corridor. It was PACKED with people. This is the busiest we’ve seen so far. Lucky for us, the restaurant was down a few winding side streets and away from the crowd.

We tried the “plain” unagi and the unagi with the house sauce. The eel was beautifully grilled and had a crispy skin. You got to add your own condiments to your unagi and rice, and we also had a soup and pickles. It was really good and the service here is amazing (even though there is a no-tipping culture).

Bellies full, we headed out and ran into an evening parade event! This weekend is full of various celebrations. It was not as big or elaborate as this morning, but it was cool to see nonetheless!Read more