June 1st

For our second day in Kyoto, we had planned a visit to Aritsugu, the 450 year knife maker, and a trip to the near by Kobe, for a Kobe beef, steak.
The path to Aritsugo was going through a half mile long food market. Needless to say, by the time we got to Mr. Aritsugu's store, we had steamed Rice patties with leek and shrimps, bamboo wrapped rice patties with sweet minced beef, baby octopus, marinated in sweet soy sauce and grilled on a bamboo stick. yummmmmm.
A pickle shop with adjacent pickling room, provided some samples of Cucumbers, Aubergines, Bamboo shoots and Daikon, in fermented rice.
The knife store was a surprise. I expected an old man leaning over the fire stove, hammering his knives into shape. instead, we found a immaculate, modern designed store, with an astonishing selection of Japanese for each and every task from the finest carving knives to butcher axes.
One sided blade knives were presented with a left and right handed variations. After some consultation, I have chosen a knife to be added to my collection. Not that I needed another knife, but how often do you get the opportunity to buy a knife from Mr. Aritsugo's half century old establishment?
An hour trip on the Bike later, we were wandering the streets of Kobe. The town was nothing to write home about. It has been largely wiped out in the '95 earth quake and new meaningless buildings have been erected.
A web search and some walking around brought us to a reasonably good teppan yaki restaurant. Our table side chef, prepared for us, simple but mouth watering filet and entrecôte of Kobe beef, accompanied with nothing but salt from a near by mountain.
Walking out of the restaurant, we both agreed that it has been the best steak we have ever had. Ever!!!
The trip back home (Westin Kyoto, that is) has taken forever. I forgot to turn off the "avoid toll roads" option on the GPS. I don't think I have ever rode 60+ km on surface roads. Surely not at night, on the left side of the road, in a foreign country.
Once again, a shower and bed were a welcoming finale to an eventful day.
Tomorrow is my Birthday and the beginning of the trip back north to Tokyo.