Rain And Octopus Donuts And Rain

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I awoke to torrential rain so started the day by writing postcards and drinking green tea. I decided to keep the day urban to maximise on any shelter, so headed south of Kyoto station, an area I had not yet been to. First I went to the Toji Temple which at 5 stories high is the higest in the whole of Japan. The rain did little to obscure the size of this temple, although it did obscure my desire to stand around looking at it, so I ran into the nearest restaurant for some lunch - a bowl of Udon noodles with meat.

While I was eating lunch I got to thinking about how much cusine defines a country. If a visitor came from abroad to England I would certainly give them fish and chips, and a sunday roast but really thats tradition, even history, and not necessarily the current culture. I havent eaten fish and chips in god knows how long and a sunday roast is a bit or a rarity. Far more representative of modern british culture, at least from my experience is a few pints and a curry (or ruby if you prefer Shawna...). So far in Japan ive eaten only Japanese food, but perhaps this is not the true way to sample the culture. There are a fair few curry houses serving food that looks like no curry I have ever seen, italians which still conform the Japanese perculiarity of having plastic models in the window and genuine Japanese burger joints... Perhaps I should be trying these two while im out here. We'll see.

The rain was only getting worse so I headed back to the station, dropping in at a few more temples on the way and booked up a cookery course for tomorrow which takes place in some random Japanese persons house, and includes "Japanese home cooking, tempura, and sushi". Its really expensive, but I've decided to treat myself as an early birthday present. I imagine everyone whos reading this knows I love food, and if they didn't before they do now. Just to let you know!

After booking I went to buy a few souveniers and sample some snacks in the covered market. One of note was what I can only describe as an octopus donut, because this is exactly what it was. A dougnut with a tenticle in it. I had to throw half away - but not because of the donut itself, but the sauce they put on it. The poor 'nuts were covered in a very cheap tasting brown (as in HP stylie) sauce and mayo, with random green stuff and shavings of dried fish. That was just a bit too much - next time ill have them sauce free.

This will probably be the last Kyoto post - im planning on heading of to Osaka tomorrow after my course.

Things I love about Japan

• Functional advertising. No public toilets have paper, but 90% of advertising material you are handed on the streets is toilet paper. I picked up 7 packets in 10 minutes this afternoon
  
• Vending crazy. You can buy hot and cold drinks from a vending machine everywhere - including beer. On every street, in every station. Even at most Temples.
  
• Toilets. They are one of 2 types. 1) Hole in the ground. 2)Super high tech with built in bidet and heated seats. The photo on here is one of the more basic khazi control panels, with 14 controls (counting the rotary control), 1 digital display and two panels of LED displays. And most urinals flush on arrival and departure, and ALL are automatic.
  
• Plastic food. From ＄1.50 (i can't find the pound sign) to $75 per meal all are shown in the window with ultra realistic plastic models.
  

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Photos

The Toji Temple
The tallest in Japan!

The Toilet
How the hell do you use it? I don't know!And this is one of the more basic ones - I've heard McDonalds are far more fully featured!!!