Day 11 - Kyoto

"I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so......"
The Vapours... circa 1980..


Visited a kimono makes in a traditional house in the back streets of Kyoto. We were dressed in Kimonos and given a tour of the building. Traditional Japanese houses are long and thin consisting of a number of interlinked buildings with small courtyard gardens (I mean small... couple of metres square) intersparsed to allow light. Constructed of wood this house had been on the site for 130 years making it old given that in the past fire was a common hazard.

We were told all about the family that lived there and had their business there. The family had been in business for 13 generations. The house was built by the master of the 10th generation and a further 3 generations had lived and run the business there.

After this we were taken through the tea ceremony. Shown how to enter the tea room as a guest (on your knees) through a very low door (about waist height). What the tea ceremony was about and what the host and the guests did during it. It was very interesting although green tea is much an acquired taste and not much to our liking. We were then taken tgo another room and served lunch sitting at an antique mother-of-pearl inlaid table. A meal of sticky rice with small fish fry mixed in it, with pickled vegatables and meso soup, washed down with more tea. The whole experience was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to those of you who are lucky enough to visit.