KINKI
Kyoto City
Travel journal from Kyoto City, with 18 notes on the places I ate, the dishes I cooked and the sights: Shimogamo Shrine (Kamomioya-jinja), Takase River, Gion Shinbashi and the banks of the Shirakawa, Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup).
Journeys: 2 · Notes: 18
Journeys
Try making Toshikoshi soba
Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
At the end of the year, I borrowed a renovated Taisho-era townhouse in Kyoto to see in the New Year.
Film published 2023.12.31
Kyoto Machiya Stay
An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
I woke up in a hundred-year-old Kyoto machiya townhouse.
Film published 2023.01.25
01
Cook the local flavors once more
Dishes made in borrowed kitchens, and how each one connects to the land.
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Oyakodon (chicken and egg over rice)
Chicken and onion simmered in broth, bound with egg and served over rice.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Bubu-zuke (ochazuke from a monaka wafer)
In Kyoto, ochazuke is called bubu-zuke.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
02
A little of each town’s story
Sights, specialties and how the towns came to be: small cultural notes beside each journey.
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Shimogamo Shrine (Kamomioya-jinja)
Its official name is Kamomioya-jinja.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Takase River
A canal running alongside the Kamo River.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kagami-mochi
Kagami-mochi is the offering made when welcoming Toshigami, the deity of the new year, and every part of its decoration has a meaning.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyomachiya, the Kyoto townhouse
Under Kyoto City's ordinance, a kyomachiya is a wooden building of traditional structure and form built before 1950, when the Building Standards Act came into f…
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Gion Shinbashi and the banks of the Shirakawa
The Gion Motoyoshi-cho area along Shinbashi-dori, north of Gion, was designated a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings o…
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
A plum-blossom-shaped ochazuke monaka
A plum-blossom-shaped monaka wafer that turns into ochazuke when you set it on rice and pour hot water over it.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
03
Places we stopped along the way
What we ate and bought, with shop details checked against published listings.
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyogoku Kaneyo
An eel restaurant said to date from the Meiji era (some say the Taisho era), in a wooden building that keeps the look of its early days.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Izuman
A kamaboko maker founded in 1844 and said to be the oldest in Kyoto.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kamo Mitarashi Chaya
A teahouse founded in 1922, across Shimogamo-hondori from Shimogamo Shrine.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Sauna no Umeyu
A bathhouse founded in the Meiji era, on the banks of the Takase River.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Tenkaippin Sohonten (Main Shop)
The first shop of Tenkaippin, the ramen chain born in Kyoto.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toraya Karyo Kyoto Ichijo
Toraya's tearoom in Kyoto, the city where the confectioner was founded.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Tohkasaikan (Main Restaurant)
A Beijing-cuisine restaurant at the west end of Shijo Bridge.
From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Other places in Kinki
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Aridagawa
Aragijima Rice Terraces, Washigamine Cosmos Park, Arida mandarins and stone-walled terraces
Journeys: 2 · Notes: 14
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Tamba
Tamba City, Kingyoku hydrangea, Sobanchi
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 5
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Kushimoto
Cape Shionomisaki, the southernmost point of Honshu, Kushimoto Marine Park (aquarium and underwater observatory), The coral of Kushimoto's sea
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 16
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Omihachiman
Hachimanbori Canal, Old Hachiman Post Office, Hakuunkan
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 15
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Nachikatsuura
Nachi Falls (Hiro Shrine), Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Yatagarasu, Katsuura Fishing Port Nigiwai Market and the Umi no Yu footbath
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 11
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Ine
The boathouses of Ineura, Aoshima Island, A boathouse open to visitors
Journeys: 1 · Notes: 6