As soon as she emerged, people ran down the street and crowded around her taking pictures. She quickly got into a waiting taxi, and still people ran up and tried taking her picture though the taxi window. It was like she was Britney Spears or something, and we were the paparazzi. I tried to take an unobtrusive picture from across the street but felt guilty for being one of "those people."
Two minutes later we ran across two more geisha, this time in a narrow alley so they were not swarmed with people with cameras.
Besides the location, part of the appeal of IchiEnSou is the owner Yashi. It's a small guesthouse, only 10 beds total, and he runs it like every guest is a new friend. It feels like we're staying in somebody's home as opposed to being in a soul-less corporate hostel.
Here's Yashi making us dinner (on the right):
They are takoyaki, normally made with squid but Yashi made a batch without the seafood for me. Oishii! (Delicious)
This was actually my second dinner of the night, because earlier Jana and I had gone to a small hole-in-the-wall resturant. We thought it was a Japanese restaurant but it turns out they mostly made Korean food. The owner however, a wonderful woman who knew some English, was kind enough to make us vegetable tempura, some sort of Korean vegetable pancake, and some fried chicken for Jana. We had a great time talking to her - she would start off speaking very slowly in very basic English mixed with a little Japanese and was very patient with repeating what she said until we understood her, and waiting for us to look words up in Jana's Japanese phrasebook to answer her. As she got more and more involved in the conversation though, she kept dropping more and more Japanese in, until she was speaking almost completely in Japanese. At one point I think she was asking us if it was raining in Koyasan while we were there, but it could just as easily been a question about the leaves changing color or if we went to a prayer ceremony.
The chef is standing on the right - he made awesome tempura!
The night before we had also eaten in a small hole-in-the-wall. This one was our first experience together eating in a restaurant with no English menu, no pictures of food to point at. Just pure Japanese. (btw, thanks Mom and Dad for all the nights playing mah-jong - knowing my kanji for numbers has been very helpful!). The restarant was just big enough for a narrow counter/grill that ran the length of the restaurant and 6 or 7 stools that sat in front of it. Jana led the way with her phrasebook, sat down in a chair and said "Nihongo ga hanesemasen" (I don't speak Japanese) and pointed in her phrasebook to the kanji for "Please decide for me." She then pointed at me and I said "Watashi wa bejitarian des" (I'm a vegetarian) and then again pointed to "Please decide for me."
The chef was clearly stumped. He retreated to the end of the counter and conferred with the three people sitting there, clearly regulars. They went back and forth quite a bit before coming back and taking a good look at us. He said "Noodles?" We nodded our heads vigorously with lots of "Hai, hai!" He then proceeded to make us some sort of egg pancake dish.
Jana's had some sort of meat mixed in with the batter, while mine was looking pretty good - until he sprinkled bonito flakes over everything. I ate it anyway (and it was pretty good), picking my way around the cuttlefish he had thrown in for good measure. The Japanese apparently really don't think of seafood as meat.
We had a good chat with the other patrons at the bar too. They were immensely entertained with Jana's phrasebook and once again quite impressed that we were from San Francisco. The guy on the right is a psychotherapist, the couple at the end are a cosmetics salesman and I think a model (didn't quite get the Japanese word), and on the left is our stoic chef.
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