bonbaiten

Monday was a National Holiday, Seijin-no-hi (Coming-of-age Day). It is when the 20 year olds are "initiated" into society. They can legally drink, which seems to pose problems and embarassment at the ceremonies. There are many girls who dress in furisode (long sleeved kimono) and the guys wear suits. I think it is losing its luster though, as I didn't see many out and about.

Since it was a beautiful day, Satoshi and I headed out to Shiga prefecture. On the way, we were able to see some snow flurries.

In Nagahama, they had an exhibition called Bonbaiten (potted plum exhibition). This is the 57th exhibition and it runs from January 10 until March 10. The admission was 500 yen.

Some potted plums were only 8 inches tall and some were 6 feet tall! There were many trees to view and some as old as 350 years! Some weren't blooming yet but they were still beautiful to see.

Lunch was in the Kurokabe area of Nagahama. We stopped into a machiya called Yokaro. Their specialty was saba (mackerel). I had the Bi-doro-bako (left photo) which was an assortment of seafoods like funa (carp), unagi (eel), kisu (sillago). Satoshi had the saba kaido (middle photo), this featured mackerel grilled then put on top of somen and on top of sushi. Everything was a bit too "fishy" for me, so Satoshi cleaned up what I couldn't finish.
We then were craving something sweet, but wanted to go somewhere closer to home, so I asked Satoshi if he would like to check out the place that I had had matcha fondue at. He was game, so we head to Kyoto. When we got to the place it was peak cafe time but the place was quite empty.

Satoshi had a babaloa (bavarian cream) with chestnut paste and bits of chestnut in it. I had the Saganoji, which was a light cheese cake with a sponge cake bottom, matcha mochi (green tea rice cake) layer in between and then was wrapped with a thin, soft mochi. I think it is supposed to resemble the cobblestones in Arashiyama, though it was light as a feather.

Hope your week is going well.