saturday

The clouds were krazy on Saturday, a sign that Autumn is coming, even though the daytime is still krazy hot.

We went to Kyoto to bring some flowers to the family grave and also to visit Satoshi's grandma's grave.

Since we always start out early whenever we go to Kyoto, to beat the crowds, we went to find breakfast near Tofukuji station.

The place we had breakfast at has a long Japanese name, Pan to Coffee to Hirarin to.... (Bread & Coffee & Hirarin...)

This tiny cafe has an extensive menu. The breakfast menu is rather on the simple side, while the lunch/dinner menu is huge!

The owners wanted to create a place where people could come and "hang out".

Although it is alongside an overpass, it is rather quiet and relaxing.

I ordered the panini...ham & cheese all melty while the bread's crust was nicely crisp.

Their coffee is pour over and delicious...500 yen (tax included).

Satoshi went with their "everything" plate...500 yen (tax included)...I think he got a good deal.

After breakfast, we bought some flowers and made our trek up to where the family grave is.

Boy, were the mosquitos in kamikaze mode...Satoshi got ambushed!

Still, we were glad we were able to visit the grave.

It was getting close to lunch time for us and I had intended for us to check out a cafe that I had bookmarked, but the wait was over an hour for seats, so we decided to check out Ichinofunairi, which we've eaten at before.

It's been 6 years since we've been back, mainly because the times we've tried to eat here they were fully booked.

They've done away with their reasonable lunch sets (teishoku) so you need to order prix fixe or a la carte.

I ordered their hiyashi paiko tan tan men...apparently paiko means sparerib in Chinese.

Their tan tan men wasn't spicy at all, more like hiyashi chuuka (cold chinese noodle), with a sesame sauce.

The pork cutlet was cooked so perfectly and the outside so crisp!

There was a little curry powder and 5 spice in the batter...different but so good! 1500 yen (tax separate)

Satoshi went with their shrimp and veggie rice...1200 yen (tax separate)

He enjoyed this as there was nice sized shrimp in his dish.

As we were waiting for our food to come out, we called Café Quarirengue to see if they were still serving shave ice.

(The last time we visited we noticed that they had shave ice on their menu but they only served it from 14:00...)

So, after we finished lunch we walked to Café Quarirengue and ordered their Fuji...1500 yen (tax included)

Powder soft shaved ice topped with tachibana (a type of citrus) syrup and amakoji (fermented sweet rice). The shave ice comes with a ginger sauce and also a citrus syrup.

It also comes with a wedge of lemon to squeeze over and an umeboshi to refresh your palate.

Talk about different! It wasn't overly sweet which was nice and perfect for sharing.

It was a long full day, but I'm glad we got to do hakamairi (visit the family graves).

How was your weekend?!

Pan to Coffee to Hirarin to
15-815-6 Honmachi
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.541.8727
Hours: 7:00-18:00
*days off not set, call before going