expiration date 

we haven’t had lunch when we reached Kyoto. Naomi once telling me on the email that we should try a soba place called Owari-ya once we get to Kyoto. it turned out to be pretty easy to find.

Owari-ya is an over 500 year old soba place. supposedly, back then, they were one of the places patronized by the Imperial Palace. wow… we’re going to eat the same food as the Japan Emperor… how cool is that?

ari ordered their Nishin Soba, the one with boiled herring on it. and, boy, it was excellent! the soup was tasty and quite salty, while the boiled herring was on the sweet side. there were sprinkle of scallion on top. ari was delighted.

ari’s Nishin Soba.

i, of course, had to try their specialty: the Hourai Soba. quoting from their menu:

Hora Soba: Original recipe of 8 toppings-mushroom, sliced egg, sesame horse-radish, seaweed,leek, deep-fried shrimps, grated white radish and grated red pepper.

Hora Soba.

yumm! the tray came with so many things on it.: the plate full of the condiments, five tray of soba and an English instruction on how to eat the soba. it also came with an empty cup with a cherry-blossom covered with salt and a pot of hot water. supposedly, after you finish the soba, you pour the hot water into the cup, resulting in a cherry-blossom tea… it supposed to have an effect of lowering your colesterol… ha!

the condiments tray.

the sakura tea.

i’m enjoying the last tray of my soba.

well, it was wonderful. ari and i agreed that it may be the best soba we’ve ever tried. we’re definitely going back next time we visit Kyoto again.

after the fulfilling lunch, we walked to the southern edge of the Imperial Palace. it was quite near from the soba restaurant. but the Palace itself was huge and after all that walking in Nanzen-ji temple, we didn’t really feel like walking around the palace. so we just took a stroll along the southern part of the palace, walking towards the nearest bus stop. along the way, we met many fat cats sitting on the bench along the small pond.

we took our afternoon nap in the ryokan, but as usual, we ended up waking up late. it was 10PM already when we woke up. so we just had our dinner at a Kare place across from the ryokan. we spent the rest of the night packing, since tomorrow, we’re heading to Osaka.

photo album: Japan Trip: Day 4 (27 December 2005).