Yet another unbearably hot day in Kyoto. I’ve repeated myself a lot in the last few posts, but the heat totally changes everything. Any kind of walking around becomes a mission, and even thinking of leaving the house feels painful.
And I get it — complaining about the weather while being on the other side of the globe on vacation is the definition of a first world problem. What I’m trying to say is that it’s impossible to plan anything, so we just went with the flow and tried to see where the shade took us.
We did want to try a restaurant that we had heard about — Honke Owariya — that allegedly served one of the best sobas in Kyoto, so we got on the subway and headed north.
We didn’t have reservations, but arrived early to avoid queues, and were seated at around 11:30am. Set in a traditional Japanese house, the restaurant has been with the same family forever and is now ran by Ariko Inaoka, a photographer turned business manager. You can see her touch throughout their entire website; just check this recipe, for example.
The soba at Honke Owariya is as legit as the place itself. The food was absolutely delicious and it comes with instructions on how you should eat the soba, where you should dip it, what liquids you should mix, etc. Foolproof.
It seemed like everyone on the staff could be a grandmother and they were all so nice and kind. One of the kids spilled their water all over and immediately Lena and I went into panic mode. An employee immediately came over and very calmly wiped the water while turning to us saying daijoubu, daijoubu.
We then quickly made a run for the shade at Ace Hotel Kyoto. A friend had been there before and recommended it as an interesting architecture piece. The building is gorgeous, open, and spacious.
There are also a lot of shops in the ground floor so we bought some gifts and sat to have a drink from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.
While traveling from Busan my beloved backpack’s zipper had ripped apart from the fabric, so we went to a few stores looking for options. Didn’t see anything I liked, but am pleased to report that the backpack has since been fixed!
Anyway, we continued walking towards Teramachi-dori where we’d have another opportunity to catch some shade and second hand AC from the many stores.
The kids got a gashapon (capsule toy) and I got a fox embroidered patch for my backpack. And it was back to the house to get some rest before dinner.
Once the sun was setting, we left the house to meet Atsuko at Ganko Takasegawa for a super nice kaiseki meal. Atsuko had made reservations and requested menus in advance.
We didn’t have to worry about what the kids would eat or reading instructions this time — we were on auto-pilot and had a great evening sharing old and new memories. ありがとう, あつこ!
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