In full form today, I choose my preferred means of locomotion in Kyoto … the bicycle ! It allows me each time to discover hidden treasures … And today, after just two blocks of houses, I “falls” on the atelier of an artist working with gold leaf. I think you’ll imagine without difficulty that I could feel on entering in this beautiful machiya and discovering the tsubo-niwa, bathed in the subtle and heady fragrance of osmanthes … Wow!
After a lovely moment of exchange, I take the direction of Northwest, to discover some of the most beautiful and tiny roji of Kyoto machiya. What happiness!
I offer me a true Japanese lunch, from the menu to staff, not a word of English on the horizon … but somehow we arrive to understand us and I finally enjoy fine season cuisine, all kinds of tofu embellished of dishes with chestnut (in true Ardéchoise, I am a connoisseur …). The small dessert, a flank of soy milk flavored with chestnut was worth the trip !
And this afternoon, a great time … the visit of Omotosenke school tea garden. Here, too, an impenetrable sanctuary, three years of preparation for this visit … I can assure you that I have tasted it ! What a beauty ! Not a leaf, not a dry pine needle on this magnificent carpet of moss in this elegantly and subtly organized universe, like a quiet walk in the mountains. The essence, as Urasenke, of the great master Sen no Rikyu.
On these words… see you tomorrow !
Wonderful choice !