Ichijoji – Kyoto battleground of Ramen noodles / Gokkei

Sep. 3, 2016

September of this year came. It has become a little bit less hot in the morning and night. This could be a sign of autumn?, maybe influence of typhoon.

Since opening of our guesthouse in this January, 8months already went with no real problem. I would like to say thank you to our guests and people support us.

As usual, Kyoto in July and August had hot summer. I believe our guests enjoyed activities in Kyoto through a day and knew such hot summer of Kyoto better than me (*^^*).

My blog of this time is a part of the series, Ichijoji – Kyoto battleground of Ramen noodles. This is the second article at last, since May.

The name of this ramen shop is “Gokkei”, a combination of two Chinese characters 極”Gok” + 鶏”Kei”. “Gok” literally means Ultimate, and “Kei” means Chicken meat.

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This restaurant is one of the most popular ramen shops in Kyoto making a long queue. Normally, I try to avoid queuing, but I endured a long waiting time (LOL). In our case, it took 2 hours to enter the restaurant.

I choose “Tori-daku”. The soup is very thick, no more in the form of a liquid! It is a more paste like, but  with full of tasty chicken meat. This is my quite first experience of eating, not drinking the very thick “soup”.  I enjoyed a large size of Menma (Bamboo Shoots) too.

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My husband choose “Sakana-daku”.

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A lot of shavings of dried fish is added on the thick “soup”, creating a different tasty flavor.

The shop offers 4 kinds of ramen. Others are “Kuro-daku” and “Aka-daku”. I need to find out how taste they are in the next time, maybe different time zone which may have shorter queue.

Please try this thick soup of Gokkei. (^^♪

Visiting to Hyo-neko no mori (Kyoto Bengal Cat Forest)🐈

June 2, 2016

Today’s theme is about cats I love very much.

“Kyoto Hyo-neko no mori” (literally, woods of leopard cats) and “Kyoto Fukurou no mori” (literally, woods  of owls), standing next to each other, opened this March at Shin-Kyogoku Street, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City,  a shopping arcade in downtown of Kyoto.  I have been waiting for this opportunity since I heard about  these places from one of our guests, and finally visited there today.

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Admission fee is 600 Yen for 30 minutes. If you want to visit both places, the common admission fee will  be 1100 Yen.

It seems no official website for the 2 facilities yet, so I cannot show you a good map, but you will find  them at the right hand side if you walk a little on Shin-Kyogoku street from Shi-jo street.

Hyo-neko, the Bengal cat is an expensive cat, can be sold for around 3000 dollars at pet shops, which  is out of average people league, so this is an amazing experience for me.

As they are young cats, they are so active, keep running around and jumping. The time I visited there  was around half past 6 o’clock in the evening that was already after their napping, and their eyes are  enough glowing and glaring !

Holding a cat in your arms is not allowed in this facility, but no problem because they are so friendly  that they came to me ,jumped on my knees and smelled about contents of my bag.

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Their so much lovely behavior made the 30 minutes pass very quickly (^^)/

One more shot of using a litter box…

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His (Her?) strained but relaxed look is also the cutest!

In the next time, I hope I have enough time to try “Fukurou no mori” as well. I believe cat lovers will not be able to resist this place when visiting Shin-Kyogoku street.

Ichijoji – Kyoto battleground of Ramen noodles / Ten-ten-yu

May 15, 2016.5.15

The theme of today is ” Researching Ichijoji – Kyoto battleground of Ramen noodles”

I’m attempting to introduce popular ramen restaurants in Kyoto. I’m a little bit worry about body weight because of its.high calorie content, but I will try one shop per day.

“Ichijoji”, famous as a birthplace of “Tenka Ippin” ramen shop is located in the north east area of Kyoto city.

The nearest railway station is “Ichijioji” Station of Eizan Dentsu railway, but I recommend to use the one day ticket of Kyoto city bus, while visiting various places by bus. If you go there by bus from Kyoto station, take Route 5 at the bus terminal, Kyoto Tower side of the Kyoto station, bound for “Kokusai-Kaikan/Iwakura” and get off at “Ichijoji-Kinomotocho” bus stop.

My first visit of this series is “Ten-ten-yu” Original shop.

The ramen is served with thick chicken broth with a generous amount of leek ! Of course, I had all soup till the last drop. Addition of garlic pepper and red pickled ginger enhances the flavor of Ramen, and it was very good taste! Price of 650 yen is a good value for this satisfaction.

 

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Kyoto and Ramen lovers, why don’t you enjoy both tourism in Kyoto city and dinner at Ramen shop !!

 

Sento is culture of Kyoto ~ Introduction of “Hinode-yu”

2016.5.6(Fri)

Today, I would like to introduce a Sento Hinode-yu ,public bath which has stood for 88 years and is located near our Otabi-an hostel, as I love a Sento and a sauna bath very much !

http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~hinodeyu/eng1.htm

I often go to a “Super sento”, a modern large bathhouse or a relaxation spa, but, such a town public bath has a long history and something special atmosphere. It’s a kind of a regional salon where you can talk with a bath attendant lady or local old people.

In the undressing room, bathroom baskets are piled up and you have to take one and put it into a locker with your cloths.

If you are not familiar with this way, the bath attendant lady will take a basket and give it to you, beating the dust off and tell you how to use it.

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Hinode-yu is planning some events for visitors.

 

 

The next event is “evening with light of fireflies”, Japanese summer tradition, to be held from June 10 to 15.

I must go ! (^_-)-☆

 

 

” Kyoto Railway Museum” finally opened !

April 29, 2016

I visited the Kyoto Railway Museum opened today in Umekoji park, stone’s throw  away from our Otabi-an hostel.

It was January 21 that I wrote a blog about a digital counter in the Kyoto station showing “100 days until opening of the railway museum”. so, already 100 days have passed since then. The time passes so fast !

http://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/

From early morning, TV news reported in its live broadcast that 2000 railfan were waiting for the opening at the entrance,

but when I visited there just after launch time I did not need to join a long queue to enter by luck.

It shows interesting history of Shinkansen, retired overnight trains and also many steam trains as this place was famous as Umekoji Steam Train museum before the new train museum is built, which bring back old memories.

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2016 京都の桜 いよいよ!!

2016.3.23(水)

三月も後半に入り、この週末から京都の桜開花が一気に進みそうです~(^^♪

全国に桜はあるけれど京都の桜は何か違う!と、「御旅庵」にもたくさんのお客様がお越しになられています。

ありがとうございます。

写真 2016-03-13 13 06 20「御旅庵」も3/13にイメチェン!

 

京都御所や東本願寺・渉成園は開花の発表がありましたし、豊臣秀吉の「歴史的な花見」で知られる「醍醐寺」も

咲きはじめたみたいですよ(^^)/

行かれた方も多いと思いますが、「醍醐寺」の桜は種類が多いので長く楽しめますね(^^♪

IMG_5952「そうだ 京都、行こう」から検索してみてくださいね~(^^)/

http://souda-kyoto.jp/travel/sakura/index.html?id

「京都ゲストハウス御旅庵」暖簾が大変身!!

2016.3.13(日)

皆様お久しぶりです!

開業から早や2ケ月弱がたちました!

昨日3/12(土)は開業来初めての満室を頂戴いたしました。

お客様が「御旅庵」を選んでくださったことが何より嬉しく、心より感謝申し上げます。

北海道や福岡、仙台、埼玉、東京など各地からお越しいただき、また、東京に留学中の中国からの学生グループの皆様!ありがとうございました(*^^)v

ワイワイと楽しく、皆様のお話をたくさん伺えることは私自身の励みと刺激になっております!

賑やかな朝食タイム!!image1

 

そして皆様がチェックアウトされた後の午後に、新しい暖簾がやってきました!!

ご近所の着物染職人さんに作っていただいいたんですよ(^^♪

このグラデーションが築100年の御旅庵を華やかに、そして和む雰囲気を醸し出していると思います。

是非、御旅庵にお越しいただき、この暖簾をくぐってみてくださいね(^_-)

 

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「京都鉄道博物館」下見!&梅小路温泉??&「東寺がらくた市」

2016.3.3(ひな祭り)

3月に入りましたが、朝晩はまだまだ冷えこみますね~(>_<)

日中は日が照ってきたので御旅庵近くの梅小路公園へお散歩に行き、気持ち良い午後を過ごしました(^^♪

 

先日のブログでもお伝えした「京都鉄道博物館」もオープンまであと57日となり、かなり出来上がってきていますよ!!周りをぐるーっと下見していたら(笑)「こだま」のお顔が少し見えました(笑)

楽しみです(^^♪

http://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/

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しかも、この「鉄道博物館」と「京都水族館」の中間あたりにJR西日本が温泉試掘!という発表も先日あり、京都南部がますます盛り上がることに期待しています~(^^)/

3/6(日)までは梅まつりもやってます!!

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この日は3/6(日)は「東寺」界隈で「がらくた市」もありますので、ぜひぜひ足をお運びくださいませ(^^♪

http://www.touji-ennichi.com/

※毎月21日は「弘法市」、第一日曜日は「がらくた市(骨董市)」です!