Hiiragiya ryokan, Kyoto, Part 2

Breakfast at Hiiragiya is a tour de force – you have the choice of Japanese or Western, but either way prepare to be impressed.

This would have been a perfect opportunity to use the panorama setting on my phone, but since I didn’t think of that until later, I offer you these not-so-artfully stitched together photos.

The sheer number of dishes involved in our breakfasts was astounding!

For the Japanese version: miso soup with tiny clams, simmered chicken and potatoes, tamago-yaki, grilled fish, fresh tofu, cooked spinach, salad, rice, fish cakes, and an assortment of pickles and garnishes, plus tea and juice.

For the Western version: our choice of eggs (I had scrambled), bacon with spinach and mushroom, museli cereal, freshly made yogurt, a nicely segmented orange, salad, and a roll, plus butter, jam, honey, and English tea with milk and cream.

I preferred the Western breakfast, I think, because it was such a perfect combination of Western foods made with a Japanese aesthetic.  The roll was a particular favorite of mine, pillow-soft with small tidbits of sweet white bean paste folded in; the tangy yogurt was another, especially after I drizzled it with Japanese honey.

For our second and final dinner, we had a choice of several options: kaiseki, yakitori, shabu-shabu, tempura.  We chose the yakitori, which was simpler than the kaiseki but still an impressive production.

This time, we ate at the small table on our porch instead of sitting on the floor.

We started with some delicious simmered beef with mushrooms and an egg, before moving on to the main event of grilled skewers of chicken and vegetables, with a delicious sake bottled especially for Hiiragiya.

Then we had a small plate of tempura and a bowl of homemade noodles that reminded me of a thinner, more delicate udon – really delicious.

Finally, for dessert, fresh fruit with a bit of sweet bean yokan.

It was rainy while we were in Kyoto, and while it was a bit bothersome while touring the sites, it was incredibly soothing to hear the raindrops pattering on the roof of the ryokan.

All in all, our stay at Hiiragiya was one of the most memorable parts of our trip – a visit to a perfectly personal world that hasn’t changed in decades.

We stayed in the same room as Nobel Laureate writer Yasunari Kawabata