Endless streets, Yakitori and Tsukimisake

More on temples and culture
Today we visited a temple properly. It wasn't Toji and the one we got into was under rennovation and it was about to close, but it was still an impressive sight. I keep being impressed by the size and extravagance of the holy places, because everything else here is so small and so obviously built in order to conserve and use space in the most efficient way possible. Even the roads are insanely narrow - and done up like long stretches of asfalt, crossed by equally narrow roads at about every ten meters. I thought it was simplified to appear that way in series like xXxHolic, but it's not, it's real.


While we walked today, along those narrow streets, we went past a traditional, japanese inn, (they are called 'ryokan') right there on the street in the middle of town as well as we took a quick tour through a small shop selling shrines, I think they are both for use in funerals, like in commemoration, and for use in praying to various deities. Those shrines are as pretty as the temples though they are tiny and I am so fascinated by the offerings inside them.

Then, feeling hungry after our long walk in the humid, wet air, the three of us went to a small Yakitori-place. The door was hidden behind a curtain of rope-strings and a japanese paper-lamp hung by the right side of the door. One of my friends, Aki, knew the type of place as traditionally japanese and we waited the last few minutes until six so we could go in.


Quickly I realized that it wasn't so much a restaurant as a sort of traditional bar, because what was mainly offered was yakitori and the like, which are different spiced snacks on thin sticks, served with beer or sake.
In the end we ordered cold sake and mountains of delicate, delicious snacks; anything from spicy chicken to rice-cakes, food that went very well with my first taste of proper sake. I like it. It's sort of sweet, with a bitter aftertaste, much like wine and a pleasant burn of alcohol. I also enjoyed the manners of the waiters - japanese politeness is something I cannot get tired of and I was amused by the rows of huge sake-bottles on the nearby counter, in front of the open kitchen.


On the subject of xxxHolic, I kept thinking of my dear Yuuko and her obsession with sake and delicious snacks of the yakitori-variant. I now believe I understand the appeal much more clearly. the only thing missing was having a cook as cute as Watanuki;).
Also, given that the moon has been full just now, I wish I could have sat outside and drunk the reflection in the transparent liquid, in true tsukimisake-fashion, although it is of course summer and not autumn<3.
 
Instead though, I sat inside a small, cosy bar, enjoying an enthusiastic 4-hour-conversation about jrockers with my friends and singing along when the jpop-music in the radio turned into a song we all love a lot.
At 22:00 we went home, back along the endless streets in the humid, wet dark and I was happy.
This is Japan and I love it.


Tomorrow we're going shopping~
Oyasuminasai!
~A~