Kyoto with a guide.. good stuff

Today I had some company. Yuka, whom I met through couchsurfing, accompanied me around town today for some much needed Japanese Translation. We went all around town, and I saw Kyoto through a local`s eyes, which was a very cool perspective indeed. Hit the local spots, and I could ask questions and actually have them answered.

And I got to cook. It`s been a while, and we were at this honey store (Yes, a whole store devoted to honey. Not quite the quality you can get back in the states, but the variety makes up for it), and tasting honey (or at least trying to while the sales lady was shoving it down our throats), we came upon Soba Honey... Honey flavored with buckwheat.

Really good. And immediately salmon came to mind. Wrong fish to get in Japan though, was my next thought. Alaskan salmon in Kyoto? That`s halfway around the world. However, apparantly Hokkiado fishes salmon as well, and it was damn tasty. A Soba-Honey glaze, broiled in the oven, with some curry daikon-carrot salad and sticky rice. Not bad for a kitchen in a living room in a small apartment in Kyoto. And Yuka`s sister cleaned up at Uno. This trip is not bodin well for my card skills, but at least I get good food out of it.

Tomorrow continues the streak with the couchsurfers, going down to Nara and actually sleeping on the proverbial ``couch.`` I`m halfway through with the trip, and it kind of feels it. Comfortable enough like I could keep on going, but new enough where things are still fresh when I see them. Except for temples and shrines. To my un-Buddhist eye, they are all the same. I will not ever say that they aren`t in beautiful locations. The nature is still amazing. The scenery still blows my mind, but there are only so many times you can look at a gate that looks like all of the other ones you`ve seen and be excited.

This isn`t diluting Japan for me, as I still get to hang with the locals, which is a good way to spend a sunday. Nara is supposed to be full of Castles, and Osaka has a whale shark, and Kyushu (Southern island) has volcanoes, so there is still much different to see. But I think I`m all set with temples.

Let`s hope I don`t feel the same way about Australians.