Ootoya - Food!

Restaurant Ootoya!

This will be the first food review of a restaurant in Japan. Until now I have eaten the most delicious food, but considering most of it has been of the fast food or cafeteria type I've decided not to bring those up unless they are exceptionally tasty.

Restaurant 大戸屋, Ootoya , is located near the river Sanjo and the road of kuwaramachidori. It is on google maps if you search for Ootoya, kyoto.

The restaurant is small but the staff are friendly and the food is excellent. Ordering food is a piece of cake because they have a picture based menu, a picture based and English menu and from what I've seen, 2 staff members that speak good English. I have been 2 times and have been surprised at how busy the restaurant was but that must be a good sign I suppose? It is slightly noisy though.

The food is about 700 yen (100 SEK) for a meal, that includes meat and rice and miso soup and if you order soft drinks it is all you can drink. I have had the ton katsu (fried pork) and chicken katsu (fried chicken) and have enjoyed both meals.

Ton Katsu

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Price:4/5

Overall: 4/5

京都！！！ Kyoto!!!

A couple of days after arriving at my dormitory, International House II here in Kyoto I finally managed to wake up early enough to do some exploring of the area near by. My dormitry is a 45 minute from the main shopping district of Kyoto by bike. It is not centrally located but it is not too bad.

I'm loving Kyoto. It is so easy to get around. The city is very flat, and the roads are so smooth. What a difference to the potholed footpaths of the UK and hilly Borås. After going down the (only) hill from my dormitory to the shopping street I rode absentmindedly. All of a sudden I was right next to a small area of Kyoto that is full of old wooden buildings that have the feel as if they were built 50 years ago, but with the modern look of today's architecture. Only later did I find out it was called 嵐山,　Arashiyama. Apparently they have a monkey park(!) and the best time to go sightseeing there is fall when the leaves change colour and spring, for sakura season. There is also lots of small local restaurants, temples and gift shops here. Unfortunately I haven't had time to explore of all of Arashiyama yet, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities.

I want to go to the monkey park!!!

On the way to Arashiyama I saw a Panda =P













Might go and eat here and post a review later.

Arashiyama























































This is my bike parked on the corner ^_^ . It even has a basket and everything. Perfect for my shopping. Haha. But there are no gears and sometimes the breaks don't work. Oops









Small narrow streets, with lots of people and cars and BIKES of course







A statue of a Tanuki
A creature from Japanese folklore - Translated it means Raccoon Dog. Usually they are seen as mischievous and playful creatures.

This tanuki is drinking alcohol and smoking.





















Temple

First post

So I'm finally in Kyoto, Japan where I will be living for the next 10-11 months. It will be exciting, interesting and difficult and I'm hoping that after this time I'll be much better at speaking Japanese. I will be commenting on daily life here for all my overseas friends and family, make comments on things that happen to me, that I have witnessed or heard from others.

This blog make get a new URL if I can think of anything else. Suggestions are welcomed, so please do leave a comment regarding that if that is the case.

The blog will be personalised as soon as I get the hang of this webpage formating and I'll include pictures where possible.

Also, I've made a promise to myself: to stop being so picky about what I eat. So yes, I'll be blogging about food that I have found tasty and different and also on restaurant experiences in Kyoto. Eventually I'll have a small list of restaurants that I'll recommend with a 5 * rating system. Being an average student with NO money, price may be a factor that can increase or decrease the rating the restaurant gets.