GAWA Day #9: Kyoto and Suiran

My Nichiren train took me from Miyazaki towards Kyoto.  I had a soba with sake.  

I happened to look at the ticket for my final train, and noticed that the arrival was in Osaka at 4:24, not Kyoto.  I had arranged with Suiran to pick me up at 4:30 in Kyoto.

All train seats were taken today, so in illegal brilliance I snuck on the Nozomi, the fast bullet train not available to Japan Rail Pass holders.  However, my thinking was that if you sat in the non-reserved section, set aside for trains 1/2/3, the conductor wouldn't be able to tell if you belonged there or not.  Unfortunately, the lines to get into trains 1, 2 and 3 were today ridiculously long.  So, again, being super clever, I stood in the #4 reserved train line, which had only ten people, and when I got on board, made a left instead of right turn, and found myself an open seat  Very few of those in those 1/2/3 lines got on the train.  My Nozomi arrived in Kyoto at 4:10, ahead of my normal schedule, and I was able to meet the taxi arranged by Suiran.

Okay, so this was not morally right.  However, I've long felt that the country should open up the Japan Rail Pass by charging more for using the Nozomi, as there are so many more of them than the Hikari and Kodama options left to foreigners.  So, in this time of despair, I felt it was justified to do what should have been allowed anyway, plus I have a Green Car first class pass and I used the lowest class unreserved train.

Suiran is a luxury ryokan (Japanese hotel), a first for Starwood.  Everything here is an up-scale blend of high tech and feudal Japan.  There is polite staff everywhere, and I wonder how they can stay in business.  Well, the cost is rather high.  However, there are only 39 rooms.  The Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort had close to 750.  So after checking in, my sty here started with a champagne welcome in my room.

The hotel itself is way outside of the city on the grounds of Emperor Kameyama's family villa, with a history that goes back to 1339.  A few minutes walk brings you to Tenryu-ji Temple, Sagano Bamboo Forest, Nonomiya Shrine and Togetsu Bridge.

My room has a personal furo (Japanese bath), kept at a constant temperature just a little too hot for me, but survivable, in a teak room:

The dining room was smallish, and less than half full.  I show the view from my seat just to provide a sequence leading to breakfast the following morning:

The reality is that there is a lot of reflection from the room and you can hardly see the outside:

That girl in the reflection with her grandparents is worthy of a photo:

Then, this is how the garden looked in daylight when I had breakfast here the next morning:

My dinner appetizer:

I'm having a Kyoto sake and Kyoto beer.  Next, the best sashimi I've had on this trip:

Again, note the artistry of both the food in the dish and dish itself.  I ate all those tiny flowers, but soon thereafter, noticed that someone was stripping the flowers off the stem and laying it aside.  I now feel those stems slowly coursing through my alimentary canal.

This was followed by abalone and foie gras:

With so few diners, I wondered why the abalone was lukewarm.  Same for the following Kyoto beef bowl:

Worse, Kyoto beef has the texture of and tastes like American beef.  Miyazaki wagyu is so much better.   For Chaine des Rotisseurs members, that is one price we pay for eating in a group of a hundred or two, for the restaurants just can't get the temperature right.  At 15 Craigside, the Dining Committee, which I chair, has established a Food Temperature subcommittee to cure this problem.  Here at Suiran, this is inexcusable.  The dessert:

It was cantaloupe, green tea ice-cream and wasabi cream.  All in all, for the price, somewhat disappointing.

Breakfast, however, was just fine, and free.  They actually had an appetizer first, very similar to what I had for dinner:

It was raining today, but I went out for a short walk anyway.  Suiran is located next to the historical Hosu River of Emperors.  Located next door is a World Heritage Site, Tenryu-ji Temple:

The Bamboo Grove is also on a nearby path:

Turns out that we are in an environment much cooler than the city, such that Fall colors are already appearing.  Here is the entrance to Suiran:

My Shinkansen trip to Hokkaido got derailed by Silver Week--and, thank heavens, that ended today-- so these are all the Fall colors I will see.

Tomorrow, I return to Matsumoto Castle.  Hopefully, Pearl's Koi will be there to greet me.

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That typhoon I mentioned a couple of days ago, now named Tropical Storm Dujuan at 60 MPH, is expected to attain Category 4 strength and, at this time, is projected to roll over several smaller Okinawan islands south of Naha, and ease towards China just north of Taiwan:

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GLOBAL AROUND THE WORLD ADVENTURE (GAWA) IN PHOTOS: Part 1

Not sure how many photos I can insert in one posting, but it will be too much to attempt all 65 Global Around the World Adventure (GAWA) of 2015 days, so let me start with Part 1:

GAWA 1:  My United Airlines plane to Tokyo:

GAWA 2:  "Pearl's" statue at Jindaiji Botanical Park near Tokyo

GAWA 3:  Dinner at Victor's, Tokyo Westin, with my bottle of Yoichi 20 year old whiskey, the scotch that was named the best in the world 2008, for the first time beating out scotch from Scotland.  You'll be shocked to find out where the latest best scotch comes from, and it is not Scotland.

GAWA 4:  With my Japan Rail Pass, I took a ride on the newest Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kanazawa.

GAWA 5:  I love going to markets in Japan.  Here, I think, are some vegetables, or, maybe fruits.

GAWA 6:  Some expensive stuff from typical basement markets (this fruit package costs $58, while that Japanese wagyu beef sells for $195/pound, which is ten times more than you have ever paid for American beef).

GAWA 7:  The best beef in the world comes from Miyazaki, near the extreme southernmost point of Kyushu.  I spent two days here sampling their steak.  Note the marbling.

GAWA 8:  Then on day two I had my best under $100 meal of my life, featuring, again, Miyazaki wagyu beef (while the portion was rather small, consider that this is a beef that at a market costs nearly $200/pound).

GAWA 9:  The bullet train then took me to Kyoto, where I stayed at Suiran, a ryokan operated by Starwood.  This is just one of the appetizers at their restaurant:

GAWA 10:  Here the entrance to Suiran, where I saw my first evidence of Fall colors, as this is only September 24.

GAWA 11:  My next stop was to Matsumoto, where, too, the colors are changing.  Plus, Matsumoto Castle is where Pearl's Gold Koi greeted me in a fairly torrential rainstorm.

GAWA 12:  I then trained back to Tokyo, where my Ritz-Carlton room provided a great view and a chocolate roll, with raspberries.

GAWA 13:  I spent my next night in the Tokyo Westin, for I am leaving for Seoul tomorrow, and this hotel is where I kept my suitcase, so I could travel light on the Shinkansen.  Anyway, one of the attractions of the Tokyo Westin is an elaborate breakfast buffet.  Here I'm having three different kinds of soup, nine different types of tsukemono and a bunch of other stuff:  

While the thought of diet entered my mind, I've pretty much come to a conclusion that I can lose any excess weight after I return to 15 Craigside.   Tomorrow I continue by photo trip around the world.

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THE BEST IN TRAVEL FROM CONDE NAST

I happen to be picking up my mail and noticed on a table November 2018 and January/February 2019 issues of Conde Nast Traveler, the former featuring the Readers' Choice Awards (tallied from 429,000 responses to their survey--and they've been doing this for 31 years), and the latter, The Gold List for 2019, on their editors all-time favorite destinations to visit and places to stay.

I was amazed at how swiftly things change.  You can click on those links for additional information.  I'll just provide a personal analysis.

• Kimpton hotels are widely mentioned.  Never heard of them.  Made a check, and that's the new name for  the Intercontinental Hotels Group, which was founded in 1981 by Bill Kimpton.

• I couldn't recognize any top ten hotel in the USA.  The Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt in Austin, Texas was rated #9.  There is a Waldorf Astoria, but this one is in Beverly Hill as #6.  #1 in the country is the Sagamore Pendry in Fells Point.  Where?  Baltimore.

• I live in Hawaii and have stayed in eight of the top ten.  One, the newly opened Laylow Autograph Collection of Marriott, is in the 50-year old structure of the former Aqua Wave.  The other new to me is the Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club in the refurbished Hokele Suites, located a long walk to Waikiki Beach.  I guess the relatively low introductory room prices of these hotels drew support.

• I've stayed in five of top ten Japan hotels, with #1 being Suiran in Kyoto, a Starwood.  There are only 39 rooms, the location is secluded and the best explanation is shibui, or simple beauty, in Japanese.  Prices start around $500/night.  Here is a photo of one dish I had there.  I can't imagine why this is the top rated place to stay in Japan.

• There is something mildly discrepant about some of the cruise rankings.  For example:
• #1 for mega ships is Royal Caribbean (largest is Harmony of the Seas)
• #1 for large ships is Disney

• #1 for small ships is Crystal, but #2 is Viking
• They also had Viking as #1 for river cruises, but when I went on the Tauck European river cruise, the ship services far exceeded Viking's.  It might well be that Viking charges much less, but more that they have so many more passengers, and they do the voting.

• CNT lists the top 20 world cities, and, amazingly enough, I've been to every one.  
• Not one city from the USA qualilfied, where the top four are:
• #1  Tokyo
• #2  Kyoto
• #3  Melbourne
• #4  Vienna

• I've spent time in 15 of the top 20 small cities, led by:
• #1  San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (right, never heard of this place)
• #2  Salzburg
• #3  Lucerne
• #4  Basel

• About resorts in Hawaii, I've stayed at 16 of the 25 listed, led by:
• #1  Hotel Grand Wailea, Maui
• #2  Four Seasons, Maui
• #3  Turtle Bay, Oahu (what...this is beyond the pale--maybe I should catch The Bus and spend a night there)
• #4  Four Seasons Hualalai (which is among my three favorites)

• The top 20 airlines are listed, and not one is from the USA, led by:
• #1  Singapore Air
• #2  Emirates
• #3  Qatar
• #4  Air New Zealand

• The top ten airports, again, with the USA missing, and I've landed in all of them, led by:
• #1  Singapore
• #2  Dubai
• #3  Seoul Incheon
• #4  Hong Kong

• For the record, they do list the top ten U.S. Airports, with nothing from New York, DC or California:
• #1  Indianapolis
• #2  Portland
• #3  Hartford
• #4  Minneapolis-St Paul

About The Gold List, these Conde Nast editors picked super expensive hotels, except for one, The Robey in Chicago for $240.  I went to one site and saw a price for $125!  Sure the building is getting close to being a century old and it doesn't look like much outside, but it certainly deserves some consideration.

However, one fascinating pick was Oceania Insignia around world, with a Cuba stop and six months long.  To quote:

There have been global circumnavigations before, but nothing quite like Insignia’s 180-day journey departing Miami on January 8, 2020. Though visiting an impressive 95 destinations in 38 countries...

Cost?  $38,000.  That's only $211/day.  And the ship just got refurbished.  I've got to add this option to my 2020 fantasy world cruise, something I honestly thought would not happen, and now might.  Further:

Sleek and elegantly charming, Insignia’s decks are resplendent in the finest teak, custom stone and tile work, and her lounges, suites and staterooms boast luxurious, neo-classical furnishings. Insignia offers every luxury you may expect on board one of our stylish ships. She features four unique, open-seating restaurants, a world-class fitness center and spa, eight lounges and bars, a casino and 342 lavish suites and luxurious staterooms, nearly 70% of which feature private verandas. With just 684 guests to pamper, our 400 professionally trained European staff ensure you will wait for nothing.

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