Yuba Lunch in Kyoto with Jim Breen

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/250 sec, f/20, ISO 6400 —
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Yuba Feast with Jim Breen

at Kiyomizu Junsei Okabeya (清水順正 おかべ家)

I started helping out Australian professor Jim Breen with his “edict” online Japanese-English
dictionary in about 1989 when it had less than 3,000 entries. It has more than 230,000 now. In all the intervening years we'd met in real life
only once, about 15 years ago, so I was very happy to meet him for lunch
today as he finishes up a long hiking vacation in Japan.

He mentioned an interest in Yuba, so I knew the perfect spot,
Junsei Okabeya (清水順正 おかべ家),
which I wrote about several years ago here.

It's near the Kiyomizu Temple, so I went there to meet him...

Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Approach to the Kiyomizu Temple

crazy crowded as always








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Quiet Spot Out of the Way

Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺)








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Meeting Spot








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 280 —
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Kosuke Fukui and Jim Breen

I've known both about the same time

Kosuke Fukui, whom I've known for about 25 years, fills some of his
retirement time by helping out with the business operations at the
restaurant, which also produces fresh tofu for other upscale restaurants
and supermarkets. That's how I found out about the restaurant in the first
place. Anyway, he'd seen my name on the reservation list, so popped over to
say high, looking dapper as always. He also appeared on my blog eight years
ago.

The Yuba lunch is wonderful, with a rich variety of tofu-based dishes that
leaves one a bit overwhelmed as to where to start...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/250 sec, f/20, ISO 6400 —
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“Yuba Sakura” Course

ゆば桜コース








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
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Yuba Factory In Operation

Yuba is very simple... slowly heat soy milk (real soy milk, not the
horrible almond-flavored stuff one often finds in The States) until the top
forms a thin skin. The thin skin is yuba, and can be skimmed
off and eaten directly.

Some patience is required, though with so many other dishes in front of you,
you're not at a loss for something to eat.

In our case, six minutes passed between the photo above and Jim taking his first bit of yuba...

Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 220 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 250 —
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That's It

read to eat

After stuffing ourselves silly and thanking Kosuke for a fine meal, I thought to pop over to a relatively-unknown cemetery nearby to show Jim its amazing
view. I figured it must have had a side entrance near where we were.

Unfortunately, I instead spent 15 minutes demonstrating my
inept knowledge of the area's small side streets, and we ended up all
the way at the main street at the bottom of the hill.

Oh well, we'll just head in the front entrance to the cemetery, and pass
all the way through it to exit near the entrance to the Kiyomizu Temple,
which Jim wanted to visit as well.

Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 100 —
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At the Entrance

to the Ootani Honbyo Temple (大谷本廟)

(also known as the Nishi Otani Temple, 西大谷)

(Jim had come by bicycle, so was dressed accordingly, with pantlegs tucked into his socks.)

Inside it was as interesting as always, with a lunar landscape of gravestones....

Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/3200 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/2500 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Unique








Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/400 sec, f/5, ISO 140 —
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Walk-Through Maze

We got all the way up to the exit at the top of the hill to find it locked, so it turns out that
the “no passage to the Kiyomizu Temple” signs we'd seen at the entrance weren't just trying to keep the
riffraff from passing through... there really was no passage.

Part of one hillside had given way during a typhoon at one time or the other, so they closed the area to through traffic.

Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/500 sec, f/5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Oops

no through traffic

We had to head all the way back down the hill, then back up again to the Kiyomizu Temple. All in all my short little
side trip ended up being
3.6 hilly
kilometers (2¼ miles). Sorry Jim! At least you were well prepared for it having hiked so much in the mountains
the past couple of weeks.

image data

Our “Short” Side Excursion

The restaurant is at the hook in the upper-center-right, and the Kiyomizu Temple at far right.

Everything else is my mistake.

There's a 50m elevation rise between the left and right sides.