takamatsu

I went to Takamatsu today with Michelle. Takamatsu is the capitol of Kagawa prefecture, which is directly above Tokushima. It is the largest city on the humble island of Shikoku. We had been planning this trip for many moons, and we have only just acted on it. I am glad that we did. Although Michelle is a kind soul, her personality can be a bit grating at times, and by the end of the day i was glad to leave her. This is not to say i did not enjoy my time with her in Takamatsu, or at the very least some of this time. Above all this triviality, the most notable experience of this trip was visiting Ritsurin Kouen, which is the large and impressive strolling park that the large city boasts. The park was entirely crafted by human hands, as most parks often are, but this time i was struck more strongly than before by this realization, mainly because of the inexplicable beauty of certain areas of this park. I shall try to do them service with a description, of the ones that imprinted themselves the deepest in my mind: the small grove of ume (Japanese plum) trees that bloomed in purples and pinks; the twisting and contorted pine tree that gripped the back of a large mossy stone, exhibiting the so-called image of a crane with outspread wings on the shell of a tortoise; the narrow stone bridges that arch over small streams filled with carp of all colors and sizes; the coal-warmed mochi (rice gluten balls) on wooden sticks sold at a small food stand, in the flavors sakura (cherry blossom), kusa (grass), shouyu (soy sauce), and a plain doughy white, all topped with anko (sweet red bean paste); the middle-aged man who fed the carp and pigeons with shrimp crackers from a plastic shopping bag; the backdrop of mountains covered with pines and maples.
Needless to say, i ate sakura mochi and watched the carp chase after bits of food dropped into the pond by the middle-aged man with the plastic bag and an old woman with a stick of bread.
We had lunch at a "vegetarian" place that fried up little fishies in my vegetable tempura, but i couldn't complain because everything was so nice and perfect. I pulled the fishies out, and was not sickened because i see dead fish everyday here. I even ate one because i was testing to see if it was a vegetable, and i really thought it may have been, but i soon discovered it was not. The woman who cooked and managed the cafe was worried, but i kept assuring her everything was okay. I have become much less afraid of dead animal foods, especially fish, but i still do not want to eat them. Here are some photos of my pretty lunch and the pretty dessert afterwards, with a gelatin cube i also refused to eat. The lunch was, clockwise from the bottom left, red rice with unskinned boiled peanuts, sauteed daikon with lemon, boiled tofu with strips of pickled eggplant, fried wheat gluten in sesame oil and spinach, slightly fishy tempura pumpkin and lotus root with fish not yet removed, soup with greens and pieces of fried egg. The dessert is some sort of fried sweet bread with cinammon, two small sugar candies, and a mikan (small orange) wedge with houjicha (roasted green tea). I also got a large bowl with a small serving of matcha (very strongly flavored green tea powder) after dessert that i neglected to photograph.