Feeling Bougie In Uji

Now entering: Uji! This place is the matcha hotspot of Japan, and I’ve been dying to go since maybe week 2 of my stay in Japan. At long last I made it there, to find that it’s also famous for Murasaku Shikibu, aka author of the world’s first novel Genji Monogatari. There’s a Genji Museum and everything; I plan on dragging Steph back there with me on 11/12, because a) she loves Genji Monogatari and b) that day there’s a matcha festival and I want all the goodies. Here are some of the statues!

Murasaki Shikibu – the woman who wrote Genji Monogatari!

Strolled down some streets, found okaa-san’s friend-recommended restaurant and signed our name in about 40 spots down the list. Then we went off to do better things than waiting, such as sampling a bunch of sencha, matcha candies and matcha butter (we bought some of that). Then, after wandering around for an hour plus we headed back to the restaurant. Overall we waited 1 1/2 hours to get in here; thank god for street-shopping. We both got matcha soba that was really good though! Mine was cold, okaa-san got it hot. Mhmmm.

Next up was Byodoin Temple; I saw a replica of this in Hawai‘i! Very large, very pretty, and very un-photogenetic (that’s for you, Danielle) because the sunlight couldn’t get it’s crap straight. Oh well, still got some nice shots. This was followed by the museum, where there were so many glorious wood carvings that were at least half my size and oh, I dunno, at least 50 times older than me? Incredible stuff. No pictures though, so you’ll have to go visit yourself if you’re ever in a position to do so.

View across the river. This had a bunch of stands closing down that I’d love to see in action.

The final stop: a famous dessert cafe. There we also loaded up, and I mean it (we have dessert for all week) on take-home sweets, including matcha tiramisu, pudding, roll cake and dango. Soooo good. For the eating-in part okaa-san had a matcha parfait while I tried zenzai. Then it was homeward-bound for these 2 stuffed and happy campers.

I had zenzai, yummy.

This was a double-decker!! Lame pics, cool feels.