Nishiki, Ninjas, Samurai, and Soba

We left Mount Inari and made our way back to Kyoto, arriving at the city's most famous market, Nishiki Ichiba.

Nishiki Market, today a large street market protected from the weather by a beautiful colored glass ceiling, dates back to the late 8th century, and was originally a fish market. It owes its prime location in the heart of Kyoto to the naturally cold groundwater available at the site which kept the fish and meat fresh throughout the day, as well as to its proximity to the Imperial Palace just a few blocks away.

The most famous street food at Nisheki Market is tako-tamago, or small broiled octopus on a stick simmered in a soy sauce glaze and stuffed with a quail egg. 

For some reason, Mom was not interested in trying an octopus on a stick.

She was, however, interested in trying sake, or Japanese rice wine.

A vendor was selling small glasses of sake served in the traditional style by placing a little glass inside a lacquered wooden box. The reason for this is that is due to a tradition called mokkiri-zake which symbolizes hospitality and generosity. The little cup is filled to the brim until it overflows into the box, representative of the host giving the guest not just a full serving of sake, but an extra bit as well.

An interesting fact about sake is that it is fermented using mold spores called koji rather than with yeast like in western brewing. I am not the hugest fan of sake, but it's a very popular drink in Japan and considered sacred in some contexts. You can often find barrels of sake donated to Shinto shrines as offerings to the gods.

The little cups of sake served at the market cost 100 yen per serving, or about $0.70. Needless to say, due to its price it wasn't the highest quality sake, but was more of an enticement to draw people in to stop by the little food court which was selling a variety of Japanese snacks and dishes.

We walked through the market and finally made our way to Nishiki Tenmangū, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deity Tenjin, the god of scholarship.

The shrine's natural spring flows up from over 30 meters below ground. The water here is certified safe to drink, (and tested by the municipal government yearly), and it’s not uncommon to see locals bottling it to take home. It's one of the last reminders of the old spring water which used to keep the market's produce cool in the days before modern refrigeration.

Today, the spring is used as the shrine's purification well, where visitors will wash their hands and mouth before praying.

It was a bit too early for lunch, so Mom and I decided to be spontaneous and walk to the nearby Samurai & Ninja Museum, something that we hadn't researched and about which we had absolutely no idea what to expect.

Well, I guess it's not really accurate to say that we had no idea what to expect. The name of the museum is pretty self-explanatory! 

The museum is dedicated to Japan's rich warrior tradition of samurai - honorable and noble knights bedecked in elaborate armor who swore fealty to their feudal lords, and also ninjas - assassins trained in stealth, sabotage, and subterfuge who were viewed as duplicitous and untrustworthy.

Our guide was a Japanese guy who had grown up in the United States and had moved back to his homeland a few years before. He gave us an excellent and very fun interactive tour of the museum's exhibits. We started by walking through a hall filled with amazingly intricate sets of armor worn by the samurai.

Japan's past was highly feudal, with the Shogun, essentially the absolute military ruler of Japan, at the top of the pyramid nominally owing his allegiance to the emperor who was more or less a politically powerless cultural and spiritual figurehead. He was served by the Daimyō, or feudal lords who ruled large regions of Japan and controlled their own vast armies. Serving them were the Samurai, a knightly warrior class who acted both as solders and administrators who often held land in exchange for their loyalty to their liege lords.

The Samurai were not just warriors but a distinct social class, with families, households, and lineages that included men, women, and children. On the battlefield, opposing armies often sought to eliminate high-value or vulnerable targets first, such as the young heirs of samurai clans who commanded troops.

To protect their identities and counteract that, many sets of samurai armor had false beards or mustaches and full-face plate coverings to disguise and hide the true identity of the wearer.

After this, it was time to learn about ninjas.

In contrast to the noble and highly visible samurai, the ninja operated in the shadows during Japan's feudal era. Their origins can be traced back to the turbulent 15th and 16th centuries, when constant feudal warfare created the need for espionage and unconventional tactics which fell outside of the rigid honorable code of the samurai.

The tools of the ninja were pragmatic rather than ornate: lightweight armor for mobility, grappling hooks for climbing, and small concealed weapons such as shuriken (throwing stars) and kunai (multi-purpose blades).

Contrary to popular legend, the ninja’s strength lay not in exotic weaponry or supernatural ability, but in observation, adaptability, and psychological manipulation. They didn't wear black uniforms, but rather the common clothes of peasants, monks, or wandering merchants.

As we entered the next section of the museum, it was time for us to try our hands at being ninjas ourselves!

Our guide handed us each a pair of plastic throwing stars and instructed us on how to use them. Then, he counted us down and let us try our very best to get them to stick in the Styrofoam wall opposite. 

We tried many, many times.

One of my stars finally stuck in the wall and very nearly hit the target! I guess I'm ninja material after all (though I refuse to say how many had previously missed...).

After leaving the museum, it was time to eat, and I had found somewhere really special for lunch.

Dating back to 1465, Honke Owariya is one of the oldest continually operating restaurants in Kyoto, Japan. Originally established as a confectionery shop, it evolved into a soba noodle specialist, earning a reputation that reached the Imperial Family and some of Kyoto’s great temples. 

For over 550 years, Honke Owariya has been run by the same family, now in its 16th generation, and continues to serve its signature soba dishes in the same location they've been in since the 18th century.

There was a bit of a line when we arrived, but we didn't mind queueing up, and just half an hour later, one of the staff brought us an English menu and ushered us into the old wooden building.

It wasn't long before we were seated on the second floor of the historic old restaurant.

Mom and I both ordered the "Hourai Soba", or "Eight Treasures Soba", which consisted of five plates of cold soba, or buckwheat noodles, stacked on top of one another and served with a platter of eight different ingredients.

The toppings included shiitake mushrooms, shredded egg, sesame seeds, shrimp tempura, wasabi, nori, Japanese leeks, and grated daikon. The noodles were also served with a small pitcher of chilled broth, which was meant to be poured on top of the noodles before eating them.

This ended up being one of my favorite meals during our trip to Japan! It wasn't just the shop's history, but its delicious food and service that made it so memorable.