This post is dedicated to my Dad, who is over at mine painting my flat as we speak. Thank you Daddy (or should I say dōmo arigatō gozaimasu, Otōsan / おさん、どうもありがとう)!

Today’s weather was still a bit hit and miss, so I took the chance to carry on my culinary exploration of Kyoto (meaning yet another visit to Nishiki market, of course!) and also hit up one or two of the city’s “quirkier” museums en route.

The first was the Kyoto Samurai Museum, which I found absolutely fascinating. Did you know Darth Vadar was modelled on the ancient samurai? And that women could also be samurai (if born into a samurai family, that is…)? And that the word for a samurai warrior in Japanese is actually bushi (hence bushidō as the term for their moral code), while samurai refers to the social caste as a whole? And that satsumas are from a place called Satsuma in Japan, where the Satsuma Rebellion took place….? And that Chandler from Friends personally put an end to the prior period of Japanese isolationism? And that the last ritual seppuku (self-execution by disembowelment) actually only took place in 1970…?

Well, now you do! 😉 Btw, the museum also had a handy guide (which I’m including for reference below) on how you too can commit seppuku at home, but a word of warning here: it won’t officially “count” if you’re not a samurai already, so you may just end up looking like a bit of a tit here, if not careful. Just like I’m looking a bit of a tit myself, dressed up a like a samurai below (they made me do this…).

Next stop was the Kyoto International Manga Museum (not just a ‘local’ manga museum, not even a merely ‘national’ one, but a full-on ‘international’ version…), to see if I could improve on my non-existent baseline knowledge of manga here. I can’t say I emerged from this experience much more the wiser, in all honesty, but I did get a chance to play in a manga photo booth, to quite hilarious results… 😉

Well, Dad, you did say you wanted more pictures of me… 😉 Oh and for the record, I’m not on drugs here – the photo machine just manga’d up my eyes. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

In other news, does anyone remember that scene from The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) by Günther Grass, where the mum goes nuts and compulsively binge eats all the eel? (I appreciate this may well just be me, some remaining fellow German Language & Literature course mates, and possibly Mum…?) Either way, that was totally me today.

I’d decided to go for a late sushi lunch at Nishiki market (pictured below), and afterwards thought I just about had room enough for a barbequed eel skewer from one of the neighbouring food stands – which was bloody delicious. This pretty much would have done me, had I not then spotted the bad boy with the caviar on the way back out – and I just had to have it. As a result, I’m now sitting here typing this with oily fish oozing out of my pores, but oh my God it was so worth it… Some people are all about the cheese, others all about the chocolate; turns out I’m all about the anguilliformes, baby.

Anyway, that’s it for another day! Sun’s back out tomorrow, so will be exploring the eastern part of the city, which I’ve not got to yet – will report back soon…

On and Happy Easter all in the meantime!