It was a beautiful day when three of my friends and I went out together. The four of us met at Keihan shijyo-kawaramachi station at 11 a.m. We had a plan to have lunch in Gion, where is popular for geisha. Everybody was punctual as usual, and we headed to the restaurant one of my friends had booked a reservation.

Since the street on the way to the restaurant had a very Japanese atmosphere, I took some photos. If you are lucky, you might be able to see geisha or maiko (a geisya's apprentice) walking around in the evening. Even if you might do, please don't chase them. They really don't like being chased and be taken their pictures without permission.

This area is very beautiful with cherry blossoms in spring. Sadly, it was mid-May, so we missed them. When you walk around there in fall, you see leaves changing, which takes your breath away. It's the kind of scenery truly feels like Kyoto.

The restaurant we visited was Yuyama, a Kaiseki restaurant. It was my second time visit. My friend tried to book a reservation room, but unfortunately the room had already been booked. So, we sat on a row in front of a counter. Yuyama is a cozy, hidden restaurant. I'm graceful my friend discovered it.

It was fascinating to look at what the chef was doing. We enjoyed chatting with him while having our lunch.

The first dish was a homemade sesame tofu. Since the day was humid and hot, having a cold dish made us cool down, and it tasted more delicious.

I don't drink any alcohol because I’m allergic to it , but three of my friends love sake. So, they enjoyed drinking, even though it was a day time.

The next dish was a cup of soup. One of the stuff in the soup was so tasty that everybody was curious how to make it. Once women get together, we love chatting about cooking.

I think both French and Japanese cuisine are better at showing artistically arrangement. They are so good at appealing visually that we can enjoy food with two ways: one taste and the other visual.

The third dish was raw fish called sashimi.

The picture below was the main dish in our course.

Look at the inside of the box. Everything was so organized. I was even excited and said, "Wow!". When the chef heard it, he smiled.

The last dish was desserts.

Everything was perfect! We all loved the restaurant and talked about where we should go next. It's always a challenging to set up four of our schedule, but next time I'll introduce my favorite French restaurant to them.

I'd love to visit Yuyama again with my husband in summer when they serve the hamo (pike conger) cuisine, which is very famous in summer, Kyoto.

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