Tempura at the Department Store

One night I wanted to go on a guided tour through Gion. Before it started I wanted to do a little bit of planning for the next couple of days and also write down some of my impressions. I have tried that at Starbucks before, but it was not very pleasant, because they play the music too loud for me to hear my own thoughts. Also I don't drink coffee and can't drink more than one cup of matcha latte as it has probably more calories than pizza.

So I decided to try a department store instead. They usually have a few benches or charis for their customers to sit on and they don't even expect you to buy an overpriced hot beverage. The volume of the music is also substantially lower.

At the Kawaramachi Garden department store I found comfortable seats at the 8th floor which is also where the food court is. So it did not take long for the menu poster of a tempura place to catch my eyes.

We usually call it Tempura, which is strange, as there is no m in the Japanese language. If written in Hiragana it would always be てんぷらcomprised of the mores te-n-pu-ra. On the other hand the last more is called ra, although r is always pronounced like l in Japanese. So this doesn't make much sense either.

In case you are not familiar with Japanese cuisine, Tempura is battered and deep fried food. Only little batter is used. Usually you can still see what's underneath. Common is okra, small green peppers, shrimp, but basically everything can be used.

Either way, I went in and had tempura, sitting at the window enjoying a view over Kyoto.