After traveling back to Kyoto by train (15 min), we rested a bit in the AirBnB then took a stroll through the Gion district which is known mostly for historic buildings and geishas.
These days if you see someone dressed as a Geisha or Maiko during the day, its probably a tourist. If there is one at night quietly coming out of a taxi to go to one of the many kaiseki restaurants in the area, then its probably real.
Geishas are really the predecessors to todays hostess clubs or maid bars except better trained and more indentured.
Before long, we are close to our dinner reservation time at Maeda.
Maeda is a kaiseki restaurant opened in 2012 and has one of the higher Tabelog ratings around. They do not allow photos when there are more than 1 customer party.
If interestes, there is a pictoral trip report from this excellet food blog here
http://missneverfull.com/kyoto/2017/4/2/maeda-
I took notes but because there were other diners, no pictures on thisevening
Menu
Uni, tofu cream, caviar, ponzu, chili
Ayu, parseley sauce
Kyo saba sushi
Grilled hamo pike eel
Amadai (tile fish), nimonowan (soup course)
Torigai, asparagus sansho hana
Unagi, salad
Nasu (eggplant), ginger
Ise ebi (spiny lobster), egg yolk sauce, yamaimo
Kegani (hairycrab)
Goma tofu, water shield?
Taro, anago
Rice, karasumi (bottarga)
Ice cream
Warabi mochi
It was a super solid meal with the kyoto style saba sushi, the ayu, the torigai clam, the amadai tilefish just being out of this world good. Super simple but every ingredient was such peak quality.
The ayu sweetfish just blows the one I had at lunch out of the water. It is as if I am eating another species entirely.
It was also surprising that it was 10+ courses of seafood with no meat or fowl.
One thing to note, in Japanese restaurants, even fine dining establishments, the markup on premium sake is very low so its very affordable to drink high quality sake.