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The day before my birthday is a national holiday in Japan--a perfect excuse to go out and celebrate! Yasu and Tomo joined us for a trip to Kyoto. First on the agenda upon arriving was visiting a Japanese sweet shop to learn how to make otabe.
When we arrived at the shop, everything we needed was laid out for us:
To begin, we mixed a special rice flour with sugar and water. Then we poured the mix into a little wooden steamer and let it thicken into dough. While waiting, we watched a short video on how otabe is made on a larger scale to sell as one of Kyoto's most famous souvenirs.
Once the dough was ready, we split it into three equal-sized balls. In each ball we poked a small hole with our fingers, and put a tiny spoon of matcha (green tea) powder or cinnamon in the middle. After mixing it in, we rolled out the dough:
So far, so easy!All that was left to do was make the flattened balls of dough into squares and add filling. We could choose from anko (sweet bean paste), kuri (chestnut), or goma (sesame).
Below you can see Tomo and Yasu finishing up their otabe, as well as the instructions we were given to keep. Yasu decided to bring his own style to the otabe, forming them into what looked like Christmas presents instead of the traditional triangle shape (whether he did that on purpose or not is questionable ^^).
Tah-dah!
Having successfully completed our otabe training, it was time to head off to see Kyoto's famous autumn leaves.
We walked along the Philosopher's Path, and then around a few temples. In the fall at night, Kyoto has really lovely night lights to show off the changing leaves. So beautiful!To end the night, we headed to a yakiniku restaurant to try Kobe beef!
I've wanted to try the famous beef for a while, and it was definitely delicious (the bill wasn't so delicious, but hey, it was a birthday celebration!). Don't know if we'll ever indulge in Kobe beef again, but I'm glad we tried it.
Yum!Our day in Kyoto made for a very memorable 25th birthday. What is one of your most memorable birthdays?
