Fourteen Days in Japan · Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Day 3: Dinner in Gifu

For dinner that day, we had plans to meet the whole family in Gifu, a smaller city northwest of Nagoya, where a friend of Yasuko's father had a traditional Japanese restaurant.

After our visit to the Expo park, we had lunch and then started driving north, stopping for a couple of hours at Meiji-Mura, an open-air architectural museum park.

A red convertible at a city intersection

The museum preserves historic buildings from Japan's Meiji (1867–1912), Taisho (1912–1926) and early Showa (1926–1989) periods. Over 60 historical buildings have been moved and reconstructed on the rolling hills alongside Lake Iruka.

The Imperial Hotel entrance and its fountains at Meiji-Mura

The most noteworthy building there is the reconstructed main entrance and lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark Imperial Hotel, which stood in Tokyo from 1923 to 1967, when the main structure was demolished to make way for a new, larger hotel.

The lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel

A carved column in the Imperial Hotel lobby

Stone detail of the hotel with a tower beyond

Unfortunately, in winter the park closes at 4 PM, which meant that by the time we got there it was almost closing time, so we didn't get a chance to visit the entire park. Among other buildings, we visited the Imperial Hotel, the Kureha-za Theater from Osaka, built in 1868, and St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral from Kyoto, built in 1890.

A vintage bus in front of a traditional building

The Kureha-za theater with sake barrels outside

The stage and tatami seating inside the theater

The theater and St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral beyond

We reached Gifu by dinnertime, and when we got to the restaurant everybody was already there. The owner and chef was a very friendly man, a good friend of Masao's, and he treated us to a series of amazing dishes. We sat at the counter, so that I could take some pictures of him while he prepared those delicacies.

Masao talking at the counter with the family

A bowl of simmered fish with grated daikon

Pressed sushi and lotus root on a painted plate

Needless to say, everything was prepared to perfection. The food was not just delicious but beautifully presented on very nice plates. At the end of the dinner, the chef opened one of the glass cabinets behind him and took out a couple of wooden boxes containing some precious antique handmade dishes, so that we could all appreciate their exquisite design.

An antique porcelain bowl and lid on a wooden board

Yellow flowers and a sake flask on the counter

Embroidered family crests on a red cloth

After dinner, Yasuko's parents took the train back home, while Yasuko and I drove back with Jutaro and Rie and went to their place to chat and have a cup of green tea.