Dinner, Monday 11 February 2008

まんゆう軒（Manyu-ken）, on marikoji-dori, just north of higashi-ichijo-dori.

The posters in manyu-ken are:

• Ayrton Senna's head for the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix
• A large airbrush picture of Disney characters on a tall ship, with a 2008 calendar along the bottom, that recently and commendably replaced a large airbrushed map of the world, with Disney characters in explorer hats with binoculars looking at geographically appropriate cartoon animals, with a 2007 calendar across the bottom. Aside: Are there any non-domesticated Disney characters (assuming Ducks are domesticated insofar as they wear sailor-suits)? Aside: Do mice count as domesticated (since their co-habitation with humans is presumably (in the absence of confirmation from some kind of talking mouse) opportunistic)?
• Picture of yacht with squiggles on it for a regatta on Lake Biwa in 1986 (inside of toilet door)
• Toyota racing car from the 1992 Le Mans 24 hour race (back wall of toilet)
• Small sticker I think is another yacht, but haven't got closer enough to see
• The menu
• The daily special board (actually a board, not a poster)

Along the southern wall are arranged comic serials, and a small bookshelf houses the weekly rags, as well as newspapers and back issues of Playboy. In Japan Playboy is a general interest tabloid with a scattering of daft giggling bikini girls. While this means it can be left about in cheap restaurants, it is unlikely that Hunter S. Thompson could have reported on the Kentucky Derby in quite the way he did with a fake press-pass that said プレイボイ instead of Playboy.

Food: cheap and honest. Better than it needs to be. Miso soup is especially good. Shiro-dashi to remind you that you're in Kyoto, well salted with strips of daikon and tofu that stays firmer than usual.

Grilled mackerel with soy sauce and grated daikon
Thousand-Island cabbage
rice
miso soup

600 yen