🍵 Beauty & Taste (The Crucible of Beauty) ② / ②Kyō no Tsukune-ya | YUMEVOJA - YUMEVOJA｜Starting a New Adventure after the Empty Nest

Visit: May 11, 2025

In the evening, I went to Kyō no Tsukune-ya.
I arrived two minutes before opening and was seated right away.
It is a small place, so arriving early is the right choice.

That day, I skipped breakfast and had only sweets for lunch.
So I decided to treat myself and ordered a set meal:
oyakodon, duck roast, and a draft beer.

The food was carefully prepared.
There were many elements, but the taste was never noisy.
I felt a refined balance.

I ended my day there.
The next day, I returned to ordinary life.
That time, too, was a choice I made for myself.

The following day was a workday.
With limited days off, I try to enjoy them fully.
Going down from a heavenly place back to daily life,
and returning again when tired.
This is a way of living I learned from walking the pilgrimage in stages.

At the end of the day,
the aftertaste was just right.

After some hesitation, I chose the set meal.

A harmony of flavors. Fully satisfied.

Today’s bonus capsule!

✨ Gateway to the Showa Era―Tsukune

The Showa era (1926–1989) was a time when modern technology and ideas began to transform everyday life in Japan.

My mother was a good cook.
When we ate out,
she would say,
“I wonder how they make this,”
and ask the staff about the recipe.
When we got home,
she would try to recreate it.

She experimented,
made adjustments,
and served it to the family.
That, I think,
was what cooking meant to her.
It felt special,
yet somehow part of everyday life.

But the preparation was demanding,
and it took time and effort.
Sometimes she would sigh and say,
“Why do we have to eat three meals a day?”
She only ever complained like that to me.

While eating carefully prepared tsukune
at Kyō no Tsukune-ya,
I remembered those words.
Shōwa-era cooking
was made of affection, ingenuity,
and a small, quiet sigh.
It wasn’t a nostalgic taste,
but a nostalgic presence
that lingered there.