Open for more than 50 years, the popular Takabashi Rāmen restaurant is one of Kyoto’s oldest rämen shops and is known for serving straight noodles with shōyu-based tonkotsu (pork stock) soup. Following renovations, the restaurant now features Ki-Yan’s dynamic ‘Sunflower’ which enhances customers’ ramen-experience and adds some style to the eatery’s motto of ‘cheap, quick and delicious’. Though the restaurant has long been popular among ramen fans in Kyoto, the vibrant atmosphere created by Ki-Yan’s artwork has helped to increase Takabashi Rāmen’s popularity among a wide range of customers. Experience dining at this modern ramen restaurant with its sensational sunflower painting, innovative menu and polite, yet energetic staff!
Goh-no Tora serves obanzai style Kyoto cuisine while also specializing in inventive menu items such as charcoal grilled duck from Kyoto’s Tamba region, or Kishuumedori- an original brand of chicken from Wakayama raised on ume plum vinegar. The name of the restaurant (‘five yellow tigers’) comes from the chef’ s astrological data: the combination of the year of the Tiger, the number five, the colour yellow and the Earth Star according to the Nine Star Ki form of astrology. In line with the name of the restaurant, Ki-Yan, who usually doesn’t paint his subjects with realistic colours, decided to use yellow for the tiger and expressed the number ‘5’ by using five colours: yellow, red, black, orange and gold.
Essential oils have been used in Australia for many years for a wide variety of wellness applications from skin care to healing the common cold. Having worked as an aromatherapist in Australia and in resort hotel beauty salons in Japan, Mariko Hirakawa has opened the salon Clear with the intention of offering personalized, individual care to each and every customer. Having left white space on her walls in hope that Ki-Yan would someday paint a mural, Mariko’s wish finally came true. The parrots and eucalyptus –Ki-Yan’s new motifs painted not only on the walls but also on the window screen-energize everyone who enters the room.