I don’t believe I have been married for nineteen years. I should be older, more stable, more staid. Yet here I am, having just reached wedding anniversary #19 and still feeling like a girl in so many ways.

Last night we celebrated with an amazing shojin ryori meal in Kagurazaka. If you are interested in upscale vegetarian cuisine, Japanese style, I heartily recommend Tosangyo (桃仙郷). They follow the Kyoto style of hospitality in a graceful and serene environment, and they offer seafood and meat as well as a vegetarian menu.

Ours was a multicourse feast beginning with a fruit salad of grapes and persimmons followed by appetisers of walnut tofu with a wasabi dipping sauce and then hitting all of the other washoku cooking styles: simmered seasonal vegetables, crispy grilled yuba rolls in broth, deep fried mushroom tempura with green tea salt, steamed and sauced vegetables wrapped in yuba. The meal ended with rice mixed with sticky yam, red miso soup, and delicious citrus-y pickles.

We enjoyed a private room on the second floor, at a table with a comfortable foot well and decorated in minimal traditional style. Our server was fabulous. He had a food story to go along with every course, most including sound effects as he described the dishes. Jyunko Takeda, the house manager, came in to introduce herself and talk with us. She was extremely gracious and interesting to chat with- trained in the geisha art of conversation, I suspect.

I hope we find an excuse to visit again. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.