Dinner at Suishin on Pontocho

Had a lovely dinner at a place called Suishin after my first recommendation Kashintei Minoko turned out to be 'closed irregularly.' Well that's Lonely Planet listed restaurants where the chef/owner decided the days to be closed seemingly at random. The place had a long bar and a few open tables. I think there were private rooms elsewhere. The kitchen was open in the back and because I was one of the last guests the chef brought most of my dishes over himself. I wish I had the Japanese to have asked him questions...

The meal:
Seasonal Dish
This was a soft tofu over a layer of lightly pickled green-bean like vegetables. They might have been very small (like Haricots Verts) beans or something in a similar family.
Seasonal Disk (three kinds)
These were three different vegetables with three different treatments. There was a set of cuts from a mini-eggplant (or similar) in a mild sauce that might have had miso and soya in it. There were long grain rice or some kind of grass (you often see them in Japanese cooking--thin black, maybe 10cm long) in a light vinegar and a tofu based thing (soft, not sure what was in it).
Otukuri
This was a plate of sashimi and vegetables. The sashimi included cuttle fish, red snapper (I think) and tuna. The vegetable were ponza(?) leaves, these very small sprout like things (very interesting flavor) and some pickled green beans.
Steamed hothpotch
A bowl of very light broth that had steamed a cube of minced fish with seasoning. Not sure what the binding agent was.
Yaki-mono
This was quite wonderful. They brought a brazier filled with hot, burning coals with a medium-fine mesh grate on it. There were two pieces of marbled beef and two pieces of a light fish for meat. The vegetables included some pumkin-like squash, cucumber, half of a split mild pepper (could it have been okra? It definitely had a pepper bite but looked a bit more like okra than the peppers I'm familiar with--but long and thin in any case), and something that was similar to daikon but wasn't. I lightly seared the meats and grilled the vegetables one or two at a time. There were four flavorings a chutney, some thin-sliced green onion and daikon with vinegar (like in Kobe) for the meat and a thin, slightly sweetened soya based flavoring for the vegetables. Very nice.
Fried Dish
Really perfect tempura. Carrot, Cucumber, the pepper thing and a prawn.
Seasonal Steamed Dishes
This was a piece of fish over some tofu in a light broth.
Assorted finger sushi selection
This was fantastic. But it wasn't finger sushi. It was more like small pieces of very nice (slightly unusually flavored) tuna on pieces of nori over rice. There was a three way flavoring as well: wasabi, a spicy mayonnaise-like sauce and the best ginger I've ever tasted (I think). It had some kind of flavoring that I can only describe as slightly minty but more. I don't know (though I tried to find out) if this is just the kind of ginger or if it was the pickling. Very, very nice.
Miso Soup
Well, a basic but well executed miso.
Gion-tsujiri's green tea ice cream and a cup of Oolong tea.
How can you ever go wrong with a good green tea ice cream...

Oh, and I had to pour my own sake. Sadly, a meal that would have been better enjoyed with company--especially someone who appreciated good food.