Tag Archives: Gion

Travel

Gion night lights

Feeling a bit tired after a day’s frolicking, I decided to wander around the main strip of Gion to see what could be seen whilst the girls went to pickup brother Jon.  I did find some magnificient fresh mochi (mmm), and come across a disturbing semi-human sized rabbit.

I also got stuck on one side of the footpath against a shop front. Ordinarily, the random movement of people allows the easy egress from one point to another, only sometimes requiring conscious thought to avoid the odd embarrassing collision. What pinned me down was what looked like a school group, all in a line of 2 rows following each other double file with a flag at the start and one at the end.

It felt like I was caught playing a human version of centipede. A couple of unavaoidable phone calls on the mobile to rellies in Hong Kong to tee up some visits there suddenly racked up tens of dollars for the few minutes of conversation. Damned international roaming costs!

We wandered around looking for a restaurant but ended up deciding and going back to our favourite Number One Yakitori. Delicious. And unfiltered sake. Yum.

 

Travel

Kyoto streets & temples

If it’s Kyoto, then it must be temples. Our first stop of the day was not too far up the road – a small temple called Shoren-in which was a lovely hour’s investigate around this quaint, almost boutique artefact. It was only in retrospect that we realised we enjoyed it so much  as the rest of the day’s temples. The Chion-in further south we found to be crowded and harried. There also  seemed to be a Buddhist ceremony of some sort on (it’s so hard to tell when you neither speak nor read the language).

The hill gardens of Maruyamacho were strangely deserted. Many blue tarpaulins had been laid out signifying a bagsed position (presumably for upcoming cherry blossom parties). The feeling in the middle of the day was of a carnival that was about to happen. Or had happened. A minor discovery was Shijo Dori, the main street of shopping action in Gion.