Reminiscing
the cool breeze
of October nights
I just returned from a short visit to Kyoto, Japan. It was my first time back in over fifteen years. As I had lived there for two years in the mid-nineties, I was feeling very "natsukashii" that unique Japanese word that loosely translates to nostalgia, to a state of mind of a perfect past that never was...
Cycling around familiar streets with my long time friend, Gabriel (who has been there for over twenty years now), it was amazing how much I remembered but also how much I forgot! We ate some excellent food of course, had a drink at the same bar we used to frequent, the same owner, still there. We had coffee at one of Kyoto's typical hole-in-the-wall cafés, stopped at a yakimono (pottery) gallery, went to a large temple complex, rode down the path along the river. All the while I was stopping, taking photos of that beautiful traditional Japanese architecture and style that is so prevalent in Kyoto.
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| Koto-in temple, Daitokuji |
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| Gion |
I split up with Gabriel for a couple of hours and continued on my own and, within minutes, bumped into my old roommate Paul, another ex-pat who has been living here ever since. We sat on a bench for an hour and caught up, still stunned at the total coincidence of seeing each other on a random street. "The Gods of Kyoto..." he said.
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| Kamogawa river |
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| Sanjo dori bridge |
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| Gion |
