Kyoto Style

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.  

Koto-in temple,  Daitokuji

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.  

Kamogawa river

Sanjo dori bridge

Gion