Shinkasen time travelling
Arriving in Kyoto from Tokyo is at first not much of a shift. The station is ultra modern and the sign-age points you in a thousand different directions, to the bus, the train, the shops, the coin lockers, the toilets the JR station, the Subway station, the rail line… You get the idea… But one you’re out of the station it is almost unbelievably different to the Tokyo I had just come from. Narrow houses, traditional style houses with bamboo shades and wood features line narrow streets running along beside twinkling canals and you can see the top of temples and shrines peeking over the top of the houses behind high gates. It doesn’t seem like a city in the same sense of the word, but a slower, gentle old town.
Walking beside the canal on the ‘Philosopher’s Walk’, named for the university philosophy lecturer who used to partake in this stroll every evening, it is peaceful. There may be tall buildings and traffic, but all I can see is those narrow houses on either side of the canal with it’s draping trees and fat, happy carp. Tea houses, and shops – some of them no doubt lures for tourists, but it’s out of season so the shop keepers are leisurely – and the tori gates which signify a shine is near, or a particularly nice tree or bridge are the landmarks.
I wander humble and peaceful as a cloud… when suddenly I see a man accompanied by a woman in one of the most beautiful kimonos I have ever seen. I could be on a film set for a film I’d love to be in. How lucky I feel at this small encounter – you can see that I’m getting into the tea ceremony ethos of making each moment its most lovely. I wonder if I can move here….
P.S. TRAVEL TIPS: The new section of Kyoto station is a massive rabbit warren and it’s difficult to find the Subway - accept that you may have to follow the signs into what feels like an entirely different postcode… And try the vending machine coffee…As well as having a choice of hot or cold and it being about a quarter of the price of a cafe version they have very entertaining names.
Tags: japan, kat on location, kyoto