Kyoto: The Return

After the typhoon fiasco at the beginning of the week, I was really looking forward to getting back to Kyoto and seeing the place in a much sunnier, less-typhoony light. And I wasn't disappointed.

The folks and I arrived back in Kyoto after our Himeji detour. We checked into our hotel, and went out for dinner. After eating, we stumbled upon this antique bookstore. Downstairs were a few pricey ukioe prints and some other souvenir kitsch. But when you walked upstairs, a cluttered world of books, papers and framed fans simultaneously opened up and enveloped you.

We spent a considerable amount of time flipping through the prints in this store. I got an orange and black print of flowers and butterflies.

Later, as we were walking back up the main street, my parents decided they were going to head off to the hotel again. I was still feeling a little restless, though, and wanted to poke around a few shops. Maybe see a little of the night time street life.

I distinguish this differently from "night life" because the latter calls up images of dance halls, host clubs and other sketchy and wonderful adventures my mother would drag me away from by my ears.

Instead, I promised to stay on the main street and to be back to the hotel shortly. I picked up a couple wooden chopstick rests then strolled a bit. I still saw plenty of the street life.

Some highlights:

A couple of hosts on their way to work. There's something about a willowy Japanese man with shaggy red hair and long pointed Italian shoes.

A girl wearing platform shoes almost taller than she was wide.

A 50,000 yen parfait that could eat you like a sugary Audrey 2. Seriously, this wasn't just a few scoops of matcha soft serve and some agar cubes. Whole and halved slices of fruit. Dollops of whipped cream. Chestnut cakes. Wedges of waffles. Ladles of sauces.

After a night in town, we had to leave again the next morning. A lot of sporting events for students were in full swing, so places were packed and we had to resort to staying in Osaka the next night.

Or should I say, "Osaka-my-ass!"