tokyotokyoto

I met up with benjamin and satoko in kyoto who managed to make it down for the weekend on their visit from NY to kamakura. it's been two years since I saw ben and the first time I met satoko who was, as I'd suspected, just lovely: we had a wonderfully relaxed time being lazy tourists. on saturday we strolled up the west side of town from kiyomizutera, through gion, and watched the live music being played below the stilted, outdoor restaurants on the river. after checking into our ryokan we had the much anticipated hot bath which ben, never one to pass up the opportunity of getting naked, was really getting into during his brief stay in japan.

'yuka' outdoor dining is the way to eat in summer in kyoto but we soon found out that everyone and his granny had the same idea but granny had remembered to book. as someone who enjoys to do things on impulse, japan sometimes throws me in this respect. we discussed a lot of similar differences over some very good beef and beer at a yaki niku restaurant before contemplating our curfew. just as I found it difficult to understand why my allergies couldn't be accomodated as a paying guest, ben was struggling with the fact that despite being the customers paying a healthy fee for our room, we had to get back like cinderella. a rule satoko reminded us we had chosen to take. stay somewhere cheap - get woken up by drunks falling in at 4am. in any case, all good hotels have a vending machine for these times so we caught up over quite a few asahi's.

today we got up as late as check out allowed and went to a superkitsch french 70's style cafe that is so evocative of a gentlemans club. the classical music being played on the record player was a stroke of genius for our hangovers.

it was the perfect place to study our map and have a much needed caffeine injection before heading to ryoanji in the east side. ryoanji is the finest example of zen stone gardens and outside the shrine has massive grounds which in july are lush and saturated in cool rain. bens new camera saw a lot of action and I'm almost glad my batteries were dead or I wouldn't have left.

we headed to arashiyama afterward for some delicious soba and tempura and discussed more about the different life here. ben had seen a lovely public seating area with fish which he pointed out wouldn't last a minute in the UK - we discussed the fact that japanese kids from age five have to clean up after themselves and agreed it must help the issue of respect that the UK is struggling with. afterward we strolled through the bamboo forest and headed back to town. the pace of life in kyoto is so slow compared to osaka and i can't wait for my next excuse to get through. I haven't laughed so much in a long time and I look forward to my next visit to new york. hopefully in mid-winter.