A serve of Kyoto with shochu...geisha...a golden pavilion...and a large man!

There can be few places in the world that can confound and yet feed the mind as completely as does Kyoto.  This is my second visit to this wonderful city and I am no less happily amazed, amazingly peaceful and peacefully happy!  

In keeping with my somewhat cyclic "zen state of mind", and that I am well into the first tipple of the evening, an excellent shochu from the island of Kyushu, I leave little commentary...just four selected glimpses of "my" Kyoto. 

Geisha, Gardens and...Astro Boy!

Kyoto is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace and with your eyes wide open.  For it is only then that you can truly see the beauty that resides behind closed doors. Away from the traffic and bustle of central Kyoto, and make no mistake, this is a big, working city, lies gardens beyond imagine and quite often beyond entry unless pre-arranged.  I was however, remarkably fortunate to experience a couple of Kyoto's most private and as it turned out, not so private, private gardens.  Some I had arranged and some I, well, literally gate crashed.  But before you cry foul, it all ended well.  After respectfully observing that I was not in a public reserve and with much blushing and bowing on my behalf, my reluctant hosts gave me a grand tour of the finer points of their creations with far more politeness than I surely deserved.  Unfortunately, twice today I have found myself in this embarrassing but, at it turned out, very fortunate position.  One was even being used as a backdrop for a documentary on Geisha!  The graciousness and kindness of the Japanese people can not be faulted, thank goodness, even in what must be for them, absolutely withering circumstances such as this.  Calling a day on any semblance of the leisurely pace at which I began my site seeing, I have made a hasty retreat to a small, cosy establishment not all that far from a homage to my favourite cartoon character, Astro Boy, to enjoy a well earned and refreshing Premium Yebisu All Malt Beer.  This beer has a full malt taste, quite different to the usual Japanese beer and well worth asking for.

The spirit of old Kyoto...

Konnichiwa. Eigo ga dekimasu ka? 
The Land of the Rising Sun...but before I deliberate, let me pay homage to the distinctly proud and resilient Japanese people who have suffered so much of recent times. I take my hat off to you.
Kyoto is polite, it is dignified, it is beautiful and...it lurks behind secretive screens.  My goodness what a place!! From the Philosophers Walk to the sublime temples of the eastern hills of Higashiyama, I am totally captivated by this city.  With traditional wooden houses, the click-clack of gita and the frequent flourish of brightly coloured silk, Kyoto is culture personified. But it is not out in the open. The first glimpse of Kyoto can be somewhat disappointing, but take a look around and it is all here, albeit relatively exclusive. Outsiders like me, can only peek through the cracks of the not so long gone centuries, but you can get a glimpse of the city's secretive soul if you look. Replete with fascinating temples and Zen gardens to the absolute, one really must exercise the muscles yet again and...walk.  It is worth taking the time to search behind the new department stores and shopping arcades and just take it all in. Take it all in, as I have,  with a side of complete extravagance at a delightful tea house in the Eastern Hills, particularly at one that serves the wonderfully balanced sake that is Urakasumi, from the Miyagi prefecture.  One can not say that it is the best, but it is certainly a sake that I can recommend.