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. 

The weird, the wonderful...and the astonishing!

By just walking around the various districts of Tokyo, you realise that, despite a life time of experiences, and despite what one thinks, one has not seen it all.  Every facade holds a secret and around every corner one is surprised.  From shops that horribly and tragically "farm" puppies, to establishments that cater specifically for those with a nurse fetish, (and no dear reader, I am not one of them), Tokyo opens your mind (and its doors) to all those who ask.  Despite the occasional jaw dropping ugliness and ethical, moral and personal upheaval, there is also more than a passing temporal beauty and zen serenity.  The cities parks and gardens are wonderful and surprisingly bountiful and easy to find and even easier to enjoy.  But what Tokyo serves up better than almost anywhere, is the astonishing array of completely wacky but ultimately gob smackingly wonderful architecture!  My personal favourite is the completely outrageous Super Dry Hall by Philippe Starck: a balanced pile of black glass with a "golden turd" on top.  Excuse the crude comparison, but that is the image that so quickly and readily enters my mind.  Revolting image aside, it is all so absolutely quirky but so absolutely right! 
Too much of this sort of thing however,  and one could...well...be driven to drink! One could even walk to drink and that is what I have done.  Well within sight of the 'Starck' reality of Tokyo, I have settled in to a Beni Otoma Shochu, a delightful clear distilled spirit, this one infused with roasted sesame seeds.  Akin to a good Vodka, Shochu is the perfect tipple to contemplate the bizarre.