December 2023 trip, part 5: Kyoto and Narita

7 January, 2024

All photos are CC BY-NC-SA. I compressed a bunch; email me if you want originals.

Introduction: Kyoto (2 days)

Like Tokyo, I think I enjoyed this visit to Kyoto more than 2019.

Being a tourist

I had low expectations for the Nintendo store, but they were playing the Mario Sunshine OST, and they had a Metal Mario plushie -- not just generic swag from the most popular or recent games
And unexpectedly, a Cotopaxi store! Mine's doing just fine, though

Cars

I have to check my notes from 2019, but the famous Kiyamachi Street was… a rat-run for cars. If you walk along the water, you dodge southbound traffic.

The hedges were high here and you can't see the water much anyway, but other sections could've been nicer.
Argh, back in the land of severances...
It was still quite beautiful
I also found my absolute favorite modal filter ever: tiny Torii gates

The ridge of leaves

After coffee and pancakes on the Philosopher’s Path, I made my way up Mt Daimonji. After getting to the top, there was something translated as “spider valley” on the map that I was curious about, so I found a path sliding down a leafy hill and stumbled into the real charm of this area.

Stopping to discuss the finer points of psychogeography with another philosopher
I'm usually more interested in the trail than the views, but I really appreciated how far across all of Kyoto you can see from the east

My new route went along a ridge slippery with leaves. There were sections where once again I felt like I was swimming through them. I know this is not exactly where Miyamoto grew up and got inspiration for Zelda, but that didn’t stop me from humming the Lost Woods theme or returning to a dusty old idea for a game (set in a sort of bijection space between a city and a forest). If I had a place like this so readily accessible, I would heal my knee injuries through conditioning by just natural movement. I need a place like this for my sanity, or inner child, or something.

Sometimes I was on top of the world on a slippy ridge
And other times I was sliding down a valley of leaves
There felt like endless variations of places to explore

The river

Without really trying to, I found two of my old parkour spots from 2019. There must be inherent network structure or a pattern to my wandering. It was bittersweet to find these and remember how much fun I had last time. But now I have the ridge of leaves, and anyway, I’ll find a way to return to jumping/striding someday.

A naturally playful spot
I nearly crossed paths with somebody here, years ago

The place where the Kamo River and Takano River meets has some significance in the Night is Short, Walk on Girl and/or Tatami Galaxy, and I can see why. Slowly walking here at dusk, I experienced my second moment of deep inner stillness.

Two trees who've both wound up in the right place
A choice to linger at
But eventually, it was time to move on
A murder at dusk
Decadently rich omurice to end

Fushimi Inari

I paid another visit to this famous shrine. I didn’t really get much out of it in 2019, but this time I did. It’s a delightful experience of light vs shadow and reptition vs variation. The narrow spaces have a very solemn tone.

Someone asked me how long an optional loop took, and expressed concern that they heard the lights would go off at 8. I thought that was funny – there’s no way they would strand a bunch of tourists in the dark, right? Nearly at the bottom, I stopped to wait with somebody who had rolled their ankle going down the dark steps. I was able to offer tape, but they denied further help. I really hope the rest of their night and trip was alright. Visiting a new place without being able to walk comfortably can be a bit miserable.

Narita (a day)

I had about a half-day in Narita before an early flight to Seoul. I thought it’d just be a transition day and didn’t expect to write about it, but actually… I went for an evening walk along the main shopping street, but there were was too much traffic passing quickly on the narrow street, so I wandered off to a temple and pagoda and found more peaceful nocturnal moments of delight.

Emerging back into the real world, a passage lined with bamboo

It was kind of surreal to emerge from that and find myself in some parody of American suburbia, complete with a stroad and excessive parking.

The idea of a gym named for reacting to consumption of snacks is hilarious

I waded through the parking lot into a mall with the hugest grocery store I’ve seen in Japan, at that perfect time of night when all the deli items get massively discounted.

A geometric parking lot
My hotel room had very old-school electronics

What’s next

Onto Seoul, my last stop!