30 Oct 2022 4 min read season one

Avoid Kyoto, He Said

Day 11
Kyoto, 34,780 steps, 28.2 kilometers

Hello from Kyoto!

Big city energy here, most definitely. Everything’s more densely packed. Hotels on top of inns on top of ryokans. Coffee chains and franchise restaurants. Shopping malls. Tour buses parked in front of every major landmark. Crowds. Traffic. Rush.

What a contrast! From population 66,123 to 1.5 million. And in a couple of days, back home, it will be 7.5 million (but shrinking).

In planning my trip, I tried to adhere to Kevin Kelly’s excellent advice:

On vacation go to the most remote place on your itinerary first, bypassing the cities. You’ll maximize the shock of otherness in the remote, and then later you’ll welcome the familiar comforts of a city on the way back.

Like… almost. Kind of failed the first part, with my starting point being Tokyo. But does it really count if I was there only for a moment and partly for work? The real trip started in Matsumoto.

But now, in Kyoto, I’m being eased back into big city life. And at the same time, I'm failing to follow Craig’s suggestion to avoid this city.

Tourist traps

Craig’s right, though. Kyoto for sure is feeling the brunt of tourism. Today, I woke up at 5:30 am only to be able to take pictures of the Fushimi Inari Shrine gates without any people getting into the frame.

Tourists everywhere! — complained the tourist. Well, you have only yourself to blame, don't you — if you’re stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.

I visited a few postcard spots today, with a couple or so still left on my list. Will likely tick them off tomorrow.

And that’s the thing about my stay in Kyoto. So much more than in other cities, this one feels like going through a to-do list.

Or maybe it’s not Kyoto’s fault. Maybe it’s my non-vacation habits slowly creeping in as my trip comes to an end.

Thankfully, it’s not all just postcards and landmarks and school trips and couples taking (pre-)wedding photos. If you look hard enough, there are hidden gems to be found — like this coffee shop on Teramachi-dori, Mahayana.

Inside, just one U-shaped counter. Ten seats around it. In the middle of everything — the store’s owner. He’s probably in his 80s, or thereabouts. His customers are not much younger, either. This feels like one of the shrinking number of places where I still can significantly bring down the age average just by showing up.

The air is thick with cigarette smoke. All of the customers at the counter are either smoking or vaping. And all of them seem to be regulars — they chat with each other, and with the owner, like a group of old friends. Seems about right — the board on the wall is overflowing with coffee tickets.

The owner is an absolute gentleman. He tries to chat with me a few times, despite me not understanding a word he says. Still tries (and succeeds) to make me feel welcome.

It’s near closing time and everyone just got a free refill of coffee from whatever was left in the siphon. Come 5:30 pm, one of the customers(!) flips the sign on the door — from Open to Closed.

I leave, grab some dinner, and crawl back to my hotel room. I’m completely exhausted. Covered most ground in one day today in this entire trip. Time to rest.