mutelife

It was time to say goodbye to Kyoto. We had one last day in town, and the goal was to make it count.

Committed to walking around more than usual — regardless of the hot weather — we left our place as early as possible and headed to Maruzen to buy some stationery. And when I say “some” I mean an inordinate amount.

I didn’t take pictures of it, but got some of my favorites: Pilot Frixion, Kuru Toga mechanical pencils, and Tombow Fudenosuke, as well as some extra refills.

Also found a couple of new ones that I immediately fell in love with: Pilot Acro evo, and Sakura Ballsign iD. The latter comes in all sort of interesting black variations, such as Green Black (think Matcha) and Brown Black (think Hochija).

Sidenote: check below for the real Matcha and Hochija drinks.

For lunch we went to Ichiran. They’re famous for two things. One is their incredible tonkotsu broth, which paired with their firm and super thin noodles makes for the perfect ramen. The second thing they’re famous for is having individual booths.

It’s not uncommon for people to have meals by themselves, so I guess this removes some weirdness of having to share the same table or space with others. You are required to interact with absolutely no one — you get a ticket from a machine at the front, sit down at your booth, and someone hidden behind a blind in your booth exchanges your ticket for your order.

In essence they cater to extreme introverts, which are abundant in Japan. As a nice side-effect, this is cool novelty for tourists to try and talk about. Don’t let these tricks fool you though, their ramen is legit, and they even have instant ramen kits that are almost as good as in store.

After lunch we grabbed some pancakes for the kids at a nearby café, and walked it all off to our next stop in Gion.

Hidden in plain sight in the middle of Gion is Chugen-ji, a Buddhist temple that we never noticed before. The streets were packed with people and it was like a blessing to spot this tiny temple, go in, and explore it a bit. It’s tiny, but often this is the case with interesting things in Japan.

We then strolled to Yasaka-jinja and Maruyama park, where we’d been 10 years before. It’s interesting to see old photos of it and compare it to the more recent ones. Perhaps it’s because the new memories are fresher, but I do prefer to look at older photos because they invoke other feelings. Or maybe I’m just getting worse at taking photos.

After a brief stop at Shiroka to chill a bit and rehydrate, we slowly made our way through the crowded Ninenzaka.

And then, there it was. Kiyomizu-dera is all its glory.

To me this is most special place in Japan. A sacred temple for millions, but it also represents so much to me on a level that I can’t even begin to explain.

These days the entire temple is so much more crowded — just look at the old photos — but there’s an innate energy in that place that makes everything else go away. It allows me to ignore all the bustle, recenter, and focus on what’s important. Inward.

We sat there for few long minutes, just taking it all in, and embracing the zen.