It’s my last whole day in Japan and I decide to spend it in Kyoto. I visited a few times since I arrived and I have to say after my first good impression, I was a little turned off. The streets are full of tourists, and it’s big. It’s beautiful that’s for sure, but it takes a long of walking or perhaps train journeying, in order to truly move about the city and see what you want. I didn’t make it to everything, but I don’t feel bad about it. I never saw the Fushimi Inari Taisha and I never walked the Philosopher’s path… but that’s okay. I often miss “must see” destinations when I travel, because those things aren’t always what I’m looking for.
Instead I took the morning slowly, enjoying a matcha while watching the street. It was hot and humid, but without rain… so once I finished my drink I decided to walk around a bit and explore. It didn’t take too long before the rain began. It started in little drops, but soon it was strong. I continued to walk around anyway, taking breaks to make sure that my shoes and bag didn’t get too wet. I knew that it was going to be a long day of rain. As I wandered, the water simultaneously cooling and agitating, I found myself in Gion. It’s apparently the Geisha district and it definitely looks like it’s a little more rich than the other neighbourhoods. Resorts and restaurants found at the end of narrow hallways, identified at the streets edge only by a simple lantern. Small canals snaking through stone laid alley ways, protected on either side by gentle, green overgrowth. It was all stained dark with the rain, while umbrellas were dancing around like colourful dots dripping at the edges.
I saw women in kimonos, carrying little umbrellas, walking quick small steps as their feet and socks began to be soaked in their wooden slippers. I wasn’t sure if these were Geisha or just beautiful tourists walking around in a kimono. I suppose I’m too ignorant to know, but I didn’t dare take photo anyway. Sometimes things should only be seen with the eyes rather than captured on camera. There’s no rule as to when, I think you feel it in the air and you know it. Sometimes not taking photos gives you the chance to enjoy the atmosphere a little more. And I realised that Kyoto is certainly more charming in the rain. Perhaps this city is not as it was all those years ago, but it certainly still retains something that you can only find in story books. There’s something still hanging in the air, still embedded in the walls and buried within the earth that houses Kyoto today… it has a lot of interesting stories to tell. When the rain comes and clears the people away, I can feel it more.
It reminds me of the way in which I’d like to live my life one day. Sitting in a quiet spot of an old city, watching the people outside, busy and running around with all their commitments. In my dream, no one sees me. I’m invisible. The only the that comes to me are words, not spoken by people but spoken by the atmosphere. Whispers, like pieces of a puzzle, that I can put together however I like. It may not be the life of one person, it may be the life of many, but for sure I know I’ll be writing about things that have been lived and are still being lived today. It reminds me of something Swedish author Fredrick Backman said once: being a writer is the best way I know how to get paid for being insane. It may sound a little crazy, but certain places speak to you and inspire you to write. It’s almost irritating, because I know that it’s not me who will write them in Kyoto at least – I leave Japan tomorrow. But maybe I’ll find my own place one day… the one meant for me. And I’ll sit there one dull day writing, and remember Kyoto in the rain.
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