What made Kyoto very loveable was the small streets with unexpected treasures. For example, the shop in Arashiyama which was completely hidden between 2 restaurants. If you walk too fast, you will miss this tiny shop which has all sorts of little ornaments made of silk cocoon. Two obaachan and an ojiisan are tending the shop and kindly wrote kanji on the chimes I bought, with the kanji of my adoptive name (apricot and sun). We had a poetic conversation and he wrote some on the chimes...happiness on a paper.
The other example is the tama bells shop, once again displaying those sparrows on a keg on the main street and pointing to a dark dead end where pottery bells and a flock of cute sparrows wish you good luck.
Today it didn't rain in Kyoto and I walked from the main station along karasuma-dori, up to shijou-dori to end up in teramachi. And again walking to a seemly dead end street took me to a major shopping area.
This is a dangerous town indeed!
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