When people who don't know much about Japan, they think of two things: Gadgets and that stereotypical romanticized image of Japan - those old style buildings with the slanted roofs, paper doors with a courtyard of Bonsai tree's. To be blunt, the image they conjur eup is the rural areas of Kyōto: romanticized Japan come to life.The part of Kyōto I visted first was a small town, neighbour to some stunning gardens, shrines and pieces of architecture. What really caught me about Kyōto is that by just walking around the gardens and temples there, you got a real sense of history. There was just this feeling that every building you saw had a story behind it which spanned hundreds of years.
I loved Kyōto, but one of my mates hated the place; because he said it was racist. I didn't witness 'the incident' myself, but he says he walked into a restaurant and a woman cut him the most racist expression ever. So he is in no rush to go back there, unless it's to deface a shrine in faeces. We did all encounter one moment with some school kid's however. The second we stepped out of the train station we saw a bunch of school kids in the middle of the road. They looked bang in our direction and started talking as they cut us various looks which consisted of smiles, smirks and dog like scowls. None of us were fluent in Japanese, but it's easy to tell in any language when people are talking about you. I mean...the kids were hardly subtle. I was too pissed off from the train journies there to care that much. I just stood with my arms folded looking throughly pissed as they talked shit and eventually dispersed. But I can't say this was a racist encounter and it wasn't enough to have me dislike Kyōto, as they represented only a small cross section of the people in the city. I'm not going to dislike the place and proceed to tar every other Kyōto born person with the same brush.
There are many words to describe Kyōto, but one that comes to mind most frequently is beautiful. I'd love to see this place in spring when the cherry blossom's are in bloom. Most of the pictures I took were in Kyōto and I wish I'd taken more. It's a shame I didn't get to spend more time in Kyōto and really look around. It would've been cool to have seen Nintendo HQ, but it gives me something to do the next time I visit.