Kyoto Life

Well we were walking through Kyoto Station, and there was this little 'arty' tent. I caught a glimpse of pottery and pretty art and had to take a look. Inside, there was an old man (with a curiously young face...) doing some very intricate paper cutting. Displayed were detailed scenes of Kyoto, all cut out of paper. So I was looking around and marvelling at his skills, when the old lady running the place with him told Michael that the old man wanted to give him one of his paper cuts. Michael said "oh no...thank you" but then the old man said he'd give it to me. So he got me to write my name (I wrote it in Chinese, so he could kind-of read the characters) and he copied it with a calligraphy brush. Then, he got me to choose a pre-cut picture. I chose a picture of a crane doing a dance or a bow, and he
made a cut-out of my name on that paper.

Then, using the cut-out picture and my name, the old lady painted it on lilac-colored silk! And gave it to me! Free! Nice eh?! Then we took a photo outside.

Michael and I felt really fazed, we weren't used to being given something so nice for free! Under no obligation to give anything back! It was a funny feeling. Happy and bewildered. We wanted to give him something, but we are in his country and didn't have anything to give that wasn't already 'Japanesey'. Oh, I should take a photo of the silk. Will post a photo of it soon.

We finally went to see "Kinkaku-Ji" (the Golden Pavillion). This temple is covered in gold leaf. Probably the most touristy of all temples in Kyoto, most people count this as a "must see" when they visit Japan. So it was kinda odd that Michael and I hadn't gotten around to seeing it in nearly 3 years of living here. Well, here we are. It was golden. It was pretty. It was old. It seemed like more of a tourist trap than anything else.

The "I was Here" photo: