Dreaming of Kyoto Again

Eric Stephen Bias

Japan through the eyes of a novice traveller, circa 2013.

As the nights get colder, even during a mild-ish winter as this one is shaping up to be, I find myself thinking fondly of a stint studying abroad in Kyoto, Japan several summers ago. I had never been abroad (unless you count the Canadian side of Niagara Falls) and I haven’t been since — the resulting debt load bars me from any trips more far-flung and adventurous than a few days Upstate. So, for now anyway, I’m left to reminisce.

As a travel virgin, the impulse to compare every new experience gained in Japan to life back in the States was super acute. I soon developed a list of Kyoto’s charms, quirks and inconveniences that I could refer back to for the benefit of interested ears back home. So, for your reading pleasure, I present some notables of Kyoto from the eyes of a sorta New Yorker.

Japan smells.

(But not necessarily in a bad way.)

There’s something about the heavy, summertime air in Kyoto. Everyday odors and aromas are sharper, more noticeable. But no matter where you are in town, from the twisty alleyways of Gion, to deep in the city’s center, I guarantee that your nose will be graced by at least one of three aromas, if not all of them at once: cigarette smoke (see below), incense, and scooter exhaust, a combo that is nothing if not uniquely Japan.

I’ll take that over the notorious “hot garbage smell” of a New York summer any day.

History reigns supreme.

Kyoto is known as the old, imperial capital of Japan, and is thus a city saturated in history and culture. Recognizing Kyoto’s one-of-a-kind beauty and significance, US Secretary of War Henry Stimson thankfully refused to target Kyoto for atomic bombing raids during World War II. The area boasts over a thousand temples, as well as a whopping 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The first time you notice the sun reflecting off the “golden pavilion,” Kinkaku-ji, or are lucky enough to witness the monks praying silently at the majestic Kyomizu-dera high above the city, there are a precious few places in the world that can compare. But while Kyoto is a city that weaves modernity through a foundation built on the distant past, there’s a nostalgic atmosphere that recalls a decade or two ago rather than a few centuries. For example…

Lighters up.

Being a relatively smoking friendly country for years, the Japanese government has recently taken steps to reduce smoking rates in favor of better public health, but the country remains pretty accommodating regardless. Japanese restaurants still have dedicated smoking sections, something I haven’t seen in the US since the Shoney’s I ate at when I was seven. It’s quite easy to spot vending machines for cigarettes, and my school, Ritsumeikan University, as well as many other places, even offers glass-walled, fan-ventilated public smoking booths. In New York, we just ban it.

Kid glove treatment, even on the bus.

As the service industry continues to eclipse other sectors of the economy in the industrialized world, customer service is naturally a big deal in Japan. Everyone from department store clerks to supermarket checkout girls exude politeness and maintain a laser-sharp attention to the smallest of the shopper’s needs. Japanese cashiers even have a perfected, super-efficient procedure for giving customers back change after a transaction, designed in such a way as to be the least disruptive.

This level of attentiveness isn’t limited to the shopping mall. Bus drivers offer a word of caution to passengers before every impending turn and potential bump in the road that they encounter along their route. At each stop, they personally thank riders as they exit with a quick “Arigatogozaimasss,” slurred with routine, but polite nonetheless. It seems strange at first, but once you board a NYC bus only to be met with a driver’s gruff, apathetic demeanor (if that much), you can’t help but miss it.

First world annoyances.

But on the other hand, Japan is not without little annoyances. Free WiFi in Kyoto is a rarity away from Starbucks, so unless you pay exorbitant overseas data rates your smartphone is pretty much useless. There is still a place in the world for paper maps!

Similarly, Japan’s economy is still very cash-oriented. A reliance on physical money for most under-10,000 yen transactions (about $100) is rather inconvenient for someone used to swiping through life with a Visa card, not to mention that the heavy dependence on coinage can be (figuratively) heavy on the wallet. A small consolation at least is that tax is automatically included in the price of everything — what you see is what you pay, which takes away a lot of the hassle and worry when you find yourself digging around in your pockets for one more five yen coin so you don’t have to break a five-hundred yen one.

Arcade heaven.

It is no secret that video games are hugely popular in Japan, but the Japanese also have an appreciation for arcades that sadly seems to have been written off in the US due to the popularity of the home console. Despite being the country where most of those consoles originated from, arcade game developers in Japan have reached a level of innovation a decade ahead of anything in the States.

The Namco Wonder Tower on Kawaramachi Street in downtown Kyoto, for instance, boasts six entire floors full of crane games, pachinko, purikura (aka horrifying photo booths) and of course, video games. It’s pretty all-inclusive: younger patrons gravitate to traditional fighting games and not-as-traditional Yu-Gi-Oh-style trading card games, and older folks cluster around the pachinko parlors and virtual horse racing. But in an innovative melding of the physical and the digital, most of these games have incorporated the internet into the equation: the cards for instance are each embedded with RFID chips so that you can have physical duels with the computer or another player online, and as for the horse racing sims, players micromanage their “horses’” stats in real-time on oversized, iPad-like consoles not out of place on Wall Street. They even have a Gundam simulator. A GUNDAM SIMULATOR.

Family values.

Family Mart. What can I say that adequately sums up the sheer awesomeness of Family Mart? A conbini (read: convenience store) in the vein of 7 Eleven (which actually is one of Family Mart’s main competitors), I was blessed enough to have one on the same block as my modest apartment building, and for many a night it was the source of my breakfast, lunch, dinner, entertainment, office supplies, and even booze. They have every miscellaneous sundry a student may need, from pens to laundry detergent to cheap 100 yen cans of sake to high-quality, ready-made TV dinners. Some offer ATMs that accept American debit cards, and won’t charge a crazy fee to use them either.

Is this terribly different than a 7 Eleven in the States? Maybe not, but will they offer to heat up your chicken carbonara for you upon checkout? YES.

Cat cafes.

As a cat lover, I have decided that words fail a worthy description of the cat cafe phenomenon, places where one can drink tea and eat sweets in close proximity to adorable furry creatures possessing various levels of animosity toward human interaction. So ask yourself, does any of this appeal to you?




If so, Japan is indeed the place for you.

New York actually has a cat cafe of its own, Meow Parlour on Hester Street. Bear in mind though that to get around New York’s stricter health codes, patrons will need to make a quick trip around the corner to the separate Meow Parlour Patisserie, and then bring their edibles in for the full cat cafe experience.

Biiru, or “Biiru?”

I can’t speak for anywhere else in Japan, but in Kyoto, drinking in public is legal (in moderation, of course). One warm evening, I was openly strolling downtown, taking in the rich spectacle of the Gion Matsuri with a “highball in a can” (sounded good at the time), when I happened to cross by a police encampment. Not one batted an eye.

Or maybe I mistook what I was drinking to be less benign than it seemed (it certainly tasted so). The Japanese place a high importance on social drinking, therefore to accommodate teetotalers with socially-acceptable alternatives, there is a wide market for non-alcoholic beer. Even though I wouldn’t knowingly drink it, I can faithfully say that, having bought some once by accident at a conveyer belt sushi restaurant, it tastes no different from regular beer.

This list isn’t meant to be a best and worst of Kyoto, nor of Japan proper, by any means. Rather, I wanted to convey in a few examples how immensely rewarding a trip to Japan can be. It can be strange, yet charming too, especially after your first time hearing Auld Lang Syne being played softly over an Osaka shopping center loudspeaker totally without irony on a warm August night.



Similar Posts by The Author:

Leave a Reply