Pepsi Twisties, Daikakuji, Tanobata, Unintentional Drinking

Let’s kick this entry off by talking about things I put in my mouth over the last week.

First and foremost comes one of the more interesting snack tastes I’ve tried. I’m talking, of course, about these…

Now, in case you can’t tell, these are Pepsi-flavoured Twisties.

That’s not a typo. They are, for lack of a better description, very odd. Take the texture of a Twistie. Add caramel flavouring. Add sherbet. Add salt.

So, when you bite into a Pepsi-flavoured Twistie, there’s literally a fizzy sensation. I took them into work for people to try. The first question, as you may well be asking the very same question now is…

“Why did you buy these?”

The answer to that question is…

BECAUSE

I’LL

NEVER

GET

TO

TASTE

THEM

ANYWHERE

ELSE

IN

THE

WORLD,

EVER.

I will now claim that unintentional drinking is in fact when you visit the same bar fives times in one week. I actually only intended to go there once. The other four times were just by chance, and not some planned event.

On Sunday night, I went to this bar to unwind after my week of work. I met a young woman there who said she’d take me to another bar on Wednesday, but we’d meet at this particular bar first.

On Monday night, Greg decided that he wanted to get a drink at this bar before we headed out for dinner. Later Monday night, at another bar, I befriended three Melburnians and decided that I would show them Kyoto on Tuesday night because they were due to depart on Thursday.

So Tuesday night, I took the Melburnians to this particular bar for a drink or three. Then on Wednesday, I met the young woman there who said she’d show me another bar, only it turned out that bar was closed on Wednesday, so we just stayed at this particular bar.

And then on Saturday night, another woman texted me saying something to the effect of, “I’m at this particular bar. Come and drink!” so I did.

Of the five times I went, I returned home drunk once. That’s a very low 20% on the DATV scale (Drunkeness-Attained-To-Visit).

The rest of this entry is going to consist of many pictures. Tuesday was a particularly picture-heavy day, as a matter of fact.

Nakamura-san and I took the bus out to Arashiyama (which I visited earlier in the year) but there’s a temple out there that hasn’t been touched in centuries, apparently. The name of this temple is Daikakuji.

I highly recommend visiting Daikakuji if you plan on visiting Kyoto. It’s about a 40 minute trek by bus out to this particular location, but the temple and its grounds are quite spectacular and very peaceful. Oh, and that sign above is pretty hilarious. Mind you, someone almost did take my shoes, because they had moved from the place I had put them in. Who takes someone else’s shoes, seriously?

After the visit to Daikakuji, Nakamura-san and I decided to get some dinner. Now, I may have mentioned this place before. There’s a kushikatsu (deep-fried stuff on sticks) place that has Happy Hour between 5pm and 8pm. You can get beer for 250Y and 15 sticks of various kushikatsu for 1,000Y.

Four beers for $10AUD (approx.) what kind of Australian WOULDN’T take advantage of that?

Tuesday. 6:30pm. I make my way to the Tanobata Festival on Horikawa. It’s commonly referred to as the ‘light up’ festival or ‘Milky Way’ festival. You basically take a 30-minute stroll alongside a small river that runs along Horikawa Street. Along the way, there’s all manner of light-inspired artworks to check out.

Another highly recommended festival if you’re around Kyoto at the right time. Onto the visual onslaught!

Right near that particular piece of artwork was a bicycle hanging from a tree. The back wheel was constantly spinning and it had a number of different coloured transparent pieces of plastic, so it gave off a slight kaleidoscopic effect. I’m telling you about this because I’m not convinced that the picture I took does it justice.

Further along the path was this display…

You may have noticed the small blue lights below the hanging Christmas-tree-esque lights. Well, you could actually buy these small blue lights at the start of the river walk and then drop them into the river at the end of your journey, providing more light for the festival.

More art, did you say?

I think I stood at this particular section of the walk for a couple of minutes trying to get a great shot of it. Again, taking photos on a smartphone with a (now severely) cracked screen probably wasn’t the best method. But this festival, like so many in Japan, was packed. Here’s a close-up of the parchment.

Due to the light surrounding the parchment, the blue lights that people had dropped into the river turned white as they floated on by.

The most impressive part of this particular festival, however, was yet to come. You’re walking along and then you’re ensconced by this…

So you walk along, and the lights start to change. Smaller lights act like shooting stars flying across the sky above your head. The lights change again.

Amazing. The patterns remain the same, essentially, but the colours and order change every so often. Here’s another shot, zoomed in slightly.

Stunning. I could’ve stayed in this particular section for hours. Upon reaching the end, I was asked a series of questions by one of the organisers. They assumed I was a tourist and were hoping for some raw data. The look of disappointment on this guy’s face when I informed him I was actually living in Kyoto was priceless.

It’s also fireworks season at the moment. I’ve yet to make it to any firework displays yet, and I’ve missed at least four that I know of in the past week.

FOUR. IN A WEEK.

That bring this entry to a close. Here’s one more picture.