The air's always a few degrees colder in Kyoto. I feel a chill as I step off the five-or-six-carriage train at Arashiyama Station. A handful of passengers file out slowly, passing through the ticket wickets. Likewise, I exit the station, and then it hits me. The air's not only colder, but it's cleaner.
Hungry, I slip into a convenience store, but skip out on the prepackaged snacks. I buy a can of hot coffee instead — if anything to keep my hands warm. Checking the chicken scrawl map I drew, I pass a pond with ducks and the adjacent automatic toilet. Arashiyama is nothing like my neighborhood. We sure as hell don't have ducks, let alone automatic toilets.
Several middle-aged men stand on a small bridge, smoking and fishing. Waterfeas swarm. I look over the edge and see another man down below. I turn to man next to me, who's just caught what looks like a sardine.
"You eat that?"
"Yeah," he answers, not even looking up.
I have a feeling he's been asked before.
He unhooks the fish and tosses it into a net that's in a bucket of water. Then, he clicks a green number counter. Guess he eats alot of them.
Smoke billows from a nearby kiosk. I order a miso dango, asking for extra miso.
"Not many customers, huh?"
"No. We're really busy in the spring when the cherry blossoms bloom."
"And the fall too, right?"
"That's right. Do you live in Japan?"
"Yeah, Osaka. First time here, though. Say, I'm trying to find something. Shigureden. Have you heard of it?"
"No. But, cross that bridge over there. Somebody over there should be able to help."
I thank him for the dango and head towards the bridge, eating the chewy mochi. Even in the dead of winter, Arashiyama is breathtaking. Amateur photographers crowd on the bridge and snap digital pictures of mist-covered mountains. Osaka, this ain't.
On the river's edge, men burn wood in oil drums and wood shacks offered boat rides. A moonfaced girl stands near a row of rickshaws, while a young man offers to show a pack of Chinese tourists the sleepy town. Outside pricey restaurants there are sedans with drivers waiting for somebody important.
As far as locations go to celebrate Japanese card games, Nintendo couldn't have picked a better one. Now, if I could just find the damn place.
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