Kyoto is much smaller than Tokyo, but it does have its own version of shopping districts. Teramachi and Shin-kyogoku are two parallel covered streets which seem to go on forever, connected to each other by short alleys so that they form a single complex. The complex is usually crowded with young people.

I find this sort of disturbing. The happy crab is sitting down to a crab dinner. Except that he is sitting in the bowl, so maybe he doesn’t realize that he is the dinner.

This shopping complex has a Shinto shrine…

…that features cows.

You can buy fortunes from a animatronic vending machine.

The sign by the chouzuya shows the proper way to purify yourself before prayer.

It should be read right-to-left like a manga:

1. Hold the dipper in your right hand and pour some water over your left hand.
2. Hold the dipper in your left hand and pour water over your right hand.
3. Pour some water into your cupped palm; transfer it to your mouth; rinse and spit on the ground.
4. (Not shown.) Tilt the dipper so the remaining water will flow over the handle, thus purifying it for the next person.

This store looks familiar. Or maybe not…

Wherever there’s a shrine you will probably also find a Buddhist temple.

Whoops. This shopping complex has two temples.

(Actually this is a fairly normal concentration of shrines and temples for an urban area this size.)

Of course you could always stop for a drink at a holy coffee shop.

The Colonel seems to have gone native.

The space by the fountain previously occupied by the “free hugs” guy has now been taken over by an aspiring girls singing group.

All Entries For This Trip.