once you notice it, it starts to appear everywhere:
Kyoto station building, a destination in itself:
in a corner outside e cineplex within e station building is a little shop that sells toys, keychains, towels, stationery, etc associated with e characters created by Osamu Tezuka - e most famous of which is Astroboy, who shares e same birthday as e cat! in that section of e station building is a kaiten sushi restaurant that e cat tested one night (cheaper options at Sanjo-Kawaramachi), & Hotel Granvia.
e cat headed up e west end of e building:
sat down at e foot of this christmas tree, & as if on cue music started to play - instrumental versions of familiar Japanese TV drama soundtrack themes, including those from Say You Love Me, Long Vacation, Beautiful Life, Tokyo Love Story & Heaven's Coins. pure magic =)
helped countless Japanese to take their photos at e tree. seems that none realised that e cat is a 'gaikoku-neko'....maybe cos it has a sis who is always chirping 'hai4! chiiiiiii3zu4!'
further & further up e west end:
all e glass & large volume atrium space reminds e cat of Vinoly's Tokyo International Forum building
at every floor there are doors on both sides leading to Isetan (just how huge is this Isetan depato?!) & restaurants.
view of Kyoto blurred by dirty glass panels. Kintetsu railway tracks & south Kyoto as viewed from e top:
arrow marks Atago-san (to be climbed on 16/12) in e northwest, with e little 'bump' at its summit:
back into e frenzy of e station building:
Hanazono University advert 'If I change the whole world changes' - so huge it covers e entire length of e restaurant below:
up e east end of Kyoto station building:
look at e top of e christmas tree....something that e cat is far more used to seeing on e rooftop of mosques & national flags of some Islamic nations
an escalator leads up to e observation deck. there seems to be very little on either side of e escalator so it feels as if you are rising several stories through e sky =)
Kyoto station bus terminal, & e path from e Shiokoji-Karasuma past e bus terminal to Kyoto station. two spots that e cat would frequent many many times in days to come.
taxi stand outside Hotel Granvia - everything here just has to be so particularly neat & organised & punctual & tidy & aligned & in place & perfect. wonder if Japanese have e highest incidence of OCD?
Shiokoji-Karasuma, with e shops, hotels, restaurants, depatos, konbinis, police station, banks, pachinko parlours, offices, McDonald's, Starbucks & traffic lights that play some rather mournful traditional Japanese tune when pedestrians are allowed to cross. e base of Kyoto Tower looks like a steamboat on top of Kyoto Tower Hotel.
for some reason e cat was bent on hunting for e spaghetti bolognaise bento that it has been thinking of since in landed at KIX - after having had a wonderful one from Tokyo's Ueno station in 2002. found a Y390 (this is for PET who wants to know e current price range of konbini bentos) version at e Lawson's & it was more than e cat could finish over a long (2+ hours!) dinner conversation with a Thai hostel mate who lives in Toyota with her Australian husband =))
2 new room mates from Fukuoka checked in - a young housewife 'on holiday from husband' & her 'working lady' friend. got over their initial shock that e cat is not Japanese, & asked in their limited English if e cat drinks. & then promptly opened a 1.25L bottle of green tea so that we could 'kanpai!!' on e floor with glasses from e hostel kitchen =P talked till 11+PM despite e language barrier. & they wanted to know if e Chinese in Singapore hate Japan as much as e PRCs do because of WW2 - e 2 bestselling books in Japan right now are anti-China & an anti-Korea titles.
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