We’re leaving tomorrow (well in a few hours, really) and I just finished packing. I am so excited to go back to Kyoto. Earlier this week, I was reflecting and thinking about the neighborhood my host family lives in, the Life supermarket next to the Kamo River. A supermarket might seem boring, but first, supermarkets are fascinating, and anyway it’s more about the nostalgia of a certain built environment. I, of course, also miss my runs along that section of the Kamo, with everyone looking at me funny for wearing shorts in 50 degree weather (they clearly had never been to Williamstown!).
Most of my experience of Kyoto revolves around its (extremely beautiful) built environment plus interactions with a few local Kyotoites. I am therefore particularly excited to expand my experience of Kyoto by getting to meet the artisans we will interview, who have very different lifeways than my host parents or my Senseis or Japanese college students or even the tennis playing salarymen I met my last time in Kyoto. It is always fascinating to learn about how more people who live in a city inhabit it, and to think about the coexistence of so many ways of being in one space. All cities are this way, but Kyoto holds a special place in my heart; both the people and the infrastructure seem to enjoy contradiction.
The Kamo and I will be reunited soon, and I cannot wait.
