Yoiyama

At 8:00 in the morning, Abbas Kiarostami's A Taste of Cherry was playing on TV. I don't know who would want to start their day with that.

I'm leaving for Kyoto to be there for the highlight of Gion Matsuri, the parade of floats. Dragged all my luggage to the train station again and bought a tasty ekiben (boxed lunch) on the platform. In Kyoto, I bought a 1000 yen Traffica Kyo Card, which lets you use the subway and buses with a declining balance card. I dropped my luggage off at the Kyoto Royal Hotel & Spa and wandered around the Teramachi shopping area.

Later, I went to the Tourist Information Centre located on the 9th floor of the JR Isetan mall which is attached to Kyoto station (near the grand staircase). What an awkward place to put it. There's another tourist info place on the main floor of the train station, but it doesn't have any English literature.

All day long, men and women were dressed in traditional yukatas while going about their normal business. Seeing them smoke cigarettes, ride bicycles and send text messages struck me as somehow anachronistic.

Had dinner at Kyoto Dining, a modern restaurant. On the walls are funky abstract paintings with scrawled proverbs or cheeky sayings.

In the evening, I planned to visit the floats that were on display in the streets. I had heard that many families open their homes on this night and display heirlooms, but didn't really know where to look.

Lots of street vendors selling all kinds of grilled food but I don't really enjoy that kind of thing, although those octopus balls were really tempting. Lots of trash strewn about too, didn't seem to be a lot of garbage cans around.