Kyoto is, as I have mentioned many times before,  a fantastic and unique city. Life in Kyoto takes place in two overlapped temporal realms. There are two coexisting realities of past and future and the present seems to be hanging between them.

Futuristic architecture in Kyoto Station – 2004

In some places you are two steps away from the world of tomorrow (futuristic architecture, the Star-Wars-like Kyoto Station, and cyberpunk scenery of overcrowded streets, cars, and neon lights) to yesterday’s world full of peace and shamisen music, cherry blossoms and sometimes trees that appear to be on fire due to the color of their leaves, either in the courtyard of a temple or in the neighborhood of the Geisha, ​​or in any garden of the imperial palace. And somehow, you, the passerby witness how at the interface of yesterday’s tomorrow, the tumultuous today is born.

One such a place for creating «the today » , sprung from the collision of yesterday with tomorrow, is represented by the Yasaka Shrine gate. On one side is Shijō-dōri Street (Fourth Avenue) with everything that means modern or even super modern city.

On the other side of the gate is another world: the courtyard of the Shinto shrine from the heart of the Gion district, Yasaka

The main building of the Yasaka Shrine

Shrine (八 坂 神社, Yasaka-jinja), formally known as Gion Shrine (祇 園 神社, Gion-jinja).

This courtyard contains several specific buildings and has in the center a wooden stage where important events of the city take place, such as important ceremonies of the Gion Matsuri festival or the New Year’s events, or sometimes a wedding in its most ancient Japanese custom.

After passing by these buildings and through the courtyard, your journey “in yesterday” continues to another row of shrines, or if not, through Maruyama Park.

The very famous100 years old cherry tree in Maruyama Park in Kyoto.

In the spring, this is the place where at the bottom of a secular cherry tree, the Hanami cherry festival party is held. The celebration is actually the “Japanese spring picnic” in honour of cherry blossoms, sakura. From there, you can go on through small and winding streets, between the walls of wooden houses engulfed by  the smell of tea and the sounds of shamisen. You arrive at a certain point to a sloping tourist street, full of specific souvenir shops. And so, imperceptibly, from store to store, you reach a new gate at the base of the Kyomizudera temple. From here a beautiful panorama of “the tomorrow” Kyoto can be seen, with Kyoto Tower and Kyoto Train Station standing out.

Geisha in front of Kyomizudera temple looking to the city with Kyoto Station tower visible in the distance.

If you are a little lucky, the yesterday vibe can be just next to you, admiring through Geisha eyes the same landscape from other times. And so, a little tired, you would probably sit on the steep stairs to catch your breath and close your eyes, trying to distinguish « the today » from the amalgam of yesterday and tomorrow you have been bumping into continuously. You may open your eyes from the reverie and  the dying colours of dusk complete the worlds that you have discovered in the daylight with different nuances. That’s how you are under the impression that the way back is different from way forward or maybe you even think it was just a dream.