It is said that Kyoto is ideal place to live for Japanese and Venezia is ideal place to live for European. (In fact, most of purchasers who buy high end condominium in Kyotoʼs prime location are the rich of Tokyo.)
In my opinion, Kyoto is the one and only city fit for a lone traveler in the world. In Kyoto there are places and scenery where you can enjoy solitude. A city which has vigorous coffee shop/café of individual management (not chain store like Starbucks) is active and interesting in terms of own culture. There are a lot of nice individual coffee shops/cafés in Kyoto.
My involvement relating to Kyoto started in my middle teen when I drew oil painting in art club of high school. After that, I visited Kyoto so many times and lived there twice. Kyoto is a basin and difference between summer and winter temperatures is large. Its change of four seasons is distinct and it has beautiful nature surroundings. At temples garden which is the best spot for meditation, you can encounter breathtaking scenery.
The philosophy class at the university, professor Eiho Kawara (researcher of Martin Heidegger) said that in ancient Greece the ultimate life of human is ʻTheoriaʼ – the state of doing nothing and just tasting deeply beautiful scenery of this world. When we face beautiful scenery, we are struck by true beauty in front of us. At the same time, we got some nostalgia and grief that this beautiful scenery remains same even after our death. When I rode bicycle on river side road of Kamo river enjoying beautiful scenery, I got that feeling many times.
In this corner, I would like to introduce beautiful site in Kyoto.
(12th centuryʼs Japanese Buddhist monk ex-warrior ‒ Saigyoʼs wrote ʻI wish to die under cherry tree at the time of full blossom early Spring.ʼ My last wish is to die watching beautiful scenery of Kamo river. Then I put the title of ʻDeath in Kyotoʼ. As you might be aware, it come from Viscontiʼs film ʻDeath in Veniceʼ.)
