Well, as I imagine.

Kyoto is one of the world’s great walking cities.  Its scale of architecture is welcoming rather than daunting.  The way its river criss-crosses through its old and new sections makes one think.  Gion is a rhapsody of the illicit and the formal.  The new part of town moves at a good, solid pace.

Lunch restaurant was udon at Omen, which is a restaurant near the biggest temples, and it is a place I’ve enjoyed for years.  Simple, good noodles priced at about $12 per person.

Dinner was at Ajiro: I’d thought it would be a formal, Zen ryori kaiseki place, and it turned out instead to be set in someone’s home, in north Kyoto, within a small room where we served a quick succession of delicious vegetables.  These were prepared according to Zen principles of color and method, and it was easily one of the best meals I’ve had in Japan.