In the past two weeks all the Surutto Kansai prepaid train passes I’ve bought have Kyoto themes, so I scanned them for you. The orange glow of paper lanterns through the koshimado (slatted windows) in machiya in Gion is really lovely. Kyoto vegetables like kamonasu are really important in Kyoto cooking like kaiseki-ryori or shojin-ryori. Kyoto was considered far from the sea in centuries past, so meals usually did not feature fresh fish from the sea, but rather dried ones carried over the mountains from the Maizuru coast in the north and river fish. Thus, sushi is not really Kyoto cuisine, but people do go out for sushi when they come to Kyoto, I suppose because it feels traditional and it has that “special occasion” feel.