I told Kenji about my favorite things in Kyoto, like eating grilled mochi (pounded rice with a teriyaki sauce on a stick) from a street vendor near Yasaka shrine. I had tried one and walked away eating it. Before I had finished eating it, I wanted another one! Kenji shook his head in surprise. “Are there any other strange addictions you have?” he asked. “Well I truly love umeboshi more than anything,” I said, referring to the pickled ume plum peculiar to Japan. “I eat them all the time. I love ume onigiri, too.”  Onigiri is a sushi rice ball that has an ume in the middle of it and sesame seeds on the outside. “I think maybe you are more Japanese than a Japanese!” said Kenji.  I told him I still didn’t like sashimi, the raw fish so popular there,   “Í do love to go to Nishiki Market. I love seeing all the unusual things they have for sale there. I buy my green tea there.” “I thought Americans were coffee drinkers,” Kenji said. “Not me. I will drink iced coffee, but I hate hot coffee. Inoda was becoming more crowded, and Kenji suggested we go somewhere for dinner. I was enjoying myself so much I agreed without hesitation.

The streets of Kyoto are laid out in a grid pattern, with broad avenues and narrow streets. I remembered my first experience in a taxi coming from Kyoto Station. I couldn’t believe a car could fit down some of those streets, let alone travel at the speed they did while negotiating the narrow streets filled with pedestrians and countless bicycles. Once I had settled in, I had walked all over the city, rarely getting lost due to the way the streets were laid out. Many streets crossing Kawaramachidori and Karasumadori were all named after numbers. Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, etc became Ichijo, Nijo, Sanjo, Shichijo, etc.  I found it easy to get around, and since Kyoto also has a good, though not extensive, subway system as well as a good extensive bus system, I rarely used taxis. They were just too expensive on my limited budget.    

True to his word, Kenji unwrapped my kimono as if I were a present.  It was much less confining than the formal kimonos I had worn before, so I was freed from it more quickly.  He pulled the hair ornament out, and let my hair fall around my shoulders.  I looked at him with a wicked grin and asked, “The shower again?”  He shook his head and bent down to kiss me.  “Perhaps in the morning.”   

I had been busy slipping his clothes off, and we slid into the bed that had been turned down in our absence.  “Look, there’s a chocolate on the pillow.” I unwrapped it, and put it in my mouth where it started to melt.  Kenji was quick to kiss me and help dissolve the chocolate.  He licked the tiny bit remaining on my lips and said, “Delicious.  The chocolate is good, too.”  “Kenji, I think my bad jokes are starting to wear off on you.”  “Tonight was fun, Page.  You make me see things in new ways.  I haven’t gone to Gion festivities for many years.”  I kissed him and told him the night wasn’t over yet, and neither was the fun.