This weekend I went to Kyoto for a couple of days. As usual, it was a surprising and enjoyable taste of Japanese life. I saw some old temples, some old shrines, and a beautiful old garden, way out in the hills. (I'm not going to name it, since this column would, no doubt, influence everyone who reads it to go there en masse and soon it would be just another overvisited tourist spot. Just like the Temple of the Golden Pavilion.) Kyoto is famous in Japan for being the place that all us round-eyes are supposed to go crazy for 'cause if you have some stereotyped idea of classical Japan, you can probably find something to fulfill it or support it here.

Women dressed like geishas walking the streets?
Check.

Old people wearing kimonos and those wooden sandals?
Check.

Quaint little shrines to gods and sprits you never bothered to learn about even though you claimed to be really interested in Japanese culture?
Check.

But there was one thing that was really surprising: The sheer number of amateur photographers taking pictures of foreigners. Specifically, the foreigner I was sightseeing with. Oh, sure, she's a relatively tall (5'8") blonde. But Kyoto is famous in Japan for being the place that all us round-eyes are supposed to go crazy for. At any given time there were at least a dozen girls who fit the general description of "relatively tall blonde" in almost every public area. And perhaps they were all being photographed constantly.

It's interesting what some people find worth preserving in a photograph.