Temptation in Kyoto

As obese time shuffled forward, cheeseburgers continued being built atop the grill three meters in front of me. I had already eaten meat dumplings from the Family Mart. Delicious ‘Nikuman’ cost just over a dollar, so I always get two. But even with a full stomach, I had such an urge to buy and devour one of the burgers. I was just outside of a temple on a narrow walking path where there stood tent-vendor shops on both sides selling lots of tasty looking, tasty smelling things. The air was blanketed in the warm steaming smells escaping each colorful stall. Elsewhere, the air was cold; it was night. I imagined the juice from the burger falling onto my tongue with the bread, the lettuce, cheese, the ketchup, the warm mayonnaise, the hot center. I would do it, I decided, watching three couples share great, giant cheeseburgers underneath a lamppost. But my stomach would punish me, I knew. If I dropped something so large into my system now, I would keel over and, instead of becoming like a sponge to devour the lively night, I would be promptly searching everywhere for a bathroom (or anywhere secluded) and wouldn’t find either. Reality stood like a high gate between me and the burger stall with the busy cooks making more burgers making more smells. Things had turned out so great: I was in Kyoto on an adventure with a happy stomach. But for a moment, I couldn’t imagine walking away. Then finally, and suddenly, I did. Walking up the path again, away from the little pancake balls and roasted hotdogs on sticks, I caught a first glimpse of the illuminated center of the temple between the bodies of two people higher up on the road. In full, it was a big stage walled in by white, electric paper lamps. To the left of it, people prayed in front of a darkened room filled with gold, shaking giant ropes that hung from above to sound big tin capsules with metal pieces inside. The sound was like that of a drawer of silverware being removed and shaken. Walking back with still enough money to buy a burger, I got away again and walked for a long time around the district of Kiyomizu temple.