The Last Glimpses of Beautiful Kyoto
The beauty of Kyoto, Japan’s cultural and spiritual capital, is slipping through the cracks of brutal post-modern urbanization.
Published in
5 min readJun 9, 2022
American Preconceptions of Kyoto
When I would visit my Filipino grandparents’ house, I would hear them speak Tagalog to each other. My lolo (or grandpa) would sit in the patio to shred raw coconut.
Meanwhile, my brother and I would cook Filipino pastries called palitaw with my lola (grandma).
In the summertime, the Japanese side of the family would visit the Pasadena Buddhist Church for the annual o-bon festival. My happi coat, which had been hiding in the back of the closet all year long, would make an appearance.
We would dance around the taiko drums, wishing our ancestors safe passage to the afterlife.
Growing up as an American with Japanese and Filipino ancestry, I noticed these small artifacts in the home and distinct cultural practices within the family.
