Gion

As dusk approached, we walked toward Gion, the Geisha Quarter, and Pontocho Alley. Pontocho alley is a vary narrow street (the first photo) that runs behind the riverside restaurants (in the second photo). See the geisha walking by me in the alley? We only saw a few geisha while we were in Kyoto - and every time one appeared tourists would jump for their cameras. It was sort of a funny scene. I noticed that when a geisha walked down the street, all eyes were on her, you could tell that she knew but she'd look straight ahead, walk quickly, and then disappear suddenly under a curtain through a doorway.

We wanted to eat on an outdoor deck of one of the restaurants along the river. Their entrances are accessed from Pontocho alley. However, we faced several obstacles in finding one. Every restaurant had a menu entirely in Kanji (japanese characters) without pictures and of the few restaurants with english menus many did not have outdoor seating (they were in the basement). The food was also very expensive.
So we gave up on eating outside, and turned our attention to the other side of the alley. I found a place with one English phrase, "We want you!" and a price list "Fried items on skewers", "6 for $12, 8 for $16, 12 for $24". I peaked through the curtain to see about a dozen jovial locals seated around a bar where a handful of chefs were cooking. It smelled good, so we went in. We were greeted with the customary welcome and given seats at the bar. It turned out to be a fabulous choice for dinner - a series of tasty things battered and fried on a stick such as mushroom, shrimp, pork, etc. We watched the chefs prepare everything and then advise us as to which sauce we should pair the item with "soy sauce, peanut sauce, just lemon, or no sauce". It was really fun! We were instructed that when we were full and had a large enough collection of left over skewer sticks we should tell the chefs "stop!" otherwise the food would keep coming. Apparently "stop" wasn't just for us, all of the customers said "stop" in English and made an x-shaped hand gesture when they were done and wanted the check.