Kyoto 3/Osaka 1 - CineStill 800T

A roll split between Kyoto and Osaka, highlighting taxis, sushi bars, the best ramen of my life, CineStill 800T shots, ending with Osaka Castle and late-night street scenes.

Back to CineStill we go! This is the last roll of our short Kyoto stay. Half of the photos you are going to see here are in Kyoto, and the other half already in Osaka, including the magnificent Osaka Castle and some sick night shots.

I loaded this film at around 1PM and right after I saw this old school vintage Daihatsu in a garage: click.

We were taking too much subway and I wanted to have some of these shots inside taxi cabs, as I think they are super charming in Japan!

The taxi cabs there are something special, something that connects the chauffeur lifestyle, the white gloves, the doors opening (and closing!) automatically.

The Japanese culture praises a lot the love and caring, and I think the taxi service is an extension of that, when the door opens, it kinda invites you to board in, and honestly, it’s super convenient not having to keep opening and closing the doors. And of course, all cars extremely cleaned.

From the many things I loved about Japan, the sushi bars are certainlly among the top3. I love that you can literally buy ONE sushi and snack it.

Before going to the amazing restaurant in a gallery, I snapped this scene of these two guys, and having them facing back to back caught my attention.

The best ramen I’ve had in my life

It’s lunch time, I was looking for a ramen place to eat. A quick Google search pointed me to a restaurant called ramen yukichi honpo 京都和麺 諭吉本舗, 4.9 stars? In Japan? A restaurant that serves wagyu beef with ramen? Count me in. There was a little wait, that’s ok, the place was cozy and small, I waited 20 minutes and I was in.

When I sit at the bar, I already knew I was about to have something awesome. Wouldn’t you, if you see this in front of you?

In this restaurant, you buy meat by the weight, and you choose the quality, in addition, you can get one bowl of ramen and one free refill if you get the premium meat, which I obviously did, why not?

That guy seemed to be the master chef, and he was cooking the meat, and then searing it with some very cool fire. I think that my round little glasses combined with the Leica M7 let people think I’m some sort of food sommelier for one of these restaurant blogs, or whatever internet shit, because the chef started paying attention about my presence, then he came to me and said “I can do the fire thing as many times you want, until you get the perfect picture”. 🤯

I had the best ramen in my life. The umami had hit me hard. When leaving the restaurant, I understood why in the Japanese culture there are many different ways to say “thank you”. That guy deserved a special “thank you”.

I left the restaurant and in a good American voice volume yelled: “ARIIIGATOOO GOZAIMAAAAAAASSSSS” (with a crescendo and plus emphasis on this last “SSSS”).

They ALL said back “ARIIGATOOOOO GOZAIMAAAAASSU!” back.

Shit, I was walking over clouds without sake!

After leaving, still in shock with the quality of my most recent meal, I walked a little bit and guess what I found? A camera store… Jeez I love Japan.

Some of the films are Japanese, like the Marix. I ended up buying an Amber D100, which I used in Osaka Casle (coming next).

Came back to the hotel at night to sleep, it was a tiring day, we walked a lot, and I had great dreams and a belly full of incredible wagyu ramen.

Osaka, the day after

It’s time to go to Osaka. We got there by Uber. The most money-conscious is to do this by train, but we had 4 large luggages, and it would be a 3 train commute, we preferred getting into a car and enjoying the door-to-door lazy ass service. And also, do you think I do money-conscious shit!? I shoot film…

When we got to the new hotel (the third on this trip so far), I had 10 boxes of CineStill 800T waiting for me at the reception. A friend of mine bought it and delivered to my hotel. Thanks Kimi, you rock man! I still gotta Venmo you.

This was the view from the hotel room, introducing: Osaka Castle!

At night, we explored some more places in Osaka, and I took some pictures until the end of the roll (and day).

This photo was taken at this precise location, and the restaurant’s name you see on the photo is 다코야끼집. This is the perfect scene for the CineStill 800T.

CineStill 800T’s perfect habitat.

Hey, thanks A LOT for reading these! I put lots of effort into this, and if you’ve read it until here, I would like to say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!