It was still early when that eve of the equinox bit of the festival was finished so I got on a bus which almost inevitably took me to the station and I descended into the basement to have some dinner.  As far as the eye can see along this corridor it is lined on both sides with restaurants.  I chose one and had some lovely grub and a beer.  I was seated at the counter arrangement which is very common in Japanese eateries.  My righthand neighbour, also a foreigner and who ordered three times as much as I did, had her phone propped up against the wall and was holding a video conversation with a chap who was also eating a meal.  My surreptitious glances weren't enough to tell whether he was in a different time zone having breakfast or just in a different part of this restaurant.

Not yet ready for bed I snapped the Kyoto tower and went off to Gion, proclaimed as the magic nightime experience not to be missed.

I found Gion by night warm and quite lively but not stretching to magic.  I don't know if these girls were offering anything magic and the fact that the picture is not in focus doesn't help but I didn't stay long.

Most of the pictures I took were out of focus, perhaps illustrating the slightly equivocal nature of the nightlife to be enjoyed there.

What are these characters up to for example?  But I did get some that make it look pretty.

I'm going out to have some breakfast now so festival phase two will have to wait a little longer.