【明報專訊】It was a rainy afternoon — 4:30 pm to be exact — in Gion (祇園), the historic sector of Japan's old capital, Kyoto. Lined with wooden machiya (merchant houses) and known for geishas, the district has never failed to charm visitors with its authentic legacy from the past. Yet, as a modern traveller with a rumbling stomach, I found my aesthetic sensors tumbling — all I wanted was food after a day of temple- and mountain-hopping, but it was nowhere in sight.