Birthday in Kyoto

Written and photographed by Annalise Reinhardt

This year, I spent my birthday in Kyoto, Japan. It rained all day that day. My love was laying feverish in bed from the black mold on the ceiling and ancient shadows living in between the sliding doors of our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). We had booked it on the cheap, and initially, it was perfect: The inn was nestled in a traditional neighborhood between the sun-dappled canal and the Kamo River, appearing illuminated with music, so infinite and glorious. I went out to find some medicine for my ailing partner. At the same time, my friend from Tokyo came to visit and we met in a neighborhood cafe. He helped me choose a box of cold and flu pills out of what seemed to be a wall of hundreds of neon medicine boxes. We later sat next to the window and caught up as we watched the rain paint everything grey and blue. On that day, I did not see as many bicycles out and about.

Once we were all together, we traveled through the city, and I photographed the light, paper offerings hanging from the beams of shrines, and the abundance of lush plants facing the streets outside residents’ homes. We spent a week there in the often nostalgic, autumnal harvest month of October. This city was a mood, a feeling, a memory, a dream. We walked along the river one day and watched young students skipping stones and playing in the water. It was not a holiday for the city’s citizens, but it felt like it could have been. Families and couples picnicked and played music, and the river washed over everyone’s minds. I could not describe this place in any other way but by photographing its wind, light, pale colors, and the memory of gentle smiles on bicyclists passing us and bowing their heads as we stood aside, our paths crossing in the darkness underneath the railroad overpass.

The Author
Annalise Reinhardt (b. 1985, New York) is a photographer, art educator, and ESL teacher living in Gwangju, South Korea. Annalise seeks to engage with experiences of creative expression, vulnerability, and transcendence, and creates collaboratively with others through the mediums of photography and video. Annalise completed the Full-Time Certificate in Documentary Studies program at the International Center of Photography in 2008 and graduated with a BFA in arts practices from Portland State University in 2014.