Into the Tumult - Gion District

>> Here is magic video

Initially we arrived via bus to Gion, which ended up being further north than Iyer's starting point. This caused us to backtrack a few steps after we reached Gesshin-in. First we used Iyer's writing as a map to navigate through his narrative before we resorted to using various maps. Eventually, when we would approach each landmark, we decided to enter them as opposed to simply viewing them from the outside. One of us also began reading Iyer's words aloud in order to follow his narrative through another sense. We used multiple maps as we navigated through the streets and sites - which ended up making some moments confusing since each map was oriented differently.
Throughout the walk, we were able to identify most of his landmarks. The descriptions of locale and buildings (including the color and scale) were pretty spot on. Although it was hard to tell whether he was talking about this last year or his first experience, we could still follow his narrative. Many of the smells he alliterated to were also identifiable, such as the thick aroma of incense on Nene-no-michi street.
A lot of what we experienced was different from Iyer's experienced. As mentioned before, instead of viewing the locations from afar, we decided to explore them and walk around inside them. Because of the time he visited (Obon in November), the streets on Nene-no-michi were relatively empty. A few people were heard hustling and bustling about, but they were pretty silent for the most part.
We passed the Basho cottage and followed Iyer's direction to Otani cemetary which instantly turned into silence. Unlike Iyer's walk, there were no yukatas, nor children little boys carrying white globes. The long walk up and the silence of the many people gave off an aura of solemnity. For the first time, we felt like we entered a place devoid of tourists. Many of the faces contained sorrow and the large cemetary space towards the east was cut off from viewers.
We backtracked back to Nene-no-michi and followed Iyer's narrative to the large, orange torii he mentioned. And he was right: the modern world roared out at us in a booming cheer of distant, ringing bells and laughter from the people around us. Iyer's writing made some of us believe the physical location seem closer together, when in fact they were quite far apart. We couldn't locate the English sushi shop he mentioned, but we saw Lawson on the street corner.
From the temple on, the jam-packed streets seemed to ooze tourism form the Hello Kitty shops to the Starbucks we passed. Perhaps this was due to it being a Saturday? We also recall seeing a French cafe (Cafe Comme Ca) a bit out of place and quite a surprise. Once we reached Minami-za, the walk along the jam-packed street seemed like such a blur. Some found the walk to be difficult to navigate, but we all found ourselves seeing Iyer's writing as a scavanger hunt. We concluded our walk with a selfie and lunch.