Pontocho and Kiyamachi: the lantern lanes
Kyoto's narrowest dining alley, a cherry-lined canal, and machiya restaurants after dark. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Pontocho north entrance
Start at the alley's top end, off Sanjo. The mouth is so narrow you could miss it; look for the painted plover crest, the symbol of *Pontocho*. Step in and the city's noise drops away in two paces.

2. Pontocho-dori
The lane itself — a single ribbon of lanterns, *machiya* (wooden townhouses) turned restaurants, and discreet doorways. Walk it slowly south; read the menus by all means, but the pleasure is just the dark, glowing length of it.

3. Pontocho Kaburenjo
The geiko theatre at the alley's south end, where the *Kamogawa Odori* dances are staged each spring. A solid 1920s block among the timber; you can't usually go in off-season, but it anchors the lane's other end.

4. Kiyamachi-dori and the canal
Cross over to *Kiyamachi-dori*, the street that runs along the *Takase-gawa* (the Takase canal). Cherry trees lean over the water the whole way; in early April this is the most-photographed block in the centre and worth the crowd.

5. Takasegawa Ichi-no-funeiri
A restored boat-turning basin off the canal, with a wooden barge moored as it would have been when this waterway carried goods up from Fushimi. A two-minute history lesson among the bars.

6. Kiyamachi south, toward Shijo
Follow the canal down to Shijo, where Kiyamachi turns loud and modern — *izakaya*, neon, the after-work crowd. End here for a drink and the contrast, or cut west to Kawaramachi for the Hankyu line home.

Pontocho and Kiyamachi: the lantern lanes