Encounters of the Third Kind

April 10th 2017

09:15, Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto

I'm climbing up the stairs to the entrance of the temple when I notice someone calling out repeatedly from the left — "Hai Hai Hai". It tales a few seconds for me to realize that the group of schoolgirls walking past me isn't saying "Hai" as in "yes" but "Hi" as in "Hi". Well, then: "Hi!" — They walk past without a response. I move on, not sure if they even meant me, marvelling at the temple architecture.
In the shadow of a pagoda, I suddenly paranoid: There seems to be muffled whispering following me around, but I can't spot anything out of the ordinary.

Finally, an old man approaches me — Can we take a picture with you? — Okay, does he mean a picture with me or does he just want me to take the picture? I thought this was different than China.

Turns out he did mean with — and besides him are the school kids from before: Three girls, three body, somewhere around high school age.
The guide of the group who approached me collects the girl's cameras as we move into position: The boys to my left kneel down and strike some cool poses, I'm awkwardly standing in the middle. We have to do it three times, explains the guide, and proceeds to take one picture with each camera.
He asks me where I come from, translates the answer, and tells me that he's a taxi driver from Kyoto and that he is showing some students from a coastal city around the temple today.
Finally, he explains: You very handsome [silence] ...she said.
*points to one of the girls who would probably like to curl up and die right now*
Now there's some shaking hands (boys only, the rest is still standing around a bit awkwardly) and my 'nice to meet you' gets back an almost correct 'meetyu niceu'.
Oh, right: To complete our encounter, the wingman taxi driver waves over to me as I spot them in the distance a while later. Real nice people, I tell you.
Side-note: Odd looking Caucasians taking odd looking pictures would be a cool photo series, too. At least I've never seen a Japanese person in trekking sandals, wide functional clothing and a sun hat taking pictures of vending machines with their compact camera.