KYOTO -- Enter the little shop in Kyoto's Higashiyama Ward and the world unfolds through sound -- the sounds collected around the world, such as ice melting off a glacier, snarling Bangkok traffic, beetles mating, a rhinoceros breaking wind and the silence of a Patagonian plain interrupted by a flying insect.
Such sounds were among the repertoire that an elderly American couple tuned in to recently at the shop Otokinoko (literally, sound mushrooms) on Ninenzaka street, one of the main tourist approaches to Kiyomizu Temple.
Visitors can sample some of the 52 different CDs and CD-ROMs, each offering four to five sound categories, by donning headphones attached to mushroom-inspired units equipped with video screens. The CDs, videos and DVDs range in price from 600 yen to 3,900 yen.