Down a dog-leg alleyway off a nondescript stretch of busy Shijo Avenue, and up one of the narrowest flights of stairs I have ever climbed, I meet the fourth and fifth generations of the Takenaka printing family.
I'd checked into the beguiling Maison Souvannaphoum, walked down the road, and climbed 355 steps up Mount Phousi, the temple-crowned hill in the center of town.