8 June

Today in Japan I faced my greatest danger while away – but more about that later.
I was awake at 6 with the alarm and up not long after, prepared and down before 7 and into the restaurant for breakfast before 7. This time I had NOT forgotten my Vegemite, so I was able to have vegemite on toast plus some other foods for breakfast – no cornflakes so I had to have rice crispies, but that was only a change, not a hardship.
I saw no-one I knew at breakfast, which after the last week seems incredible. However, it is the transient nature of being on holiday for a short time in one place. I finished, went up, checked emails and other Internet material, then set out for a walk. On the way out of the hotel I met the couple from Fern Tree Gully and said hello, but they were off on a tour again today.
I walked to the other side of the station and saw Astro Boy looking over Kyoto and ready to save it from disaster, went to take a photo and … found I had left my camera in the hotel! Great, my mind and memory are going on me now.
I walked back, got the camera and retraced my path, captured Astro Boy (as a picture, not in person) and headed off to the Museum. The day was warming up and it’s a fair hike, so I was grateful for the (many) pavement vending machines. Not that I will imbibe Thorpedo, but a coke doesn’t go astray. They are a standard price, ¥120 for a 330 ml can and ¥150 for a 500 ml bottle. Not all machines have both, but there are plenty around. It’s also where you find the rubbish and recycling bins (memo to self: remember in Hawaii they are called rubbish cans, not trash bins (whoops, I meant trash cans) like the rest of the U.S.).
I got to the museum, paid my entrance fee to one person, had my ticket stamped by another and was then shown through the gate by another. And the first artwork I saw was … The Thinker, by Rodin, which took me back to early television days and “The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis”. With those memories of poor Zelda floating in my head, I went into the museum.
No photo taking, so no pictures. One of the displays covered fighting implements from Neolithic to the Edo period, with stone arrowheads up to daggers from the 1860s. Others covered Buddhist artwork as paintings and carvings, kimonos, yogis and dogis (I’m not kidding and that’s not Yogi Bear), containers and trays and written and drawn commentaries. It was very interesting, and I would have loved to have had a small guide in English showing parallel works in other Asian cultures and in western cultures. The only thing is that in common with all museums, they do not have sufficient display space.
After over an hour there I headed off to the zoo. At the end of a long walk I found a canal museum in the way, so went into that. I asked for the English version of the information, and, as I was looking at it, one of the staff brought out a DVD in English and put it on for me. It was a good explanation of the history and construction of the canal, but no footage of the canal being used as a transport link for goods and people (though it was used as such until not that long ago, when road and rail stopped its use for that). Its primary and continuing purpose is to provide water to Kyoto for human consumption and its secondary purpose is to provide hydroelectric power. The museum centres on the human side of the construction and use, rather than the utilitarian side (which I was more interested in). It was good to see how forward-thinking some people were, even back in the 1880s, paralleling Melbourne in some ways.
I then left to see the zoo – but alas, that was not meant to be, as I and many others arrived at the front gate to find it closed. I couldn’t see if the reason was in Japanese on the gate, I don’t think so as even the locals peered in at the ticket gate after reading all the signs there. I decided to walk back to the hotel, but this time on the west bank (it has a more continuous path).
And here I faced the greatest dangers of all while away.
The first was Japanese cyclists NOT using their bell when passing pedestrians, especially those with a camera up to their eye, meant that stepping backwards or forwards to frame a shot better was extremely hazardous.
The second was hundreds out on a “love and peace” march with umbrellas and not taking care where they were holding them (at eye height of short western men), so despite love and peace being everywhere, I had to duck and weave to avoid permanent damage.
The birds were out fishing again, the sitters were out in force (including some young girls with a small kitten – eyes not open yet), the promenaders were there and so were the dog walkers, and the pig walker. Yes, you read correctly, one woman was out walking her pig!
After I left the riverbank (it is well labelled, with points along showing distances and where each bridge leads to, and how far), I came across some wonderful examples to show how life is similar everywhere. I found an Asian restaurant (imagine that, in an Asian city!) and I found a garage with cheap junk in the back forcing the expensive car to rest nose out in the weather (unlike other places, the whole car can’t go outside!).
On the way back to the hotel I had some late lunch, then went to my room to rest my feet. I estimate I walked between twelve and fifteen kilometres, but wasn’t game to catch a bus back (didn’t know how to pay the fare) and didn’t want to take a taxi (with doilies all over the seats).
Back in the hotel I processed the photos, caught up on email and then wrote and posted this blog.
If I do anything exciting after, I’ll add it to the blog later.