I like walking to and fro. First, its cheap, and I'm a cheap bastard. Second, it can give you some insight on the true nature of the particular environment you're in. For now, my environment is Kyoto. So after I got my first guided tour, orchestrated by Esti and Shir straight into a deliciously charming little restaurant that had one of those conveyor belt thingies... finally, for the first time since the beginning of my trip, I actually felt stuffed. From that area I've had my little tour the next day.
Since Kyoto was designed after the fashion of some old and disturbing Chinese City planning, the streets of central Kyoto were built criss-crossing one another, almost perfectly aligning themselves with the four winds. So knowing my way around wasn't that difficult, but I had to know where I was in the first place. THAT, I soon found out, wasn't that difficult – All you have to do in Kyoto is sneeze and poof! You're in a shrine of some sort! Its disgusting! you can't walk five minutes without seeing at least one of those peace-on-earth-well-
tended-yin-yang monstrosities. I'm not saying they're ugly or something, heavens no, but it gets old after the 15th gate entrance you've came across… seriously, somebody should put a Pachinko building instead of those pesky shrines… although maybe Pachinko isn't exactly what I would choose, since they already have a Pachinko slot machine for every human being on earth, just in central Tokyo.
All in all, I enjoyed my little trip. First, I took a short walk in the imperial gardens to the north, where I took the opportunity of showing you the Japanese way of the bicycle. As you see from the pic, you will strangely enough find, in this technologically superior country, these sorry excuses for bikes everywhere you go. Moreover, theft of bicycles is maybe uncommon or just not that a big of a deal, since they are mostly crappy bikes straight out of the 70's – therefore, many of the bikes are unlocked… and if locked, only by a special mechanism that is applied to each bike that doesn't prevent someone lifting your bike on a car and moving along. In Israel, I would guess that tens of thousands of bikes would be stolen in one night, all thanks to the lucrative business of steel.
Afterwards, I followed the promenade adjacent to the river,
watching various people having their family time in the cold winded sunlight. It was relaxing. I caught one man exercising his BMX techniques, and an old man teaching his grandson how to jump a rope.
Since Kyoto was designed after the fashion of some old and disturbing Chinese City planning, the streets of central Kyoto were built criss-crossing one another, almost perfectly aligning themselves with the four winds. So knowing my way around wasn't that difficult, but I had to know where I was in the first place. THAT, I soon found out, wasn't that difficult – All you have to do in Kyoto is sneeze and poof! You're in a shrine of some sort! Its disgusting! you can't walk five minutes without seeing at least one of those peace-on-earth-well-
tended-yin-yang monstrosities. I'm not saying they're ugly or something, heavens no, but it gets old after the 15th gate entrance you've came across… seriously, somebody should put a Pachinko building instead of those pesky shrines… although maybe Pachinko isn't exactly what I would choose, since they already have a Pachinko slot machine for every human being on earth, just in central Tokyo.All in all, I enjoyed my little trip. First, I took a short walk in the imperial gardens to the north, where I took the opportunity of showing you the Japanese way of the bicycle. As you see from the pic, you will strangely enough find, in this technologically superior country, these sorry excuses for bikes everywhere you go. Moreover, theft of bicycles is maybe uncommon or just not that a big of a deal, since they are mostly crappy bikes straight out of the 70's – therefore, many of the bikes are unlocked… and if locked, only by a special mechanism that is applied to each bike that doesn't prevent someone lifting your bike on a car and moving along. In Israel, I would guess that tens of thousands of bikes would be stolen in one night, all thanks to the lucrative business of steel.
Afterwards, I followed the promenade adjacent to the river,
watching various people having their family time in the cold winded sunlight. It was relaxing. I caught one man exercising his BMX techniques, and an old man teaching his grandson how to jump a rope.I ended up near the subway station, where I met the other Esti who lives also in Tokyo, and we strolled together for quite a while, starting from the Geisha district, where there were no Geishas to be seen. Then we moved on to a couple of Huge Shinto shrines, where we cruised the gardens and watched an amateur entertainer trying his luck in fire acrobatics.
Thanks to Esti, I was able to understand some of the wooden cards people are writing their wishes for the new year. For example, the first one is a man who asks the gods for helping him in entering the University.
The next one is a girl who wishes she would succeed on her diet and that she would become a 
beautiful woman. You won't believe how much woman write the same diet wish on these cards.
beautiful woman. You won't believe how much woman write the same diet wish on these cards.this is Esti with the all too familiar looking wall of notes... they have a sort of a 
bingo lottery full of notes, and if you uncover a note with a bad omen, you're suppose to hang it on the ropes in order to dispose of it.... at least that's what I've been told.
do you see any resemblance to something you know? please, tell me.
At the end, we sat down in a cozy place that had a long frying pan for a bar, and watched the cook as she was making the meal right in front of us. A suitable finish for a lovely day.
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