Tuesday’s report will offer some insights into life in Kyoto for Westerners in the age of Covid. Today, I reported on rocky beaches, bears, monkeys and more across the river. All the before and after action from Kyoto.
I run a lot in the morning. I like running. I also love data. So the two get together every day.
I live near Kyoto (university area) and the Kamo River is a great running resource.
But the problem is that if you want to run 10km or 12km, the access points to bridges (usually but not limited to) to rivers are discrete units of distance (with or without bridges) and those units may be along with me The river goes north or south to reach my distance goal for that particular run and has to turn back home after that corresponds.
Solution: These stepping stone shoals were strategically placed between major road bridges across the river and provided more continuity in distance measurements.
Going through them is also fun – the gaps between the stones are not that close, so you have to jump.
After the rain, the river rises in height and flows very quickly, the stones become a sort of adventurous test course, and the water slaps the top.
Anyway, I use these Fords a lot.
Foreign tourists to Australia often express some anxiety about the spiders and snakes that roam freely there – well, free roaming is a bit of an exaggeration, but they’re out there and no one knows they’re really threatened by them.
While walking the mountains in eastern Kyoto last weekend, we came across signs warning of the aggressive monkeys living around us.
I wonder what a bunch of aggressive monkeys would do.
What this sign does, however, is to stop us from climbing these steep steps to a cave that is a shrine to some “god” or others.
Then after get off work last Thursday, we were riding our bikes to another mountain road (with a little light left) and we came across another sign that looked like this:
Who would have thought?
This is a warning to watch out for the bears apparently hanging out in that place.
We decided to stop hanging out.
Apparently, they are Asiatic black bears that usually run away when they see a human. Usually, of course, not always.
We also just visited the bakery near the university and a lovely baguette sticking out of the basket in front of my bike might tempt some roaming bears to feed us.
I really want to go back there because there are ancient castle ruins in the forest nearby.
So maybe all of my running training would help if a bear held up aloft as he walked down a forest path to the ruins.
Anyway, one notable thing about everyday life in Japan is that the locals seem to love packaging.
Plastic Packaging.
For some time now, for obvious reasons, I’ve been trying to live a life without packaging and plastic. This pursuit is difficult in Australia, but we have managed to drastically reduce our consumption.
Enter Japan.
Packaging is everywhere, and products often come in multiple layers of plastic, from the outer bag to the inner bag to more micro-packaging of individual items within the inner bag.
The current overpack award goes to the cheese cubes we saw in the supermarket the other day.
Now, first of all, I love cheese, and being a vegan, cheese is a huge part of my diet.
The Japanese don’t eat much cheese, and it’s hard to find any old-fashioned or tasty hard cheese in a standard supermarket.
So you can imagine my delight when I found what looked like chunks of cheese in the refrigerated section.
Upon closer inspection, I found that the plastic bag for the cheese cubes was not part of the package.
Inside, each individual 2cm cube of cheese is individually and delightfully wrapped in – you guessed it – a plastic bag. The stack of these small packages in the main package.
If we are to save the planet, the Japanese must overcome the seemingly endless plastic packaging.
All in all, have fun here!
Enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2022 William Mitchell. all rights reserved.
