There are little quirks in Japan. It’s considered a very clean country, and by world standards, from the examples I’ve seen of the 3 large cities I’ve been in, it is. The lack of litter is wonderful, created by a societal expectation that you deal with your own garbage – and the sparseness of public garbage bins means you need to take it in stride. The garbage disposal and cleaning routines seem on point and frequent. In spite of this, occasionally yet frequently the smell of sewage wafts through the where you walk for a few seconds. This was true for Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara so far, and my guess is it is an infrastructural quirk. No one I’ve noticed has put up a fuss, myself included. Probably not something you’d read in the guidebooks hahaha. The smallness and squareness of the houses is matched with the smallness and squareness of the cars. Seriously, squares are everywhere in the design of things. I’ve also seen more swastikas than ever before, probably because the history of the swastika is related to Shintoism and was around long before anything to do with Nazis, unlike the different history of the west. The colour pallate of the entire country is different, less pronounced and saturated colours, very nice and elegant, mostly.
The hostel/capsule hotel I’m staying at is very clean, mostly white surfaces. I made friends with Shizumi Naoyuki – Nao for short – a Japanese mathematics teacher travelling to kyoto for his 25yo son’s national handball competition – he came in second. He is 66 years old, and both told me that I was the first foreigner friend he has ever made. His English was passable. He also let me know that he has only left Japan one single time, on his honeymoon, when he WENT TO VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA BC. So that blew me away. He and I will stay in touch, and Nao, if you’re reading this, it’s a blessing to have met you 🙂
Another man at the hostel from California called John today who has a matcha selling company advised me to go to Maccha House in town, so I did. John was looking for further Bohemian communities to live in, so I advised him to go to Salt Spring Island, which he was keen on. It was quite an encouraging conversation, he was a middle aged fellow, very kind and interesting, deep in the matcha business.
I caught the train to Arashiyama, about 10km out of Kyoto centre, saw a temple or two and some big bamboo and moseyed through a Kimono forest art display (see feature pic) among the sea of kimonos I saw throughout the day. The city is interspersed with rivers and small canals, wonderful for walking along, and I stood and decompressed in the Katsuya river for 30 minutes and let the natural vibrations sync into me.
I must do something about the pain in my left big toe, it’s due to the gait I have from muscular imbalance, but I need to address it by addressing the imbalances. I’ll do this in the next country I’m in. It is a hindrance to me, but it’s manageable. It’s a long term challenge, and I’m not sure what the essence I need to face is.