Day 4 in Kyoto

I won't have any pics yet of today's travels. As soon as Lisa gets up and we download the pictures from the camera she took yesterday, i'll insert some pictures.

Yesterday was supposed to be a low key day and by comparison of the two previous days, it was. We lolly gagged around the apartment in the morning drinking coffee, working on Lisa's income taxes and doing laundry. It was a beautiful sunny warm morning. Audrey played tennis with one of their other friends just across the street at the rec center. Lisa's apartment is very Western style except for the bedroom which is traditional tatami matting on the floor and we sleep on the floor on futons. It has been very comfortable. Every day we roll up our futons and store them until we need them for sleeping as the bedrooms are tiny and that gives us room to walk around.

We left the apartment around noon and took the train up to Lake Biwa up north. The largest man made lake in Japan. We strolled down the narrow streets and bought some pastries and took them over to the water's edge and ate. By now it was very foggy up in the mountains and you could hardly see the buildings on the other side of the lake. So it was a little chilly and the sun was struggling to come out. We walked around the water front and down to see a paddle wheel boat that takes people on lake excursions. I'm sure in the nice weather months, this place is packed with people. They were playing 90s type american music where the paddle wheel boat docked.

We went back to the train station and caught the train back to an area close to where Lisa lives that is well known for shopping. We grabbed a Starbucks coffee and sat by the river (inside Starbucks) while we rested a little bit.

Another observation about Japan here. Everything is immaculately clean - on the trains, on the buses, on the grounds of all the temples and shrines, etc. They also have heated toilet seats in some of the western style bathrooms. But there is not a lick of soap to be found to wash your hands and some of the bathrooms don't have toilet paper. Enough about that.

We walked through the shopping district and the people are wall to wall on the side walks. I believe (and I think Lisa will 2nd this) that their favorite hobby is SHOPPING. There are bicycle riders everywhere on the sidewalks and most of the time you do not hear them coming up from behind you. amazingly enough considering how many there are, they don't seem to run over the pedestrians.

We shopped for a little while. I was looking for scarves and found them and Lisa was looking for a new pair of work pants. We also visited a market - Nishiki Koji - which went on for blocks that sold primarily seafood (some unknown things to me) and some flowers, vegetables, fruits and sweets. In this market was a knife shop that is world renowned that we visited. I know Ned would have enjoyed the market and the knife shop. Had i not been carrying on my luggage, i probably would have bought a kitchen knife.

Took the train back home and rested for a while and then Lisa and Audrey and i went out to dinner at an Indian Place a short walk away. Small place but the food and service and ambiance was spectacular.

My knees and feet were reminding me that this was "supposed" to be a low key day. Relatively early to bed to resume more sightseeing on my final day of sightseeing tomorrow.