We woke at 10am, after a very good night's sleep on our soft futon. Had some cereal for breakfast, a glass of apple juice, had a shower, left the apartment.
Within the space of an hour we were no longer walking around Kyoto. Oh ho ho, no we were not. Within the hour we were riding around Kyoto, pimping our shiny new bicycles! Well, they're not technically new, as they're second-hand, but to us they're new.
Our landlord pointed out the second-hand store as he gave us a brief tour of the area the day before, so we headed back there, tried some bikes out, picked two we liked and bought them for ~$70. There were cheaper ones, but they were nowhere near as shiny. When we leave Kyoto we can sell them back to the lady we bought them off, so in the end we're not really losing all that much money. In fact, for longer periods, it's cheaper to buy a used bike rather than pay $10 per day to rent one!
I haven't ridden a bike in years, so it was strange to be riding again. It's pretty cool how you can not jump on a bike for so long, yet you still retain the ability to use one without having to learn all over again.
After all the paperwork for our bicycles was finalised (something about registration) we rode along by the river for a while, enjoying the sunshine and feasting our eyes on all the new sights to be seen. Kamogawa is the river that flows through Kyoto near our apartment. It's weird to have such a clean body of water so close to a major city. I mean, you can see all the tadpoles and fish as you walk along the riverbank, as well as the herons that are hunting them. It's very clear, and clean... Clean enough for frogs to be living in, which goes to show how clean it really is!
I used the word 'clean' too many times back there.
Cleancleanclean.
We rode a few kilometers up the river, bought a Coke from a nearby vending machine and drank it in the shade, then rode all the way back to town to look for some shoes for Ben. Some tool of a businessman stood on his other nice ones in Tokyo and broke them, so he's only had his other pair which kind of hack up his feet if worn for extended periods of time.
The hunt for new thong/sandal-type footwear begins!... And ends shortly later. Had takoyaki again for lunch, sat on the riverbank to eats them, followed by skimming some river pebbled across the surface of the water, much to the amusement of an old Japanese lady and her grandson.Got bored, went home.
Got home, realised we needed to do some more shopping, went shopping. Bought a couple of tumblers to drink from, a teaspoon, an ice cube tray, iced tea and some lollies that claimed to be sour (they were... very much so), then returned home.
And that's pretty much it for the day.
Oh! Forgot to add:
When we were on our return trip down the river, we saw these really strange dragonflies. They're all black, with a green hint to the body, but they don't hover like other dragonflies. They appear to be more fragile, and kind of just flutter like a butterfly. Ben got up close to get some good shots of them while they were hiding from the wind (more like a light breeze) beneath a tree.
1 comment:
Woah, those dragonflies are creepy-cool!
I can't help but notice that, the longer you spend over there, the more your English becomes Engrish. ^^
Your area looks to be a really nice place - very cute.
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