wasabi peas

Can you live on them?

Was the question running through my head today wondering around in the mountain forest, happy to be out of the sun and city. Then, can bears live on them, would a bear eat me? Why didn't I buy that bell from the 100yen shop! (apparently scares them off) here comes this huge bloody bear and all I have is a bell. So after a while not spotting any other humans I retreated back to the safety of the temple I had come from. No bear attacks...

Kyoto is truly amazing, beautiful shrines and temples, finally I see the beauty of Japan. Although it's all fenced off and very ordered. Zen gardens are just as you would imagine, just add a few hundred Japanese people!

My observations of Japanese people:

They have this amazing ability to fall asleep anywhere, especially on moving vehicles. You have to see it to believe it, today I saw a man waiting in the boiling hot sun outside a noodle place fast asleep, so much so he was snoring! But as soon as they called his order, awake!

They sing welcome every time you walk into a hop, restaurant anywhere that they can really!

The stare at 'giijin' (foreigners)

They have an amazing ability for cleanliness, no shoes indoors and even (as I discovered after a shop assistant put her head under the curtain) in shop changing rooms

They slurp their noodles: to coll them obviously

Somehow whatever they wear they look cool, funky sometimes a bit weird but generally great.

That's all the time I have now...of to the 7/11 for dinner gourmet style!