Kyoto by Bike

A short train journey from Osaka and there it was: Kyoto. It seemed as if Osaka stretched all the way to Kyoto without interruption, but there was a more relaxed atmosphere here and we were happy to set off on a cycling tour with "Hiro" our guide for the morning (he was an accountant by weekday). He promised Temples and Geisha areas via back streets, canals and riverside paths and he didn't disappoint . It was reminiscent of, but probably much safer than, a Saigon Tour we did by bike last year. We saw only a fraction of the 17 Unesco World Heritage sites, 1600 Buddhist Temples and 400 Shinto Shrines that were on offer, but we did get a taste of why the Japanese consider that Kyoto ranks with Paris, London and Rome as one of the world's most culturally rich cities and a place that everyone should see at least once in their lives. We have now ticked that box that prior to this trip we didn't even know needed to be ticked.
Hiro was a font of knowledge and new more about British history than we did. Luckily he also knew about Japanese history though didn't push it on us incessantly. He did, however, pray for us at a Shinto Shrine, thus guaranteeing safe travel on the rest of our holiday. This seems to have worked, as we  have had faultless travel connections since, but perhaps that could be down to Japanese standards of efficiency rather than the Shinto Deity. The Japanese certainly live up to their reputation as having one of the best public transport systems in the world - it is clean, easy to use, takes you places that you want to go to and doesn't break down every other day.
Dinner was in a Lonely Planet recommended Japanese restaurant which had no name that we could see, but was located by looking for a large neon logo of a man wearing a bandana. That, and the plastic models of the food that could be ordered, meant that we didn't have to use our almost non existent Japanese. Those months of night school might prove to have been unnecessary after all... Sayõnara.