These are some cool postcards, Or, "Holy tourists, Batman!"

Yesterday we did another hike in our Fuji preparation campaign (or キャンペーン, if you prefer). With few exceptions, if you want to go hiking here, you also end up walking through temple complexes. Most of the time this is awesome, and as a result we've seen a lot of little temples that I would have never expected to be there - especially the strings of smaller temples on the now-secondary paths between the towns in the valley and the bigger temple on the top of a peak. From what I understand many of these have specific functions and were usually originally funded by wealthy individuals. In between are numerous smaller shrines that either commemorate singular acts of devotion/religious contemplation or that are set up by individuals in connection with a family member or local spirit. So, these backwoods trails are quite nice and we basically have the trail to ourselves with the exception of the occasional local retiree who walks the trail with apparent regularity. 

In the city, however, things are a little different. Because the terrain around here is so thoroughly composed of a regular alternation of plains and hills, most cities butt right up to the edge, with their important temples just up the hill in the woods. Anyway, to get to the point, yesterday we went to Kyoto on an "eco trail" that takes you through all the famous sites in the city without using any motorized vehicles. It makes things more interesting than most tourists trails by taking you up through the hills and the quiet residential streets instead of just directly from temple to temple along routes lined with gift shops and fancy small restaurants with overpriced lunches. So, the parts in the mountains were awesome and a good workout, but when we got to our stopping point, things got a little out of control. That is, we were confronted with a mass of tourists making their rounds. 

As the summer progresses this experience seems to become more and more common. We go somewhere for any number of reasons, do whatever we have to do, and then on the way back home or through to another activity, we have to wade through a flood of tourists. I don't know particularly why I am bringing this up except that their presence keeps taking us by surprise. Which actually has given me pause to think that we actually have very little contact with other foreigners here. This is in contrast to the majority of Americans here for work, who seem to live in the same buildings/neighborhoods, work together, hang out together, etc. I'm not trying to say that we have somehow assimilated (indeed, I am constantly reminded how big the cultural knowledge gap is for me) but the last few weeks of running unexpectedly into tourists has underlined the fact that we really don't interact with other foreigners. 

Side note: the TV is on while I'm writing this and we are watching the local cable company channel, which mostly features programs looking at shops and attractions in the Osaka area. The segment that just finished involved them sending and a personality to an unknown location to explore. This time it was a children's water park. Therefore the segment consisted of him trying out all the rides while the kids looked on in slightly confused amazement. As always, Japanese TV is kinda bizarre.