Fall in Kyoto

The tropical climate of the Japanese summer is gone and temperatures are getting chilly, touching a warm Swedish summer day. Some trees are just about to start shifting colors. The weather is clear and windy today, bringing scents of the approaching fall from the mountains surrounding Kyoto. I really like this city. It has a lot of personality. Steeped in early Japanese history but at the same time very international with a hint of a Europe to it. I have been in town for almost a week now and tonight I am leaving again. Going to meet Kai who finally got his shit together and resigned from that job in Malaysia. He and his girlfriend are picking me up with a car and we are going to his family's house in the mountains south of Nara.

This country is so full of paradoxes. Super modern and totally old fashioned at the same time. I saw a prototype head for a robot in Tokyo, looking like a real human face and imitating facial movements and expressions in an incredibly natural way. Yesterday there was a guy in a wheelchair in the subway. He entered at one station and got off at the next one. It was nice to see that the platform host assisted him when he got on the train, but what really impressed was how the host at the next station was actually waiting by the right train door, with a little foldable gangway to make it smother to roll the wheelchair off the train. How did he know that he should wait there? How did he get to the right place and where did the gangway come from???



This pic is not really related to the text, but I felt like uploading something. It is from the famous Ritsurin Koen in Takamatsu, showing the Crescent Moon Bridge and the Kigetsu-tei teahouse.