Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Hashimoto, Yawata, Kyoto

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Common in Japan is a neighborhood map such as this. The houses are identified with the resident's last name instead of a street address or house number.
Months ago, when it was still hot and sweaty out, I took a trip to ride the remainder of the Keihan lines that I had not been on at that time. After riding the Otokoyama Cable Car, Keihan's only cable car, I walked down the back of the mountain towards Hashimoto station on the Keihan Main Line. Otokoyama itself was quite interesting. There was a fine old shrine, a park, and a memorial to Thomas Alva Edison. The latter being something that I feel would warrant inclusion in the Japanese version of Roadside America.

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The trees in the distance cover a small shrine on this steep street.
The hilly neighborhood of single family houses connected by steep narrow streets provided an interesting walk. I'm glad I don't walk up those streets coming home from work everyday however.

10.11Hashimoto-Yawata-3
I've learned how to judge the population of a neighborhood by the size of their mailboxes.

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The ku and su of kusuri (medicine) are barely hanging on to the side this pharmacy in a small enclave of commercial buildings set among the houses.

3 comments:

angryparsnip said...

Do you know why Edison has a memorial there?
I looked this up on the map, so your inland.

cheers, parsnip

sleepytako said...

Nope.

It's about 3/4 of the way to downtown Kyoto.

angryparsnip said...

well that's what I thought...
really nice photos.

cheers, parsnip