Japan at last

The Japanese seem to have a liking for uniforms. Not only the bus driver of the limousine bus wore uniform, including cap and white gloves, but also the girl at the ticket machine who helped me to get the ticket for Kyoto, and the luggage handler who stowed my case in the luggage compartment of the bus.
Off we went in bright sunshine on a 105 minute drive to my destination. At first we drove past various parts of the harbour showing a spectrum of goods landed. Meantime I tried to make sense of the signs along the expressway, spelling slowly hiragana and katagana – but had to give up when it came to kanji. Of course you can recognize romaji letters and a mixture of all of them.
Much to my surprise I saw only a few skyscrapers, most of the buildings were moderate some even traditionally built. Here and there in residential areas vegetable gardens caught my eye and also small agricultural plots. One half of the field where some kind of grain had been growing was already harvested and fancy shaped stacks of straw left instead,the other half showed still a variety of greens.
Osaka seemed to be never ending, in fact it was just flowing continuously into the next city.

It was about midday when I finally reached Kyoto and the Ryokan Yuhara, pleasantly situated at a little canal, which runs parallel to the river Kamo.
The Takase, once not as shallow as nowadays continued for many miles and was used by barges to keep up the trade with Osaka and the sea.