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Kyoto 9 Nov 2007
This photo is (like the bridge photo that appears earlier) an engineer-tourist thing. We saw overhead utilities in every city, but they seemed most extreme in Kyoto. This photo really isn't typical of Kyoto -- this is the most cable dense of several locations that I photographed there (and there is somewhat of a telephoto effect). I wondered if the fact that Kyoto was never hit with a B-29 raid might have contributed to the large number of overhead wires -- Kyoto did not have the forced post- WWII "urban renewal" that most of the other cities had. The guide said that the city had burned several times (most recently in the 1880s, if I remember correctly). Thus when they say something (e.g., a shrine) is 800 years old, they mean that a shrine has existed at that location for 800 years. The actual structure there now is much younger -- and may be 5th or 6th structure that has been at the site.
One stop in the town (photo omitted) was at a factory/shop where the make (and sell) expensive hand-painted fans. The guide said this used to be a significant industry in Kyoto, but it is declining due to imports of cheap "tourist grade" fans from China. No one said anything to him, but I was not the only American on this tour who recognized some irony in this.
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