The food is fabulous.

The flavors are so wonderful and the servings are huge. I only eat two meals a day and am walking everywhere and have to be gaining a pound a day! I anticipate that will be one of many changes when I reach Toshoji tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I spent the morning at Korakuen, billed as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It was built in the late 1600s by the local feudal lord whose castle, built in the early 1500s across the river, I visited this afternoon. The shady parts of the garden smelled so good, like the taxi and the hot damp towels given before a meal but I still can't figure out what the scent is. There were separate groves of cherry, plum, bamboo, cypress, and maple along with a small rice field and tea plantation, multiple shrines and tea houses, and Ryuten Pavilion with a rock studded stream running through its center. A large group of energetic 6th grade boys decided to practice their English on me. When the teacher appeared we chatted briefly. I told her I was a teacher, she told the kids that, and they gave shrieks of horror which prompted her to give them the teacher look. They continued to call out to me as our paths crossed throughout the day.

On the wider streets, the sidewalks are very wide and bicyclists and pedestrians share the space. On narrow streets, there is no sidewalk but a painted walking/bike space. This system makes biking so much safer and really, the injuries to pedestrians getting run over by a bike can't be as significant as the number of bicyclists injured by cars in the U.S. It is interesting to note that folks do not seem to jaywalk or walk through red lights at intersections even if there are no cars to be seen. I have a feeling I am the only person even thinking about it. Many Japanese people seem to be in a big hurry but they also seem to be good rule followers. They make a line to get on the bus with about two feet of space between each person. This is not how Hixson Middle school children line up for water at the track meet!