5/5/2019 Alte Kaiserstadt, Toriitoreoverkill and Detective Pikachu

Last night, I wandered through the night in Kyoto for only 2 hours and thought a bit about my previous journey. I could already see that there are significant differences that I noticed when walking around the city for the first time, as opposed to the megacity Tokyo. Of course, there are also many tourists here in Kyoto, and the 1.4 million inhabitants here also contribute to the fact that the city is very lively. Everything is smaller, but maybe everything seems smaller compared to Tokyo. Last year, I was in Düsseldorf with my brother and we had wonderful days at the Japan Festival, and there I was able to get a first impression of Japanese culture in contact with other Japanese people. There was also a drumming group that we met in a back alley of Düsseldorf. We already moved the masses in Düsseldorf and yesterday I met drummers again who had a similar beat, only this time they had a rapper with them who created such a mood that even people who had just come from work and had fallen asleep on the subway while standing and had taken a nap on the shoulder of their neighbor. Even these tired city dwellers woke up again and started dancing to the music, and so did I. I couldn't hold back anymore, although my homesickness that had set in before was not gone, but I could dance with a smile and that was nice to the sounds of traditional drummers and a Japanese rapper. This mood simply felt good. I then walked to the cinema and pulled my own movie tickets bravely. I hope I got the right ones. I'm going to the late show at 8:30 p.m. (there were no later shows) and I'm going to watch the movie that is being advertised a lot here: Detective Pikachu. I'm really looking forward to it. And tomorrow I'm going to the next detective movie that I really wanted to watch in Japanese: Detective Conan. I will report how the cinema experience was. Today I'm going for an interesting breakfast, which consisted of pre-made sandwiches and tetra pack apple juice and orange juice (see photo above), at least one special highlight of my trip to Japan: Fushimi-Inari-Taisha (shrine dedicated to the fox god). This shrine is one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan, and it is one of the most visited shrines and is almost famous worldwide because of its many thousands of torii gates that I hope to take many photos of today. And then you are at the top, after over an hour of climbing stairs, 5000 steps and crowds of people, enjoying the view of Kyoto, and walking back down within earshot of an English tour guided by a historian. Then the descent is much easier. On the way back, I just happened to walk "wrong" and suddenly I was in one of the most beautiful Zen gardens in Kyoto. Great, I'd love for that to happen more often.

After that, I want to go to the former Imperial Palace, as since 1868 the Imperial Palace in Edo, alias Tokyo, is. The nice thing is that these well-known attractions don't cost any admission and you can visit them completely freely after registering, I think that's really great. I have postponed this, however, until tomorrow because I was simply too tired today. Sometimes it has to be. I went to the cinema today.

I just got back from the cinema and I have to say I really enjoyed Detective Pikachu, a great movie and a clear recommendation to go to the cinema. But what was also interesting: what was pointed out before the movie and how did the audience behave during the movie? In Germany, it is no longer customary to be reminded of piracy before a movie. In Japan, however, there are many clips reminding you of this. In addition, it is said not to talk, laugh, kick, eat during the movie. Nevertheless, chips and cola and other things are sold at the entrance as well. It is really quiet during the film. I didn't completely abide by it as I had to laugh very hard several times. The other thing is that people sit after the movie is over and wait until the credits have completely run and only then do they leave. They also leave the room quietly and only start talking on the escalator. Despite the 200 cinema visitors, the cinema is not dirty afterwards, as everyone takes their own trash out with them. I'm already looking forward to the next movie tomorrow.