Steve - 4.5

43:48

We arrived in Kyoto around 11 pm and I decided I wanted to run before I went to sleep because our next day was going to be absolutely jammed. The great thing about running in Japan is that everything is lit up all night. So you can run and not worry about taking a false step and spraining your ankle. I decided to just head out randomly and see if I could find any of the sites we were going to the next day. Kyoto is jammed with temples and shrines of significance. I found some temple after only 10 minutes and then turned there and started running to see which it was. Once I got to the part of the temple that had English markings, I decided to just keep going. After another few minutes, I saw a sign for Nijo Castle 2km straight ahead, which we were planning to visit the next day. When I go to a major intersection there was a crazy overpass that went in four directions so pedestrians from any direction could cross through. These are pretty typical of major cities in Japan. I fired up the stairs and continued until I made it the castle. It was pretty cool to see it at night, although it wasnt completely lit up. I headed back home to prepare for what would be crazy day of touring the city that started at 6:30 am.

We rented bikes and visited three different areas of the city all in the same day. We probably road our bikes for about 3-4 hours, so I got in some good cross training. The craziest part of the day was our return trip to Kyoto Station on bike. The bikes were due back at 7 pm and the late fee for each is ridiculously high (like 40 bucks each). From our last destination, it didnt seem too far to get back to the station. We had a pretty good map and it looked doable. After about 10 minutes we realized we were really far. My wife asked for directions a few times, and I hammered the pace so we could make it on time. With the clock ticking to 7, we only minutes remaining and the number of stop lights was maddening. At last we got to the station and had to just make the final sprint to the bike rental area. I cranked it up to the top gear and skidded into the bike rental area at 6:59 and said "Girigiri" to the attendant. He said "Just on time". As you can probably guess girigiri means just on time. If I had been by myself, there is no way I could have made it. My Japanese isnt good enough to understand complex directions. But alas, we made it.