Kyoto Report 2025 – 2

This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan but who over the years of working here has increasingly began to understand the language and local cultural traditions

The beautiful Kamo river

Out running early yesterday, after a stormy night, this is the view north as I crossed the 青龍町 (at Seiryucho).

I actually long for this view when I am away from Kyoto.

The mountains to the North are glorious walking areas and are part of the string of mountains that surround the city.

The paths along the river go for many kms and are great for running without traffic.

Suica app

Catching local trains in Japan is cheap and the service exceptional.

However, for first time travellers, it can be a bit daunting because there are several decisions one has to make when buying a ticket, including sorting through the coins in one’s pocket to find the right ones – if you don’t have an app or a physical IC card.

The Suica IC cards are easily obtained but also easy to mislay and/or lose outright.

The Suica app, which is one of the many IC card systems available in Japan allows for ticketless travel across the entire Japanese rail network, except the Shinkansen services.

It is it issued by the JR East, which is centred on Tokyo, but works across the nation on most lines.

There is no English version though which makes configuring it a little tricky (but doable).

Anyway, this year, with my iPhone, I have a digital version of the physical card (which bypasses the App), which is stored in the Apple Wallet.

Train travel has become that much easier.

Just tap the phone on the IC sensor at the gate, and tap off when finished and it automatically calculates the fare and deducts it from your credit card, also stored in the Apple wallet.

Swimming modesty

This year I have been doing a lot of lap swimming as well as running.

I started with the motivation to participate in a long ocean swim (several kms) next January back in Victoria and while I am an okay swimmer I thought I better train up a bit to do the distance.

So in between running a lot I have been heading to the ocean some days but mostly to the pool to do a lot of laps.

And motivation shifted a little because I have become more interested in technique (as one does) and increasing speed over 2 kms and that has been an end in itself.

My swimming efficiency is greatly improved and I am plotting further gains (as one does).

Anyway, the question then emerged – while I am working over here in Japan for a few months, how can I keep the momentum up?

The answer was to join the local swimming club in my neighbourhood which has a 25m pool available for lap swimmers.

Now that I call myself a lap swimmer in training (-:, one rather looks down on a 25m pool, of course.

At home, the University of Newcastle has a 50m competition pool, which is a really nice place to train.

In regional Victoria, where I spend some of my time (a declining proportion it should be said), I only have a 25m pool available and it feels like I am slumming it.

At any rate, when confronted with scarcity and necessity, one has little choice – so it was off to the swimming club and after a rather onerous process of interview, I am now a full member.

Among the questions I had to sign NO for were:

1. Do you have any tattoos? The swimming club bans people with tattoos.

2. Have you currently or ever had any connections with organised crime? I wondered where swimming clubs were targets.

3. Do you take any illegal substances?

Anyway, NO, NO, NO and a whole lot of other NOs – and I became a member.

Among the conditions, is the requirement to wear a swimming cap.

Problem: I didn’t bring swimmers, goggles, or my swimming cap with me, thinking they are cheap items that any good sport’s store will have here.

Ever the travel packing minimiser!

So it was off to a sport’s store on my bike – which I often do to get odd items – weight bands, running socks, etc.

To my surprise, and this is the cultural note that is the rationale for this little vignette, I couldn’t find any Speedos in the men’s swim wear section.

The section was replete with all the latest equipment – training aids, plenty of goggles, lots of different swimming caps, etc – but no Speedos.

Well there were Speedos but there was also none!

This is one of those situations where capitalism has imposed a specific product on us as a general descriptor of a class of products.

Like Hoovers, Aspro, etc.

So I was looking for Speedos, those famous Australian cossie for me, brief but sufficient.

But the section for men’s swimmers was full of Speedo brand swimmers that were like boxing trunks.

And accompanying them were other products not known in Australia – men’s under-swimmers.

Also in the women’s section there were all these extra modesty devices to cover skin, suppress shape and bumps etc.

Modesty is paramount it seems.

But it also taught me that what constitutes modesty differs across nations.

I consider my swim attire to be quite modest relative to some of the swimmers that are available.

But in this leading sport’s shop in Kyoto, my modest swimmers were unavailable and seemingly a stretch too far.

Palestine activism

I was down near the City Hall in Kyoto, just near the sport’s shop (as above) on Saturday, and there was a Palestinian protest march getting underway with about 100-150 people on the street – this is a very busy and wide street that has a major subway system underneath.

The area from there south to the main station is very crowded, especially on Saturday afternoons.

I was observing the rally and I heard someone call my name. Huh?

Well it was a friend, Professor マツオ タダス (Matsuo Tadasu_, who is a professor in the Department of Economics at Ritsumeikan University and an expert on Marx.

What a surprise.

He is part of the activist movement in Kyoto and explained to me the nature of the Palestinian protest movement in Kyoto.

I joined the march as it proceeded down Kawaramachi-dori (a very busy street), crossed the Shijo intersection, and continued until turning left to finish at 仏光寺公園 (Bukkoji Park), where some speeches were made.

Only a distance of 1.3 kms but through the busiest shopping streets of Kyoto.

It was a really nice group – very noisy – both vocally and with drums, saucepans and other instruments of noise.

At the end, we ate some rice cakes and talked about things.

A solidarity experience that occurs every Saturday at 15:00 from City Hall.

Next week, the marchers will then go on to 円山公園 (Maruyama Park) for some speeches and music presentations after the march is done.

The problem here is the Japanese government is so cowed by the US bullying that they will find it difficult to recognise a Palestinian state, as many other nations have done in recent weeks.

But the activists here are also heavily promoting the – BDS movement – of which I have been a long supporter.

A lot of information as to boycott targets were handed out to those on the footpaths as the march proceeded encouraging them to take moral decisions as part of their consumer behaviour.

I have long believed that consumers have significant power to destroy corporations that do the bidding of those involved in such things as genocide, environmental destruction and more.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2025 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.