Japanese Emperor

I bought a used bike (中古の自転車) a week ago, and now I can speed around Kyoto. I think I can pretty much cover all of Kyoto by bike. Here is the path along the Kamo River (賀茂川) which I take to get to school. It is really nice to ride along it, so I took off for a ride north this Saturday.

There is lots of wildlife in the river.

Some fish too!

Around Sanjodori (三条通り) a man is throwing bread to the ducks, but hawks are sweeping down for first dibs.

Here lots of people were set up with large telephoto lenses. It looked like there were some special birds of which they were trying to get pictures - or maybe they just spotted a gaijin on the other side of the river. ;-)

More activities along the river. Some older people are playing what looks to be some version of tennis - really low net with paddles.

People practicing American football.

And then I was suddenly stopped by the police. Well, they were stopping everyone. I was wearing sunglasses, and the officer starting going on in Japanese. But when I lifted my sunnies, I think the round eyes (円い目) gave me away. So I received a few short commands in English. Apparently the Emperor (天皇) was going to be passing by shortly.

So I waited a few minutes to catch a glimpse.

And finally . . . it looks to be the Empress Michiko on the near side waving.