running schedule, shot all to hell

I think it was Wednesday, 3 days ago now, that I last went running down to and around the park.  With all this free time, I was being pretty good about going every other day, and my feet were only mildly complaining despite the fact that I more or less tripled my average weekly mileage, and also switched to those fancypants weirdo minimalist running shoes when I came here.  Then on Wednesday evening, even though I had put in the 8 miles after coffee, still being wide awake, I decided to go out hunting for this large shrine I had seen on a Google map.  It looked like it was relatively close to the park, just more, um, west.  I run to the park every other day and then go around it a couple of times and then run back, so what's the big deal, right?  Ugh.  I have a decent sense of direction and can usually find my way around a place with straight roads easily, especially if landmarks stand out.  And landmarks definitely stand out here.  I just tend to overestimate the size of a place when I look at a map, especially if it's a map of Japan.  The streets and blocks are so small, relative to my own, that when I look at a map of a neighborhood that consists of maybe 2000 blocks, it looks huge even though it may actually be very small.  Knowing that, I overcompensated and went out to find this place thinking it wasn't all that far, when really, it was about 4 miles each way.
Which would be fine if I hadn't already run 8 that morning.  Point being, it's Saturday and my feet are still angry at me and I can't run.  Good thing it's been pouring out all night, otherwise I'd feel pretty guilty.

I was glad to have gone, though.  I walked for what felt like ages, and was just starting to wonder if I'd misunderstood what I saw online when I found the public park that you walk through to get to the entrance.  They're separated by a train station and a road that is almost completely dominated by an old tram, a lot like the green line.  Well, sort of. These are two entirely different train lines, mind you.
We won't talk about how this tram also happens to run right by the corner of the neighborhood I'm staying in...
It was late and a lot of areas around the temple, buildings especially, were closed for the night.  But I'm not sure whether it's because they're public or not, but places like this seem to be open and more or less well-lit all night long.  I like to go at times like this because they are usually almost empty, and it can make for some really good picture-taking.  If I had a tripod it would be even better.
The road that runs under the elevated train tracks between the park and the gateway to the shrine had an interesting combination of stone lanterns, corner stores, noodle shops and bars, fortune-telling spots that were closed but still plastered with hand-written signs, and of course, vending machines. Just like most other streets that aren't entirely residential, really. 

That's looking back toward the street from the gateway.

This was a short but very steep bridge with a ridiculous rise and run - I had to be pretty careful going down on the other side.  I heard from someone that the place gets packed on new years' - the bridge must get awfully sketchy when it's full of people bumping into each other in the middle where there's no railing.

By the time I got back, though, I was limping like a real jerk.  I'm still waiting to see how long it's going to take to go away.   Stubbornness for fun and profit!