Simply beautiful Japanese scenes, traditional narrow street, Kyoto

In the medieval Japan, there were practically no means of transportation other than by foot or by kago (including here the norimono, a luxury version of kago). Only the Emperor and the high aristocracy were traveling by ox drawn carts called goshoguruma. This fact, combined with the high price of the land inside the large cities, led to an urban landscape with very narrow streets.

That's why many surviving old streets are so narrow, like the well know Ponto-cho in Kyoto, photographed here during a cold winter night, one of the few moments when the street is not packed with people...