THE streets, people say, are miniature civilizations.

At an intersection near a Kyoto market, not far from the imperial palace of the Heian era, motorcycles, bicycles, and delivery vans stopped as the feet of pedestrians touched the asphalt.

There were no honking horns, no riders revving to intimidate slow walkers, no hasty movements by pedestrians. A deliveryman, I saw, was instead opening and writing in his notebook on the steering wheel