One box of four packages of green tea KitKats. How could I resist? I couldn’t, obviously.

Today is our last full day in Kyoto; tomorrow we start our long journey home just after noon. We didn’t have any specific plans for the day. Perhaps because we ended up with more Japanese cash on hand than we expected, our thoughts turned to shopping. Tracie had seen some bowls in Tokyo which she regretted passing up (mostly because we didn’t have any way to get them home) and I was arriving at the conclusion that plastic Gundam models are harder to obtain in this country than I had expected and hence regretting that I’d passed some up in Tokyo. We seriously considered hopping on a shinkansen, buzzing up to Tokyo, doing some mad shopping, and buzzing back in time for dinner. Ultimately Tracie ruled out this notion on the grounds that she’s “old and crippled”. I don’t think of her as either, but she’s the one who has to walk in her shoes, so to speak. read more

I’m skipping a day and writing about yesterday. Day before yesterday was less interesting than yesterday, so I may or may not get ’round to writing about it.

Yesterday we visited the city of Kurashiki, guided by Sid. Kurashiki is a city of about 350,000 people with a small section of well-preserved old architecture. Kurashiki was an important area of commerce during the Edo period and became so commercially powerful that it remained independent of feudal rule. We reached it from Kyoto by taking a shinkansen to Okayama and a local train on to Kurashiki. read more

I forgot that Tracie took a photo of this beverage for me:

Yup, I can’t resist Japan’s most famous oddly named beverage. I also spotted this ad on the front of a vending machine:

I’m sure I could come up with a number of off-color comments involving an attractive young woman and a sweaty pocari, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader.

That aside, I don’t have much to report about vending machines this time. I have only a few minor observations.

Yesterday we took a shinkansen (bullet train) to the town of Himeji. Himeji is the home of the Himeji castle, a magnificent feudal-era castle. It’s the castle you often see in photos of Japan, and it appeared in both Kurasawa’s film Ran and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. We had it in mind to visit the gardens near the castle, admire the building from the outside, maybe have lunch nearby. We knew that Tracie would probably not enter the castle because it’s full of steep flights of stairs, but that I might go on the tour. read more

As a follow-up to my previous post, here are some photos that Tracie took in a restroom in the hotel. Here’s the control panel of the main appliance:

Of note here is the button for FLUSHING SOUND, with associated volume controls. You can press this button to make the toilet generate noises to mask the noises that you’re making. There is also the POWERFUL DEODORIZER button which you can press to mask the odors you’re making. Another unusual feature is the pushbutton flush control: read more

I’m sure that everyone who read my entry on Japanese powered toilet seats in last year’s blog has been thinking “okay, all of these photos of gorgeous gardens and majestic temples are nice and all, but when is he going to tell us about the toilets?” We have arrived at that moment in this year’s blog.

There isn’t a whole lot to report, though. Here’s a photo of the fixture in our hotel in Tokyo:

Not much new here, although I like the angled layout of the control labels which makes them easier to read from a seated position, and the subtle use of color on the BACK and FRONT buttons. The unit in our hotel in Kyoto is quite straightforward at first glance, but there are a couple of subtle enhancements: read more

On our first full day in Kyoto we hired our guide and friend Seiki Makino, who goes by Sid when associating with English-speakers. Sid an older gentleman, retired from a career with Panasonic. We enjoyed his company and expertise last year and were looking forward to seeing him again this year.

The first place we visited, on his suggestion, was the Kyoto National Museum. He specifically wanted to show us the Kyosai exhibit, a special exhibit of paintings and scrolls by a Japanese artist. Sid said that the collection will not travel outside of Japan so it was an unusual opportunity for us to be able to see it. It also became clear that Sid wanted to show us this exhibit as part of his personal presentation of Japan and its culture to us, which was rather touching. Unfortunately (for the sake of this blog) photography was not permitted in the exhibit–not surprisingly for a museum exhibit of antique works. read more

Jumping back to a previous day: On our first day in Kamakura, we didn’t have any particular plans so Tracie suggested hiring one of the numerous rickshaw drivers to show us around the town a bit. This turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant venture, in part because of the gorgeous temple we visited but mostly because of the warm enthusiasm of the driver. He was in his early 20s, spoke fairly good English, and was very cheerful as he pulled our large American butts through town and up and down hills. His name was Kentaka but he asked that we address him as Ken, presumably because he’s discovered that the average English-speaking tourist is more able to remember Ken than Kentaka. Here are pictures of us and Ken, and Ken’s energetic “manager”: read more