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We are in Kyoto. It's early Sunday morning (happy Mother's Day, mothers) and we arrived yesterday around 3 pm by way of the Shinkansen. 

There are many more non-Asians here, but at the same time, far fewer signs with Latin letters/English translation. We explored by foot the section of the city surrounding our hotel, using a map provided by a very, very kind and sweet woman at the tourist information office at the Kyoto train station. 

We didn't always know where we were, but we found our way. Through D's Magellan-like sense of direction we even made it to the specific noodle restaurant we were looking for, even though neither the street signs nor the restaurant name were decipherable!

This was the meal that was my reward:

Oy-ishi katta!

The city is full full full of temples and shrines. We visited Kiyomizu Temple--up a steep hill past a huge Buddhist (possibly?) cemetery. And at the top a magnificent view and a complex of structures including the main temple and many shops, too. Here are a few pictures;

Ignore the green traffic cone. There was some restoration going on. 

The rabbit is the messenger. Pass it on. 

Now do you believe we're really in Japan?

On our walk back, we stopped in at a small grocery store because it's always fun to see what's on the shelves. 

Who wants Blendy Sticks?

Yay!

Today, instead of closing with a funny t-shirt or an ever-popular toilet photo, I will leave you with a Zen koan (of my own making) that popped into my head last night:

You don't have to know where you're going to know where you are. You are here. 

Ikea and sake differ by only one letter

The days are so full of new and fascinating experiences that it's hard for me to keep up here. I am writing now on Saturday morning as we prepare to leave Kobe for Kyoto. I'll try to give the highlight of the last two days in photos. 

And I've had a request for more bathroom signage, so let's start there. 

This one has the very practical "dry" feature. Not entirely effective but thanks for trying, toilet. 

Above you can see the musical notes button which will give everyone else in the restroom the impression that you are doing something so repulsive that the sound of a flushing toilet is music by comparison. 

And if you didn't already have enough to read, here are detailed instructions on how to clean the toilet seat with the special toilet-cleaning stuff in the dispenser below the sign. The thing on the right where you're supposed to wave your hand on front of it. . . Not sure. 

That completes the toire update for today. 

If it's not too indelicate, I'll move on to meals. I hady breakfast yesterday at Ikea, which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel (we're in a kind of industrial park area of the city, location of lots of corporate hq bldgs, so not a lot to see or do within walking distance).

It's reassuring to know that "kvissle" means the same thing universally!

Here is my breakfast:

That's not a pop tart, it's a nice soft bread. And that sweet bun was very good too. 

 

The final event of the conference was a social gathering here:

Fukushima cleaned up real well, didn't it?

No, no, ha ha, I'm joking. It's part of the sake making equipment at Shu-sin-kan brewery.  What followed was a traditional 8 course japanese meal. Each course was very small, a taste treat, and exquisitely presented and served. Of course I took a photo of every dish. 

Presented with few commercial interruptions:

Their award winning sake, served at the Nobel prize ceremony in Stockholm, they were very proud to announce. 

The dishes were as beautiful as the food. Ok. No more commentary. Assume that (almost) everything contained seafood of some kind and was delicious. 

Was that 8? The last is sake infused ice cream. 

And because our hosts were japanese businessmen, our night ended at an authentic japanese beer joint -- I've forgotten the term for this kind of local pub--where we sat on tatami mats on the floor and they brought out more and more food. 

Here are some of the guys. 

I missed posting much about the day I spent in Himeji, where the mood was on the serene end of the spectrum. But I'll close with this picture from the gardens there. Imagine the most wonderful constant sound of running water--even nicer than pushing that button on the toilet. 

Namaste. 

Karaoke night

I'm up way too late, and therefore this will have to be short. Why I'm up so late will have to wait, though I guess the title is a pretty good hint. When in Rome, right?

What I do want to record is that I'm giving myself about a million "stretching" points today. One of my first posts three years ago was about what a big deal it was for me to take Amtrak to Princeton by myself. To the point that I posted a photo of the ticket. 

So while  D was busy with his conference all day, I took a little trip on my own:

On the ridiculous front, this was the sign for the luggage and backpack department at a store in Himeji:

In case it's too hard to read, that says "Drastic the Baggage." There are examples of this kind of thing everywhere. It would not have been polite to try to photograph the man whose tshirt read "first state of university" or the super fashiony young woman whose expensive looking white leather jacket read, across the back: "RATIONAL.  Objent Velocity." (sic)

And here's what I purchased across from Himeji Castle. It's green tea flavor:

It was a good day. 

Sogo

First photo is of breakfast--the prettiest bowl of yogurt I've ever eaten.

 

My afternoon was spent on my own in Kobe center.

 

Sogo is the big department store. I spent three hours there exploring 8 floors of merchandise, and barely any of that time spent looking at clothing. The housewares and stationery departments alone probably took up half the time.

Of course I visited the bathroom. This sign was posted on the inside of the stall door. What could it possibly mean??

It's 5 am--why isn't everyone up?

Reflections to begin the day. 

1.  Everything is different here. 

2.  I still can't get my head around what time and day it is here vs. what time and day it is at home. You guys are just now thinking about having dinner, while here it is still way too early to find anything open for breakfast-- except for me it's already tomorrow. 

3. I can count on one hand the number of non-Asians we have seen anywhere in Kobe (excluding the 3 conference colleagues of D's we have seen).  As a consequence, we do get some attention, especially the tall American man with salt and pepper hair. Possibly they think they are seeing this guy:

The conference starts this morning.  D will give his talk in a few hours and I will be in the audience!  After that I will take off on my own to explore. 

Adventures TBD!

So much!

I have so much to tell you about! So much plastic food, so many toilets, so many vending machines, so many sake breweries! 

We spent most of the day with a lovely couple who are friends of a Boston friend, and they couldn't have been nicer --taking us all over Kobe. Also it was a beautiful day. Let's see what photos I can share. 

Here is part of my breakfast. It was buffet style so I went back several times. Yogurt with cucumbers is very refreshing. Those little red things are pickled plums and they were super tart. 

This is not the best toilet I've seen but it's typical: heater, "shower," and bidet buttons. The one at the airport also had "flush sound" for the easily embarrassed. 

The baby receptacle is convenient. 

Random plastic food at the main train station in Kobe. 

Machiko and Yoshi took us to a conveyer -belt sushi place. Absolutely no English explanations so it was invaluable to have them guide us through. Fun! I ate octopus. Meh. Everything else was delish, though. 

They also took us to two sake breweries but I didn't take pictures. 

I'll close with this very strange product name (read the line at the bottom of the label):

Yup. It's a roll of toilet paper. 

Half-past Monday

We're in Kobe and are proud to have stayed awake until after 8 pm. Getting here was the entirety of today's activity. Plus checking out the hotel "drugstore" from which the attached photo of plastic food. 

Tomorrow, photos of toilets. 

Have a nice day, America--I'm going to sleep!