While on the topic of gardens, I am impressed by the way people here seem determined to have a garden no matter how little dirt they have. Walking down the narrow streets in both Tokyo and Kyoto, potted plants spill out onto the sidewalk, and reflecting the Japanese love of plants and flowers. It softens [...]

We went to a great show at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo, to see the work of 17th century brothers Korin and Kenzan. These two, and the movement they heralded in Japanese art called Rimpa, have always been a favorite of mine. Brother Kōrin was a painter, and Kenzan was a ceramics artist and a [...]

We are staying in a quiet corner of Tokyo called Taito-ku, and it is, indeed quiet and laid back. It is known for being a cat friendly part of town, where people seem to be interested in feeding the local feline community. You don't see many cats during the day, but they do come out [...]

Since you're clearly here to see pictures, here's a minor flood of parting views of Kyoto: Kuniosan, our airb&b host, a charming gentleman and priest of a Buddhist temple called Daisen-ji (Amida sect). We had a lovely chat with him, his wife, and his son one day, and he ended up showing us his little [...]

We get turned in direction so often here (streets are not exactly on a grid, that's my excuse) that it's amazing we get anything done at all each day, but somehow we keep encountering wonderful people, seeing amazing things and eating delicious food, and we manage to accomplish a lot..here's a short list from the [...]

Again, thanks to the generosity of friends who were willing to go on an adventure in the countryside, we were able to go to the tiny village of Nantoshi, about an hour and a half drive from Kyoto, where there is a place called the Little Indigo Museum. Shindo Hirayuki and his wife own it, [...]

Ahhh Kyoto. I lived here for five years, eons ago, but it's taking a little time to get my bearings. We biked over to our old neighborhood and I couldn't quite make it out. It was very disorienting to not recognize anything; the edges of the city have changed so much and been built up. [...]

I love the kittenish quality of tiger paintings in Japan. Clearly they never saw the real thing, though I am told they saw the furs. Thanks to the kindness of friends, we had a lovely time on Kyushu. From visiting a coal magnate's mansion (reputedly the "Rockefeller of Kyushu") to the Heian Buddhist temple that [...]

After speeding from Kyushu to Honshu on the Shinkansen, we transferred to a one car, narrow gauge train that took us through the mountains to the sea, to the little town of Hagi. No chance of a runaway train here, as the conductor kept his white-gloved hand firmly on the controls as we trundled along [...]

Hmmm,  the purported cat town part of Tokyo revealed many, many cats, but none were the living, breathing version. Well, ok, I saw three in a window, some pretty beaten up looking boys that I was glad to see had some shelter. I will have to assume they all come out at dusk and roam [...]