Best TV: Villa Fontaine Jimbocho. I will comment on the hotels on our recent trip. I reserved 3 different hotels on http://www.Hotels.com in advance. You have to pay in advance, although the refund conditions appear to by quite reasonable. The process went perfectly smoothly. Here is where we stayed. Although there was no grandeur, we were very happy…
One always collects too much stuff at a conference – mainly heavy paper stuff. On the morning of departure from Kyoto we had to sort through it all and make hard decisions. I brought my wheeled suitcase on this trip so I could put the heavy stuff in it, and carry light things in a…
This evening we were given a cultural show with a crew of presumably highly trained, expensive and refined geishas, for which Kyoto is famous. Maybe because we weren’t well fed beforehand, but we’re supplied with sake and such, I found myself nodding off a little. The charms of the geishas are, well, subtle – compared…
There might be just one thing worse than not knowing what you are eating, and that would be KNOWING. Look at the second column under ‘Innards’! I’ll list the items below the picture since the photo isn’t too clear. I really wonder about the other brands of beef if this one is a “major beef…
Our first morning in Tokyo we headed out toward the Yasukuni military shrine and happened upon the Sunday antique market. There was everything from World War 2 helmets and memorabilia to old photo albums, kimonos and junk jewelry. Maybe there were real jewels too, but how would I know? As we exited from the East…
“Electric City” is a district in Tokyo where there are hundreds of electronics stores – everything from big department stores selling all the TVs, etc, you could want, to hole-in-the-wall places that stack oscilloscopes and cables and spy cameras and ham radio parts and transistors, etc. At least I was able to get wifi on…
An opportunity has arisen which will send me to a conference in Kyoto. Japan has never been near the top of my list. I hasn’t even been ON my list. That is what makes it a true adventure! I am more anxious about this trip than going to the Amazon. In the Amazon I could…
Seeing Clarely 