Category: Japan

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Kyoto and Tokyo Memories

When you travel around Kyoto and Tokyo it’s always good to be with friends but even if you can’t remember there are some interesting places that even a person traveling by themselves can enjoy and can find somebody to talk to. I found myself having a fairly long discussion with a couple from Holland at the Ryoanji temple, the one temple I always visit when I go to Kyoto.

Ryoanji Gardens
The Ryoanji gardens
Temple steps
Kyoto in Tokyo memories
if you watch the video below you will see how detailed this lady is manicuring the garden grasses
Moss on the tree
Beautiful tree moss
Inside Ryoanji
Inside Ryoanji
Roof design
Old roof decorations. You can see the circles with the three items swirling, a design you see also in the Celtic tradition
Furigana
Here you can see modern Japanese written with some characters which are smaller off to the right. Those are to help people read the specific pronunciation of the kanji and are always used for students when they are learning kanji. This pronunciation writing is called furigana
A dragon
a virtuous dragon
Zen rock garden
The famous Zen rock garden
Good timing
This was just good timing. There were a lot of pollutants and also missed in the air which made the Son this red color
The carbus
This model is called the carbus. I guess they couldn’t make up their mind what to call it
Ueno park
Ueno park with a cherry blossoms
Old restaurant
Typical post war restaurant
Karaoke OK
Karaoke in the small restaurant
Singing karaoke
I never require much encouragement to sing karaoke
"Italian" in kanji
“Italian” in kanji
To graveyard
One of the most famous graveyards in Tokyo
Gravesite
Betty Shibata’s gravesite
Deleting references
Deleting references to Christians
Family tomb
The small family tomb
Washing the tombstone
The bucket of water in the previous photo is used to wash the tombstone
Tokyo tram
The last Tokyo tram
Bar k
at bar K and GoldenGai Shinjuku with Scott Nellis
Preparing the stage
Preparing for presentations during cherry blossom season
Tokyo Sunset
Tokyo Sunset
Karaoke
With TAKEUCHI san singing karaoke
Used to be cherry trees
The street used to be lined with cherry trees 60 years ago
With a friend
With my friend Katena san
Cherry tree photos
People taking photos of the cherry tree
Tomb visit
With Hayashi san’s sister preparing to visit the tomb
Hayashi family tomb
Hayashi family tomb
Kei's grave
his is the one on the far left and you will notice the many kanji above the dates and name. This is the Buddhist name given to the person when they pass away. The more money you pay the better name the monks will give you.
Organized trash
Organized trash at the graveyard
Fancy grave
a very fancy grave
Warning
Watch for cats and frogs
Chinese crowd
my hotels convenience store was so packed with Chinese touristS it was impossible to even get in. I had to wait an hour for them finish their purchases
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Visit Wright’s imperial Hotel

it’s an interesting story how I learned the original imperial hotel in Tokyo which was taken down in the 60s was replaced with a giant hotel structure more fitting the economic potential of the area. As some of you know this building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and that is why it was so cherished and rebuilt at Meiji Mura (Meiji era Village).

Pete Muir and his wife Marjorie we’re close family friends often coming over for bridge and a dinner which gave us kids a chance to have some wine. Pete was the grandson of John Muir who you know as the great advocate of the Yosemite national park and many other things. He and Marge planned to visit Tokyo and I was going to take them around to interesting places I found. They had booked the imperial hotel and we’re surprised when they got there it was not the imperial hotel they remembered maybe from the 1950s or early 1960s. So I checked into the history and found that they were rebuilding the original hotel brick by brick near Nagoya at Meiji Mura. This was the first I heard of this place out in the middle of nowhere but my next post will be about the other buildings in this beautiful park which I highly recommend visiting if you’re interested in Japanese history, culture and the period between 1870 and 1925. if they wanted to again see the imperial hotel they remembered they could visit Meiji Mura which they decided to do.

https://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/en/tokyo/special/wright-building

Surrounding area
The surrounding area
The front
The front of the hotel
Reception desk
The reception desk
Wright's imperial Hotel
Wright's imperial Hotel
Most everything in the hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright all the way down to the plates
Wright's imperial Hotel
Coffee area
The coffee shop. You can see how open but also intimate feeling he imagined for this area
Coffee shop
Coffee shop tables and chairs
Ancient Mexican influencers
I see a lot of Inca and maybe Aztec influences in some of his designs
Wright's imperial Hotel
The expensive lobby
Dining area
a dining area
Playing the Chinese instrument
a volunteer gentleman playing some soothing tune on his single string Chinese violin/banjo
Wright's imperial Hotel
Wright's imperial Hotel windows
Francis Little House “Northome” , Minnesota. Windows from some other of his creations
Architecture
The light be from another angle. You can see how we departmentalize the different areas but at the same time presents an open architecture
Unagi Don lunch
After visiting I had a very delicious baked eel on rice luncheon (unagi don)
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Japan in August

With an old friend I haven’t seen for many years. Good reminiscence and memories
Dinner with a former employee
Why not use this name for a restaurant?
Very nice reclining train seats
A nice building in Osaka
This is the place to practice archery
At breakfast in my hotel people can watch the televisions above showing cameras in each of the elevators. I found it a little strange
The smoking room in the train station was very crowded which is good for cheap smokers who don’t want to pay for cigarettes. They could just go in and breathe the fumes
Up above, the sign in pink letters advertises a “soap land” where you can get soapy with a girl and do a variety of things
Cautions on the escalator
Whatever you do, don’t get caught
In Sapporo grilled lamb is called “Genghis Khan”.
This is how politicians campaign
A beautiful day in the park in Sapporo
The black one looks angry and threatening
A type of fashion
Crazy dancing at the Thai nightclub
This is an interesting twist on names
With Kiyo.
This is a coffee shop where you can rent a cat to keep you company
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Japan – food and drink

these are from my last trip in Japan.

It’s not creepy, it’s just creap, short for creamy powder, the equivalent of coffeemate
Elegant salmon with scallops and ……
This is my breakfast in the Wakayama business hotel . Not really exciting
This is a little more exciting, breakfast in one of the Toyoko Inn Hotels
Some really excellent beef
Miso ramen down the famous Sapporo Raman alley which is the host of the famous Sapporo Ichiban
Way too many people lined up for the most famous Ramen so I went down the alley a little bit and had some excellent Ramen which you see above
And one of the underground stations you can buy sandwiches in the machine
And the hotel you have machine delivering soft drinks and coffee and tea for breakfast buffet
In the subway station you can buy all sorts of things including baseball caps in a machine
You can buy ice cream also from this famous prefecture well known for dairy products, Hokkaido
In Asahikawa this Tonkatsu restaurant was featured in a television presentation and the food was excellent
This is the tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet) with a little bit more sauce than most people use. Excellent food
Sapporo was the place this country loved learning and producing German style beer. This large and very long park has months long beer festivals.
Each company has their own large area
Even Craft beers are present
Even this very famous Munich beer company is present
Meanwhile, back in my old neighborhood sushi restaurant …
You could see the name of the restaurant with the phone number. Everybody here is a lot of fun
But after the sushi restaurant we went to a Thai nightclub serving some of my favorites
Another breakfast, not fantastic but good enough to fill me up to start the day
In Okachimachi, Tokyo you can find this famous Chinese Gyoza restaurant
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Japan- food

One of my favorites made in my favorite sushi Drinkery
Nice and fresh oysters
With my former neighbors and one of my best college friend’s son (studying in Japan)
This is one of the better breakfasts I had, curry rice Japanese style
The old wartime navy food never dies. Spam mixed with tuna and mayonnaise wrapped in seaweed
Cornell graduates, and a friend’s son, gathering for a meal in Tokyo
Nice little snacks for dinner
One of my favorite breakfast meals
A not so good free hotel breakfast
A standard lunch
Wild duck
A few veggies more than half eaten
A very tasty but simple lunch
Special beef at a very popular Wakayama Korean barbecue
Very special rice as well
A very simple meal which I find incredibly nice, grilled beef of different marbling with KimChi and rice
With a seaweed soup
This is the Korean barbecue in Wakayama I really recommend
you know by now this is one of my favorites
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Japan 2024

Full bloom near my old house Temple
Very clean train
This was Being promoted
There was some shaking but nothing significant
A clear view of Mount Fuji from the hotel
Beautiful evening view from the room
One of my favorites
The only Cuban cigars we could find that week. Cubans are in short supply
My friend’s car.
Very boxxy
An Irish pub in downtown Wakayama
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japan – wakayama and…

Wakayama is kind of a quiet town with a decreasing population like many non-major cities in Japan but I have a close college friend who lives there and so I visit from time to time to enjoy the good food and the company. This time I just flew in from Bangkok for four days and then one day in Tokyo before flying back.

We smoke Cubans in his car on the way to dinner
My first quality Ramen in five years
These dolls are placed as a seasonal celebration, a shrine near Wakayama
The front of the shrine
The gate (Torii)
The business hotel where I stayed has a very uninteresting breakfast but it’s included
On Christmas day we had a nice tiramisu at a French style restaurant
In general the food was not too much and very tasty, Japanese – French style
Cute car. Only 600 cc. It’s a shame this company lied and cheated and had to shut down until they made certain acceptable corrections
A very nice lunch
A friend’s house, very traditional
Coming into Narita you can see some solar farms for the local residents
Friends at a countryside karaoke bar (snack) before a yakuza boss walked in
Representing Thailand, Japan and Borsalino land
It was a very clear day. Yes you can see Mount Fuji
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food in the fast lane

Of course we have to start it out with pizza. This is made at Flavio’s restaurant and is a nice thing crust quattro formaggi.
On a quick trip to Japan it was just very necessary to have a lot of pickled ginger
You can guess
Just for me they made some very nice tempura
The brown food on the small dish is salted Fugu (puffer fish). The first time for me
Fatty tuna was very delicious
Finally I got to a Korean grill
This Korean ramen was labeled very spicy but there was almost no spice in it
Very rare
Half green half yellow indicates some chemicals used in growing these bananas
What do these dogs have to do with food? They are waiting for their evening handout
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Akita area – nice people

Start of the “white trip” (not White Album)

Due to the salt air and sea waves washing up on the roads cars last only about 5 years. 

At most of the stations yesterday, due to the severe weather, almost none of the station masters checked tickets. 

Only 2 people were on the train from Fukaura to NishiNoshiro. 

No fishing in the winter so expect frozen fish everywhere. Due to the warming seas the formerly plentiful fish near the surface have gone deeper so fishing is tougher and more expensive. Overfishing near shore means longer trips for fishermen. 

There are many natural hot springs along this oceanside. 

Young people leave to work in the cities, reducing the population and make it tougher to economically sustain these rural areas and provide services to the aging population. 

Rice fields by the sea in winter. Is the rice salty?
Aomori to the west coast, along the coast to Akita and then down to Niigata
Almost whited out
And if wind and snow cancel the trains JR takes you by bus and taxi. White out so from Kawabe the train can’t run. We boarded a bus and are going by road. It was very efficient. Good thing we switched to bus. We can see the snowy scenery. The train windows were so fogged up it was showing signs of disappointment. 
My Akita hot springs room
Evening snack with Sapporo beer
Morning Coffee
Everyone loves old steam locomotives
An immigration mistake

Arrived at Ajigasswa but no transport from there on due to high seaside winds so JR hired a taxi for two customers to go as far as Fukaura. There I went to Sailing to eat before the train to NishiNoshiro. Everyone is so happy to see everyone. Lots of happy energy here.