Tokyo Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

August 2, 2025August 2, 2025

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

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

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

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

September 28, 2024November 22, 2024

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