I love Japanese food and presentation
Japan
I certainly was not expecting to be in Japan this trip. I also thought I was going to turn around in the Middle East, instead of moving continually east. My original thoughts were Canary Islands, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan. Ended up being Canary Islands, Spain, Portugla, Turkey, Ukraine, Krygystan, Mongolia and Japan.
I picked Japan because it was a 1st World country and one that I knew, so I could relax a bit after a few not 1st World countries. Was only in the country a few days, enough to see Kyoto and Nara and stop a few days in the spa town of Ito, Izu Peninsula. I stay at K's House Ryokan Hostel, a very fancy place on the river that happens to have a dorm space, which keeps the price at hostel rates. I love being here. They have an onsen (bath house), plus a few private ones and the house is truly beautiful and relaxing. Easily my favorite non-city hostel.
The food and service and people and trains and bathrooms in this country are simply amazing. I love being here and would gladly stay here a year if my pension was say, a LOT bigger.
60th Birthday
Ah, 60 years old. This makes me very happy. Not everyone I knew in my 50's made it this far. Friends disappear and I gather this will be an ongoing trend.
I wanted to turn 60 in a yurt in Mongolia, but circumstances change and here I am in Ito, Japan, a town I really enjoy. I travel alone (the most social way to travel) and therefore spend my birthday alone, connected to family and friends by the internet. I have spent a few birthdays in other countries, so this is yet another. I am happy to be where I am, who I am.
I am 60! Yeah!!! I retired a few years back so I could travel while still relatively young and healthy. I have done that. I realize just how fortunate I am and count my blessings each and everyday. So lucky just to have been born in Canada, which is why I proudly display the Canadian Flag wherever I go, eh!
I love getting haircuts on the road. Normally, a #2 menas the same thing everywhere in the world...not so in Japan. It took 20 minutes and 3 people to get my point across...to use a #2 spacer on my buzz cut. Lot of fun
My first meal in Ulaan Bator was Japanese food...go figure. In Japan, first meal was Indian food. I am a global foodie
I like waht big, congested cities do to architecture and design. The stairwell is bigger than the apartment
Typical side-street house in Kyoto. No very many big apartment buildings here, so the sense of space is very cool
Why would anyone build these ugly thing, much less buy it???
If you travel in Asia, you usually put your toilet paper in the bucket, as the flushing infrastructure cannot handle paper waste. Great until you hit Japan and people try to stuff their soiled paper into this little bin...hence the note
Kyoto is beautiful. I walk around big cities, looking for alleyways and little spaces like this
Can you come up with a caption for this piece??? My brain quits just trying to think of one
So pretty and peaceful
Geishas can't walk too far in their getups
A little teahouse, just off a shrine. Kyoto is very walkable. I did not use bus or train while there.
Notice the toilet paper fold. I have since learned how to do this...altho it is odd...it may be polite, but it means that the un-washed hands of the person before me have been manipulating my paper. As well, notice the double lift toilet seat for big/small people.
How many shrines have I been to in China, Korea, Japan, SE Asia. Obligatory photo
This neighbourhood just behind my hostel. Your spaces are small, and your neighbours are close
The deer in Nara are a tad tame
Bruce< I will ask you one more time...Did you eat the last biscuit????
I have dozens of photos of flowers. since I walk so much, I see many and it is easy to stop and smell them.
I saw a lot of baseball in Kyoto and Nara. They take it serious. The chatter in Japanese is too funny
Panty raid?
I would love to own this vehicle, all of one person wide
My favorite place to eat in Kyoto. I sat right up by the grill and watched these people make dishes I have never seen. I tried quite a few of them.
I gave them each a little Canadian flag pin, they gave me a little sushi pin
Everything is so well-done and defined, so of course the manhole covers are no exception
I am at the end of a 3 month trip, I'm beat up and my time in Tokyo is for relaxing a bit before flying 1/2 way around the planet to New York to see my daughters
Every city has street people, Tokyo is definitely no exception. Notice how neat and clean, plus the fact that people accumulate things that others don't steal. Cultural codes extend to the bottom of the social classes
It is early May in Japan, shorts and t-shirt weather and flowers abound
My pack takes me around the world for months at a time. It is the the little red-top one in the middle. Buddy on the far left has the big pack on his back, and the smaller one slung off his front. I like my style better. It has it's limitations, but the flexibility is well worth it. My pack has a little hostel sleeping bag and inflatable mattress stored in the bottom section
I do love New York. I have been coming here a few times a year, every year, since 1977. Yikes!
First thing i do is find a new brekkie diner...you alaways have to be looking, as restaurants come and go pretty quickly in this town. This one is near the basketball courts down by 6th Ave and 4th St., close to the Waverley Theatre, where the Rocky Horror hoopla started in 1976.
It is the annual 5 Boro Bike Tour today. I did this ride 2 years ago, the first time on a bike in NYC since I was a bike messenger here back in the 70's and 80's. Again, Yikes!
There is so much talent in this city, as well as so much good music.
The Central Park Zoo, a place I like to visit every few years. Sophie came with me this time.
