Ok, now I seriously have to stop buying stuff. It's hard though. At least I've done my best to keep everything small and unbreakable. And inedible, except for the cha I couldn't resist.
I saw a subway train today that was beautifully painted with scenes of sakura in bloom.
As much as I miss the kids I'll be sad to leave this place. I could live here. In fact I would love to.
As a gaijin I am noticed. I see people looking at me. The difference between the natives and the other gaijin is that the Japanese look away as if they've been caught staring at a cripple. The foreigners look me in the eye, like, Yep, we're in the same boat.
I like being alone here though. There's a different feeling when I've had someone to talk to, between feeling as if I'm missing what is going on around me and not having the freedom. Not that I would have traded the chance to meet Emelina for the concert for anything. It's just that there's a unique feeling to be a lone stranger in a strange land.
Did I mention I love it here? I do. Or maybe it's got to do with the freedom I have right now. I'd surely come back here. As often as I can.
These are liquor bottles, lit up all along a shelf beside a small canal down the side of the street, in downtown Kyoto near Gion.
Some of the hundreds if not thousands of torii arches which traverse the mountain at Fushimiinari Shrine. As a side note, they will be seen in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha".