In case you heard about the big quake in central Japan today, it didn't affect Kyoto as far as I know (I didn't feel it). The epicenter was several hundred kilometers away.

I was planning on practicing my traveler's Japanese on whoever sat next to me on the plane flight. Unfortunately, the sweaty Japanese businessman who sat next to me ( creeped me out a little... )

("Sorry, I don't speak Japanese.")

( ...notes on the language... )

My sister, my dad and I are in Kyoto this week (we arrived Tuesday night). I've gotten so far out of the habit of blogging that it didn't even occur to me to post about it to LiveJournal, but since I'm now wide awake at 3:30 am local time, I figured I should start, so I'm going to post bits and pieces over the next few days.