Letters from Japan and beyond

EP 38. Dinner at Dallas Cowboys western restaurant in Lake Yamanakako and sleeping under the stars; a much rehearsed telephone call; and a sumo invitation. Pretty good for a short few days.

EP 37 Advice from 1995: "There is one particular area which seems to have a lot of promise. This is in computer networks. It seems the whole world is moving into high gear with the use of computers." Even saying that 30 years ago, little did we know the extent computers would evolve. And an almost typhoon.

EP 36. After the Nikko parade, we are ready to eat. There are hundreds of stands, so we’ll just start at the top and eat our way to the bottom, trying a bit of this and a bit of that as we go. From fish cakes, pastries, squid skin kabobs, octopus balls, to American chicken nuggets - it was all there and we tried them all.

EP 35. Bus, train, subway, express train Spacia to pedestrian, we made it to Nikko and Kanaya Hotel for the traditional Nikko festival.

"There are 1200+ people walking, all in traditional dress and costumes dating back hundreds of years. Also there are some on horseback, really decked out in fancy clothes. There are groups carrying large portable shrines, and various kinds of musical instruments. "

EP 34. sumi-e is not just the painting but, more importantly, the mental attitude and feeling  given to and received from the painting. Technique is specific but it allows the artist to infuse it with soul.

EP 33. Mountains, scooter and tornados don't mix. Rain and wind and Mt. Fuji was closed. Going home on a scooter? "We manage to get our feet down and lean over, and crouch down while hanging onto the scooter, and get the thing stopped. I don’t think we’re going to get out of this thing alive." Join us on the 6 1/2 scooter trip home.

EP 32 Very clean after the complicated way of taking a bath, we are rewarded with 5 star food. The next day off the see Fuji-san. Did we make it? Through the tornado, yes, but Mt. Fuji had donned its CLOSED sign.

EP 31. 20 minutes lucky in my travel to Tokyo: the earlier trains suffered sarin gas attacks. And then April showers hold true in our trip to see Mt. Fuji. Part 1 of the trip begins here.

EP 30. Not an easy task, shopping for the perfect coffee cup, and then how to find Tex-Mex in Tokyo? I asked Bill where El Torito was; he had no idea even what part of huge Tokyo it was located, only a name and he didn’t know what it was the name of. He said something which sounded like a street I was familiar with: Omotesando. With help of the koban, we found it!

EP 29. The Big Buddha, the most visited of all Kamakura attractions. And big he is, 44 feet high, constructed in the year 1252, hollow inside and so you can walk in and up into his tummy. Then, the ultra modern toilet adventure and making Ghiradelli brownies.