We get turned in direction so often here (streets are not exactly on a grid, that’s my excuse) that it’s amazing we get anything done at all each day, but somehow we keep encountering wonderful people, seeing amazing things and eating delicious food, and we manage to accomplish a lot..here’s a short list from the past couple of days…

Wonderful show of Elliott Erwitt photographs at the Kahitsukan (Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art) where the building rivaled the show, which was excellent. On the top floor is an open air atrium with a small moss garden and a Japanese maple growing through an oculus in the roof.

 

 

 

The fan shop we went to, so I could buy some of the paper they use, which from my tests here picks up plant dyes for bundling really well. I didn’t think I was into fans but did I ever get woo’ed by the beauty of these objects. It’s ALL about fans here, very serious stuff, and the price proves it. The fellow in the photo was checking each fan in the new shipment to make sure the function was fluid. You’ve no idea how a fan should feel when it unfolds until you’ve held one of these in  your hand…

 

 

 

 

On the lighter side of things, the baby crow we met on our way to lunch, who was thinking about learning how to fly (they fledge before they can fly, but the parents protect and feed them until they figure it out)

 

And the collection of Maneki Nekkos I’m photographing for posterity

 

 

 

 

 

The great place we had dinner at this evening, with a shop full of rocks and seedpods and animal skeletons….the dishes were all composed to look like crystals or rocks..I thought Richard’s tiramisu looked more like a jellyfish, but it was very cool nonetheless, and delicious

They also had fused glass with plants in between that are turned into ash in the process:

 

And the fabulous sento (public bathhouse) we went to after dinner; 100+ years old, 9 different tubs, including an herbal bath, a cedar tub, different levels of hot and cold, and electric bath (good for your health?) and two beautiful tubs outside in a little enclosed grotto. Only the first photo is mine, the rest I took from the website because, well obviously, you can’t take photos in the bathhouse!

 

Finally, no day in Japan would be complete without just a little bit of Jinglish