Riding With the One that I love

This post is, meaningfully, my very last post on our Japan visit.  While these are all wonderful and important places to see and visit, currently it simply feels somewhat obligatory to include tourist sites. The most meaningful parts of the trip for me were the vernacular (which some people find mundane); for it was here in the common, everyday experience, that I learned more about Japanese people and customs.  Many of the images below are included in previous posts; this is just a blog post that summarizes the "bucket list" items, if you will, that we saw on this trip to Japan. Golden Pavilion : This was the grandest of all for the shimmering gold three-story building.  Certainly this was a surprise to round the corner and see this exquisite sight.  There were acres of gardens to be tended.  I saw a single gardener clipping a bush; when I commented about him to our guide, the guide said it was a great privilege and a great honor to be a gardener at this...

Some things I saw or experienced on our trip simply defied explanation or words. Some were just  things that stuck with me -- or that I wanted to stick with me.   Many things I found meaningful or interesting, but I could not categorize.  This post is a compilation of the silly, the interesting, the surprising, the mindboggling, or simply the un-file-able. Hats for Cats were for sale. As we rode our bikes the last day by the river, we saw not only fields of small plants planted in rows: rice patties, but we saw subsistence farming at the river's edge. Everywhere we stayed offered magnificent views.  This is the view of a temple from our ryoken window. The lotus flower in the front is in a fountain. The streets are empty because the earthquake just happened. Streets in Japanese cities are very narrow. Cars, bikes and pedestrians on the same road just make it work. During one of my bike rides, I slowed my bike whe...