Hi Friends,

It's been said a million times, I'm sure, but Tokyo is a city of great contrasts. We're going to tell this story mostly in pictures.


The Asahi Building, designed by Philippe Starck, dubbed The Golden Turd. In neighboring Asakusa, where we were staying, Sensoji Temple, completed in 645 (below), Tokyo's oldest and perhaps busiest temple.



Also Sensoji, under one of the giant sandals made of rice straw, belonging to one of the Temple Guardians.



 Boots and short skirts are the order of the day. I had to look long and hard for the costumed figures. Unfortunately, I guess that is not as trendy as it once was.


School girls; We happened to catch Chandra in the train in back.


Love,

Era and Don

Hi all,

How the monks can make this delicious food without meat, fish, onions, garlic or dairy is amazing. They've been practicing, practicing for over 1100 years.

We arrived in Koyasan after taking the bullet train to Osaka Namba Station, a huge station with several different shopping plazas, then a local "express" and then a cable car up a very steep mountain, and finally a short bus ride to our beautiful temple. We will write more on Koyasan later; this is just the start of the food. This is the gorgeous Daienin, where we stayed.


Don and I have just been served 2 red lacquer trays each, laden with food. The dinners are served normally at 5:30, but since we arrived late (at 5:30) they served us at 5:45. We weren't really hungry yet, but we did our best.


On the closest tray, starting again with the tempura and proceeding clockwise.

The tempura is grated carrots with some chopped green herb. Delicious. Also there was green pepper, eggplant, squash and potato. I could not begin to finish this.

Tempura dipping sauce in small blue and white bowl.

Sake cup for a special sake the monks make in Koyasan. Very good and also supposed to be medicinal (good for the nerves).

The red lacquer bowl with sprays of gold contains a clear soup with noodles, a decorative tofu shaped like eggplant, strips of fried tofu and lemon slice.

Rice, which we wouldn't be eating until later in the meal if we were proper Japanese.

3 kinds of pickles. Very good, not as salty as the type we get in the States.

In the squarish bowl, a delicious salad consisting of shirataki (clearish, white noodles made from konnyaku, I think), slices of devil's tongue jelly (a different grade of konnyaku, slices of different vegetables and seaweed. All in a vinegary marinade/dressing. There was more to this salad; it's partially eaten.

In the red bowl, my absolute favorite. What is called Goma-tofu. It is made with sesame seeds and starch, as well as the usual soy beans, I guess. It is in a sauce with a little mound of wasabi on top. This is apparently a secret recipe passed down from monk to monk for 1100 years. I have never had anything like it. It tastes like the lightest, most delicious cheese with a very creamy, cheese-like consistency. I hope they give us some more tonight.

Tray #2, starting with the eggplant and proceeding clockwise.


Grilled eggplant. Half of it has a dark miso sauce. The lotus root has been pickled in rice vinegar. The 2 green vegetables under the lotus root are okra.

A miso nabe, or stew, in a wire net which has been lined with a stiff paper. There is a flame underneath, the stew is simmering in the paper and nothing burns. The stew has more normal, but very good tofu, clear noodles, shiitake mushrooms, mochi (which is a rice cake made from pounded sticky rice), all in a miso broth.

In the small blue and white striped, hexagonal bowl, a vegetable which has been stewed in a gelatinous broth. I wish I could describe the flavors better, but it seems beyond me. I think this vegetable may be the type of gourd which is dried and made into a loofah. I can't think of the name, but I've had it before. Very delicate and good.

The white bowl is for the nabe (stew).

The blue flowered bowl has tofu, a very different type. It was extremely juicy, had soaked up a lot of delicious sauce. I wish I could describe or figure out how they make their sauce without onions, fish or meat. I can't imagine what the base is. The rest of the dish is Japanese pumpkin, okra, gingko nuts, and a decorative piece of tofu shaped like a maple leaf.

Dessert was Japanese pears and grapes.

BREAKFAST the next day


Starting at the top LH corner, tofu with bits of vegetables and seaweed mixed into it, formed into a patty. Again, very juicy with broth. 2 pieces of an unidentified mountain vegetable on top which has also been stewed.

A clear broth with chrysanthemum leaves, enoki mushrooms, and tofu in the iron pot with the flame under it. Not easily seen in this photo, but there was also a flat square of what looked like a very fine moss. It fell apart when touched and made a beautiful pattern in the clear broth.

A little dish of soy sauce.

In the turquoise bowl to the side, gobo or burdock root, marinated with toasted sesame.

In the white bowl underneath, bowl for the broth with a lime to squeeze into it.

Back on the tray, miso soup with seaweed and a frothy sort of tofu.

Teacup and rice bowl.

Pickles and salted plum.

Wish you could be here to help us with all this food.

Love,

Era and Don

Hi folks,

We came to Japan to attend the reception of The Missing Peace in Tokyo. The location is Hillside Terrace, an art space near Shibuya and the Omote Sando area. I cannot now remember the exact name of the area, Daikan something [Daikanyama - ed.]. Tres chic. In fact, the women you see shopping in the department stores are so incredibly put together; we have not seen anything like it since Paris and Rome of 20 or 30 years ago.


Era and Chandra with Ron Haak, Darlene's husband. Lewis' mammoth sleeping Buddha is stretched across the front of the picture. Don and my Dharmakaya is on the wall to the left. Rupert Garcia's canvas is to the right in red tones.


The opening was well-attended. Some of the staff told us it was the biggest crowd they had ever had and that the space never looked better. That was gratifying to hear.



Era, Yoko, a local writer, and I think her name is Valerie, a famous Tokyo drag queen.


A couple of other local characters, showing their support.

At the Itami Airport on our way to Tokyo and then home. Boo-hoo.

Love,

Era and Don

Hi friends and family,

By popular request, a Japanese food email. Mostly pictures.


This is a fairly typical Japanese lunch, especially in this hot, humid climate: cold buckwheat noodles (soba) with shredded dried nori (toasted sheets of seaweed) on top, a dipping sauce into which sliced scallions and wasabi is mixed. Dip cold noodles into cold dipping sauce and slurp away. Tempura'ed shrimp also over soba in a clear, dashi-based sauce with chopped scallions. This is served hot. Again, slurp away. We had this at a small restaurant at Daikoku-ji Temple, Kyoto.


Sashimi with intricately carved carrots. Don't ask me what the different fish are. I know one of them was sea bream. Very delicious, but we later went back to another restaurant which was equally delicious and served larger servings. Does anyone really care about those gorgeously carved carrots? Chandra and I had this at a restaurant in Pontocho, the (I think former) geisha in training area in Kyoto.


A beautiful and delicious kaiseki meal at a Tokyo restaurant recommended by a Japanese friend of Lewis'. We had another beautiful kaiseki dinner in Naoshima, but it just didn't measure up in taste. I don't even know the name of this restaurant, as I never saw it written in anything but calligraphy, but it was in the Ginza in a building called the Jujiya (or perhaps Jijuya) building, across from Matsuya Ginza, next to Chanel and on the 5th floor of the building. As Lewis' Japanese friend said, she took some friends there and they said it was the most sublime dining experience they had had in all of Japan. I think we all agreed - sublime. It came to about $30 each, including the beer. Great value. Cooking like this is incredibly labor intensive.

The first course is salad with a lovely dressing and tuna sashimi in the cantaloupe bowl. The little glass holds the dressing. The little round bowl contains what I think is a tofu and root vegetable mixture lightly fried or perhaps baked and then stewed in a savory jelly-like sauce, apparently made glutinous by some mushrooms. Very subtle and delicious, although it may not sound that way.


The main course: Starting from what we all know, the tempura, shrimp, eggplant, some type of green pepper.

In the bowl shaped like a yellow and green leaf: some type of tofu baked with what appeared to be raisins inside of it, sesame on top - Not my favorite; the red ball made to look like a little fruit is actually a small egg yolk of a bird smaller than a chicken, marinated in something which made it go clear and red; grilled eel sushi with a piece of pickled ginger.

In the white eye-shaped bowl: a salad of seaweed, cucumber, fried tofu, sliced and marinated, and a Japanese dried gourd, sliced and marinated. Excellent.

In the little square blue dish: I think this was some type of almond milk jelled and cubed (or made from some sort of nut), with a caviar sauce.

In the polka dot cup: Chawan mushi, a savory egg custard (not sweet). It usually has little bits of shrimp and fish, perhaps vegetables inside.

In the red lacquer cup: A cube of tofu with sauce.

In the shallow bowl to the side, a dipping sauce.

There was a rice course with shredded egg and other things, which we all forgot to photograph. Can't remember very exactly now.


Dessert course: Very good ice cream, which had bits of rice in it. It was rice flavored. Japanese apple pear in the little maple leaf plate.

Just this evening (back in Kyoto) we found a restaurant which served delicious Japanese vegetable dishes, buffet style, over 20 items to choose from, and brown rice. Just what we had been hoping for. Then we heard from Lewis and Chandra, back in Napa. They just had an Italian dinner at some friends' house with a bottle of Napa red wine, that doesn't sound bad either.

Last night we broke from Japanese food, went to a Spanish restaurant and had Sangria, grilled vegetables, a tortilla and a paella. Not as good as Cesar's or our paella, but it was pretty darn good. Our waiter was a young Japanese who spoke English and Spanish and has traveled to 13 Latin American countries on his own. He said Era looked like his mother, and the family is from the Kyoto area. Don has not been feeling tip top and the Sangria helped to settle his stomach.

Tomorrow we go to Mt. Koya (Koya-san) to stay in a Buddhist temple for a couple days. One of the attractions is all vegetarian food which the Buddhist monks have been developing for centuries. Then we float home. But I'm very behind on my emails. Still have to tell you all about Tokyo and our opening. Hopefully I'll get to that before we return home (maybe on the plane) or it will never be written.

Best to all, and Envision Obama as President,

Era and Don

Hi friends and family,

Thank God we went to Naoshima. Although Edie had highly recommended it and urged us to go, I am not sure if we would have made the effort without Lewis and Chandra's planning and motivation. The route involved taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Okayama, transferring to a smaller local train, wheeling our luggage to a ferry terminal, and finally the ferry to Naoshima, a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan.


We were picked up by the bus service provided by our hotel, Benesse House. Benesse is a Japanese publisher of textbooks with exquisite taste in art (with a few exceptions). The Park, where we stayed, was designed by Tadao Ando, a former boxer and an absolute genius of an architect who apparently has no formal architectural training. The Park, which is the least expensive of the 3 hotels which are part of the Benesse House, was barely affordable for us, esp. considering our trip is 2 and a half weeks long, but it so beautifully designed, so perfect in every way, that we were very glad we opted to stay for 2 nights. It's like staying in the most gorgeous contemporary museum with a James Bond flair. In fact, they are thinking of filming a James Bond movie here.


Hall from Reception to the Elevators.

The island is dotted with outdoor sculpture, installations and museums. In one of the fishing villages, old houses have been converted into art installations. Finding all of the art projects is like a scavenger hunt. In fact, we realized afterwards that we had missed one: Cai Guo-Giang's Cultural Melting Bath, a rock garden installed by the sea. However, I think that was the only installation we missed, not a small feat, as this same mysterious Japanese holiday caused the museums to be closed on Tuesday, instead of Monday, so we had to see the Chichu Museum and the art houses on the morning before we left for Tokyo.


The Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama


Cliff Screen by ??


Walter De Maria sculpture, local boy, born in Albany, CA. There was an absolutely gorgeous Walter De Maria installation inside the Chichu Museum which we were not allowed to photograph.

Photos from inside one of the art houses:



Sea of Time by Tatsuo Miyajima. You walk into a small Japanese house, inside are shoji screens, wood walls and frame, the wooden beams holding up the house and dark water where the tatami mats would be. The liquid crystal lights in varied colors blink silently in the water. Stunning.



Go'o Shrine with "ice" stairs by ??

Water Garden outside the Chichu Museum. The Chichu has a number of Monets in their collection.

Naoshima, a place unique on this Earth. I would only wish that we had planned an extra day to visit Isamu Noguchi's studio, which is nearby (another ferry ride) and is supposed to be great.

Love,

Era and Don

More Day 4 in Kyoto and Morning of Day 5

After Fushimi-Inari, the place of the 4,000 red Torii gates, I dragged everyone to Kiyomizu-dera, one of my favorite places on my last visit to Japan, almost last lifetime now. It is a long trek up the hill, past our ryokan, and smaller temples (see a couple below), to the huge wooden temple in the SE hills overlooking Kyoto. Because of the mysterious holiday (we still don't know what it is. It seems to be complicated to explain) the street was absolutely jam-packed with people heading both up and down the narrow lane. Fascinating people watching. This is where we saw some of the geisha and also quite a few young people, both male and female, decked out in kimono and other interesting garb.


When we got to the temple the huge wooden deck, built on a steep hillside and overlooking the city, was packed with people. I felt nervous that it might not hold all the weight, but needn't have worried, as you can see from the next photo. That structure is so completely overbuilt that there was no danger at all. It is a beautifully designed and massively constructed temple.


Winding our way down the hill, we passed families waiting in line to partake in some ritual cleansing by sacred water, or that's how it seemed to us. Maybe the water simply tastes good. Good cheer, as usual. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.


We were thinking of going to a famous unagi (grilled eel) place where the family has been serving eel for hundreds of years. It's in the Gion, a little ways down the hill. However, looking over the menu and the street-side displays we discovered that a simple bowl of rice with some grilled eel on top was over $60. It was probably delicious, but yikes. Went instead to a small restaurant in Pontocho, near the river, which we stumbled into on our first night, and where we all agreed had the freshest, best sashimi any of us had ever had in our lives (or since we were last in Japan). We will be showing you a series of photos of courses we had at an elaborate Japanese dinner, coming soon.

Next morning, our last in Kyoto (until we come back after our Tokyo stay), Don and I decided to walk around our neighborhood. Almost everything was closed. It was Monday, and it was still a holiday. Our ryokan is in the Higashiwara, in the hills of SE Kyoto, above the Gion. Every block seems to have a temple on it. It is also surrounded by many parks. The day was already hot, we walked up a long flight of beautiful stone stairs across the street from us to Kodai-ji temple. We ended up sitting in what we thought was a secluded spot in the shade, contemplating a beautifully carved and ancient gate with a forest on the other side. A young woman dressed all in black, who turned out to be a priestess, was standing modestly to the side. People appeared, many with a packet wrapped in a silk brocade and presented it to her with a bow. More and more people showed up and she soon had a tray filled with the packets. 2 other priests appeared, dressed in sky blue, white and black. They opened the ancient gate, chanted in unison, took the packets into the forest and reappeared empty-handed. Everyone bowed numerous times. We saw this re-enacted a second time, and left while the 3rd group was gathering. This is what I mean by not really having a clue, but it was all very gorgeous and fascinating.

We walked on through little wooded trails and came to a huge temple complex, which I think now was Chion-in. There was an elaborate Buddhist ceremony taking place inside the gigantic main temple. Many priests chanting under huge lacy golden hangings. The congregation sat to the left, stragglers, including us, kneeled on tatami mats, facing the back of the monks. Families with young children lit incense and tossed money into wooden offering boxes during the ceremony.

The Japanese seem to be able to multi-task very easily and deal with all kinds of sensory input. Kids were running back and forth, people coming and going, while a solemn ceremony was going on in a wooden shrine the size of a football field. Nobody seems to be at all disturbed or suffer from broken concentration. I've heard the same thing goes on at kabuki theatre: eating, talking, getting up, coming and going, anything goes. Nobody is bothered in the least. They do keep their voices down, though. No loud, raucous voices are heard, except occasionally when they're drunk at restaurants.

In this photo, you can see the back of a monk's shaven head under the railing; the priest, just to the right, has a yellow silk headdress on. The congregation on the left is barely visible.


Walked back through a park, Maruyama-koen, to our ryokan, grabbed our luggage, caught a cab to the Kyoto train station, bumped into Lewis and Chandra. Had a quick lunch and jumped on the Shinkansen to Naoshima, via a few transfers.

I know things are in turmoil at home. We would not have picked this time to travel, but we were locked into the trip and are very glad to be here. Good thing we're spending all our money here and not watching it plunge in the stock market.

Best,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

Day 4 After 2 days at our beautiful, but somewhat westernized ryokan, Watazen, in central Kyoto, we had to move. Lewis and Chandra went to an over-the -top comfortable Western-style hotel nearby and Don and I went to another ryokan in the hills in the SE part of Kyoto, the most gorgeous area, filled with temples and gardens and beautiful small shops and estates along narrow, twisty streets, lots of geisha strolling around. We think they must be paid by the city or local merchants, as they were so ever present and happy to have their photos taken. However, there is a Japanese holiday happening this weekend and Monday, so it may be because of that. There are many Japanese out in kimono also. Our ryokan could hardly be called luxe, more like staying in someone's house. A shared bath and toilet, but a huge tatami matted room, probably 40 to 50 tatami mats, which is how the Japanese used to measure room size, and shoji screens with gardens on both sides of the room.

Probably most of the people in this montage were not born when Don and I last visited Japan. Yikes.


After a short stroll around our neighborhood, we met Lewis and Chandra at Fushimi-Inari, a place of literally thousands of red Torii gates. There are over 4000 of them, put up by local businesses. They follow a walking path up a wooded hillside for about 3.5 miles, at times so densely packed that they almost block out the light. They say this was Christo's inspiration for his project in Central Park. At the start of the path, there was a festival atmosphere, a play with darling children in Heian costume, doing what seemed to us a great job in projecting their voices and characters. Nearby a Buddhist ceremony with priest and worshippers was taking place, the priest's chant a counterpoint to the children's lines. On the way we saw many, many shrines with little fox sculptures, what we think was a Buddhist funeral with priests in high black hats and robes, playing mostly flutes. There was also what appeared to be a Tibetan or Nepali monk in the retinue. Thank you, Edie Caldwell and Kenji and Gail Nanao for recommending this amazing site to us.



Finally, what I think is a pretty hilarious picture; it shows from L to R an unidentified photographer, Era, Chandra and Lewis all on the prowl for the perfect image or images. And, of course, Don is taking the picture of us. Thank God the Japanese are fanatic photographers, so they hardly blink an eye at our non-stop picture-taking.


If you would like to see more photographs, Lewis has posted his on the web:

http://gallery.me.com/sotolux#100141
http://gallery.me.com/sotolux#100133

Love to all and don't let the Republicans get you down,

Era and Don

Hi folks,

Typing this on a Shinkasen, a bullet train, on our way to Naoshima. The scene out the window looks like we're on fast-forward.

Kyoto is amazing. We keep saying we haven't a clue what is going on, but we love it. It is as if we are seeing only the outer layer of the onion, but it is wondrous.

Day 2 in Kyoto we went to Ryoan-ji, a Zen temple which is famous for its dry rock garden. Chandra, who is into quiet, calming art with a minimalist sensibility, has really been looking forward to seeing this. We figure she was Japanese in a past life. We also went afterwards to Daitoku-ji, which is in the same part of the city, Northwest Kyoto. Daitoku-ji, also Zen, has multiple temples, only some of which were open. The temples are all surrounded by gardens, and most have enclosed gardens also, both dry and green. They are breathtakingly beautiful. In fact, so many parts of Kyoto take your breath away. One temple in particular is surrounded by a bamboo forest, with a beautiful garden filled with Japanese maples, and a lovely teahouse, built by a Japanese lord, famous for winning battles in Korea, whose wife converted to Christianity at a time when it was illegal in Japan. Top photo of dry rock garden by Lewis deSoto, bottom photo of one of the main rooms at Ryoan-ji by Don.



Day 3 Darlene Markovich, who is one of the major movers and shakers of The Missing Peace, invited us to visit Nara with her. She, her husband Ron and some friends were being shown around by Hiroko, the wife of travel writer Pico Iyer. The Iyers live part-time in Nara, and Hiroko is a native of nearby Kyoto. Lewis and Chandra opted to take a little recuperative break, but Don and I woke up bright and early, activated our Japan Rail passes and headed off to Nara. Our instructions were to meet at the Nara Station Starbucks. As often happens when traveling, there was a slight mishap. The Starbucks was not at the station we came into, but another station. Dear Ron met us at the station, had a taxi waiting, and whisked us off to the right station. It turns out their traveling companion, Garry, had done a project at Magnolia, printing on mirrors, while Don and I were in Santa Fe. His sister, Lou, now lives outside London, but grew up in Palo Alto and was one year behind Don in high school. Hiroko is totally charming and unusually vivacious. She took us to see Kofuku-ji with its beautiful wooden pagoda and Todai-ji, whose main hall is still the world's largest wooden building, although my guide book says that it is only 2/3 the size of its original structure, housing Japan's largest bronze Buddha. It was built in 745 by Emperor Shomu, in an effort to ward off plagues. My guidebook tells an interesting story of when the giant Cosmic Buddha (who presides over all levels of the Buddhist universe) was dedicated in 752 by symbolically opening its eyes. An Indian priest stood on a platform and "painted" the eyes with a large brush; colored strings trailed down so that others below could participate. Ambassadors from China, India and places "further afield" attended. This is in 752, folks. We also went to the Nara National Museum to see Hiroko's favorite Buddha, a 6-armed and 3 faced bronze, which turned out to resemble Hiroko; (or I should say one of the faces and 2 of the arms). The Nara Museum has a stunning collection, each piece was a gem. There is a bronze Buddha head there which gives one a blast of energy when you stand directly in front of it, a mini Satori experience.


We have been speculating on how Kyoto, which is a very large city, seems so unhurried and calm. The Japanese seem so mellow and cheerful. I think it is more than everyone knowing their place and knowing what to expect, I think it is also the presence of literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of gorgeous Buddhist and Shinto shrines in one city and always the relationship to nature. The temples are usually surrounded by gardens and often, along with the shrines, have a very open design. You do not get the sense of a fortified citadel, but a gorgeously designed and constructed wooden structure, very accessible and open to the world.

Best,

Era (and Don)

Hello friends and family,

In a Japanese fantasy. We are staying in a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Central Kyoto. Our "room" is large and really consists of several rooms, all divided by shoji screens covered in large single sheets of beautiful handmade paper. It is absolutely quiet in the middle of the night, but Japanese tend to be far more quiet than we Americans. Lewis deSoto and Chandra have an almost identical room next to ours.

We landed in Osaka's Itami Airport after a 10 hour JAL flight. Lewis had lent me his Japanese etiquette book for my edification. Don literally had a fit of laughter after I read him the following paragraphs:

    "Having been conditioned for centuries to a codified system of behavior which took on the color and force of a religion, the Japanese became so accustomed to "the Japanese way" that they developed an extreme sensitivity to any deviation. Unexpected or deviant behavior not only disrupted the cultural imperative of harmony, it was also extremely stressful.
    Japanese today are still extraordinarily sensitive to "non-Japanese" behavior. This sensitivity and the ensuing stress are part of the reason for the general resistance to foreign companies and foreign workers coming into the country. Some Japanese become nervous wrecks after being exposed to Westerners for only a few hours."

This made me very relieved I hadn't looked up some distant relatives and tried to stay with them or have them show me around.

Osaka looks a lot like a European city. I would say a more modern section of Brussels. Lots of bike riding: cute young Japanese with spikey hair and very well-cut black business suits cruising by. Lewis took this photo for me. Reminded us of the fabulous four, back when. Almost everyone is very slim. I haven't seen an actually fat Japanese person yet.


On the track of what has become our almost constant obsession, getting cash. Some of the ryokans take only yen in cash and some restaurants also, of course. Most of the ATMs will accept only cards issued in Japan. We went into a post office, where we've been told we could get cash. It was too small. Found a larger one; they will only give out $100 at a time. Don and Lewis found a bank which would do an exchange, but the procedure was excruciating: wait in a line, fill out forms, submit them, wait on benches, then, as Don said, get thrown in jail, get the third degree, talk to a lovely young teller who couldn't stop laughing, apparently in embarrassment at the lousy exchange rate. Finally she gave them their cash, Don gave her an Obama button, and thankfully they left her before a few hours had passed, thereby sparing her from becoming a nervous wreck (we hope).

It literally took all 4 of us to figure out how to take the subway, then train, then back to subway and follow the map to our Kyoto ryokan. At one of the ticket machines, while we were all puzzling, Don noticed a Call Attendant button, thankfully in English. He pushed it and a young man magically appeared, skidding to a halt in front of us. The next time we encountered the problem, at a different high-tech bank of ticket machines, we pushed the button, and instantly one of the computer panels flew open and a much older man appeared framed in the machine, much like the Great Oz. He also efficiently helped us.


Kyoto is a wonder-land. The shops and buildings in the central area where we are located are endlessly fascinating. The architecture, design and decoration is so inventive, gorgeous and whimsical, and from all eras of history. Temples and shrines are beautifully tucked into little nooks and corners everywhere. Went to Nijo Castle and grounds, as it is not far from us. Trod the famous nightingale floors, which squeak to alert the shogun and his samurai that a ninja for hire is coming down the hall.


Love,

Era and Don