Into the danger zone

Needless to say, Tokai Heart was very relevent to my interests. I fled, not least because staying and browsing would have made me inexcusably late for dinner. （I barely made it on time as I got lost and ended up trying to get into the wrong building - a postman kindly pointed me in the right direction. Hisako said a Japanese friend had done the same thing, as the buildings have similar names and look alike, which made me feel a bit better.）

This is （not）a cat

There are lots of Evangelion goods around - the series will not die. As well as this fabric （found in the Tokai Heart craft shop in Aeon near Kanayama） there were Kitty/Rei and Kitty/Asuka plushes in one of the convenience stores.

And then

Portable toilets.

English is not the only victim 2

English is not the only victim

Rock me （not）

Vibration-absorbing feet to protect equipment against earthquakes.

Only here

Amused myself wandering around a 100 yen shop in Kanayama. This is stick-on paper for repairing the paper on sliding doors.

It's a meow thing

In a Moomin wonderland

There's so much Moomin stuff around it's hard to keep track. There were Moomin blankets in Uniqlo as well.

It's a thing

Chair socks, available from all good interior and 100 yen shops.

Stop go stop

Forgot my bag at Hisako's. （Thankfully remembered not long after we left and she kindly went back to get it.）Missed the underground train we were aiming for. The Hikari shinkansen I need to be on has all reserved seats taken, so I'm on the platform at Nagoya watching Nozomi super-expresses go by as I queue for the non-reserved seats. Well, I suppose I didn't come here to relax... Must be bright-eyed and interesting for the translators' meeting.

The rumours were true

Melon-pan tops! Or skins as they call them.

Japan has sugar too

Sweet gift from my homestay family's daughter.

It's in the bag

Cute vase at Isetan Kyoto.

WWJD?

Meow and nom

Found the Floresta animal doughnuts shop in Kyoto! One doughnut cat and one not-so-sweet doughnut with chestnut filling.

Anything so long as it's green

Matcha beer. Hmm.

Old haunts

Lunch with Nobuko at one of the restaurants in the Kyoen development next to Sanjo-Keihan.

Rented beauty

Kimono rental shop.

Snoopy, Kyoto style

There's a Snoopy shop on Shijo-dori near Kawaramachi.

Lunch on tour

Red orange yellow green

Beautiful foliage at Engyoji Temple in Rakuhoku no Sato. It has an amazing dry garden as well.

Relevant to my interests

An ad for "remnants day" at one of the Nomura Tailor branches.

Ah!

A blast from the past - a trio of Ah! My Goddess statues.

Too cute to eat

Or more accurately, inedible - felt sushi!

Danger zone

The big craft shop underneath Kyoto Tower. Oh, how my wallet suffered. ^___^

Green tea curry - not so sure...

Green tea Swiss roll - yes

Green tea buns - yes

Love to the box

Yu-pack is Japan Post's line of packing and parcel service. They don't need to be made cute for me to love them.

And quite rightly

Looks like Fushimi Inari Taisha has been discovered. ^_^

Why you want a wireless network

Ad on the shinkansen.

Red leaf, green tea

Travel tip: the Starbucks above Himeji station has an amazing view of the castle.

Mont Blanc

In Japan, not what you might think.

Red leaf season

Red maple leaves in the garden beside Himeji Castle.

Briefly 2

Briefly

A very short trip on an N700 Hikari before changing to a RailStar Kodama service at Shin-Osaka. In Himeji to meet a teacher active in the school exchange project.

Special sauce

The shinkansen even has its own salad dressing.

It's somebody's anniversary

But the bullet trains get bento boxes, not cake.

Poster girl

The exhibition of poster art at the Ena Hiroshige museum was excellent - it was drawn from a private collection held by a brewery/distillery so was mostly for beer, wine and soft drinks, and the posters mostly featured young women. It was a fascinating glimpse into the transition of both art and society after the opening of the country and under western influence.

News is news

On the bullet train to Kyoto. News headlines scrolling on the panel above the door, including trade agreements, meetings with China, and a one-hour signal failure on the Yamagata Shinkansen line that resulted in five trains cancelled and 2,600 people affected.

Where else in the world would this be news?

Even here

I was surprised to find the lobby of the hotel in Ena full of foreigners - looked like a fairly serious hiking group.

Dinner with the Gifu posse moved on to a nijikai (second venue) for desert and since the teachers hadn't seen each other in a while either we talked until the place kicked us out at midnight. I stayed up for a while trying to repack sensibly, and looking forward to a quiet day seeing the Ena Hiroshige Museum before heading to Kyoto.

Paper persimmons

In the lobby of the hotel in Ena.

Squidney II

I bought myself a plush giant squid at the Churaumi aquarium but his strap broke and he fell off my bag somewhere on Taketomi island. Thankfully there's a shop selling gifts from the aquarium on Kokusai-dori in Naha so I was able to get a replacement. And watch some adorable baby cuttlefish.

This one's for you

Matcha latte and parfait. You know who you are. (^_^)

Feels like England

Hats off to whoever repaired my case. The feet look like they were never damaged at all.

It took ages to repack, and I missed the train I was aiming for. I'm so glad I exchanged my rail pass before I went to Okinawa... I've never seen a queue as long as the one outside the JR office at Osaka airport, which is where I was planning to get my reserved seats for the journey. After consulting with the ladies at the ticket gates, I went to - wait for it - queue for the non-reserved seats on the next express to Kyoto. Some Chinese speakers wandered up to the front of the lines then looked around and went to the end. A group of Italian speakers just waltzed in to the front of the line as people started to board, even though it sounded like one of them had been explaining the lines on the platform to mark the position of the queue.

I've lived in the UK for too long, haven't I.

In case you can't decide

Pudding shake in a vending machine at Naha airport. I missed the monorail I was aiming for and arrived 10 minutes later than planned to find a huge queue for bag drop. The ground staff ended up pulling people on my flight out of the line and rushing us through and I went straight through to the gate. So I could queue again for the bus along with what seems to be a plane full of Americans - I suppose it's the first cheap flight leaving on a Saturday.

The sky is crying

Bill and Austa had great timing - it started to rain just as I left the hotel to get the monorail to the airport, and is now chucking it down as I wait for the train. Probably good preparation for weather on the main island...

All mine

"My pudding" with a male version of "I".

Ishigaki's zombie bar?

And egg

Never seen this before - tamago sushi with the rice stuffed into a slice of omelette.

Fishy fishy fishy

Sashimi selection of local fish.

Ice cream surprise 2

But these were amazing. Salt and chocolate really works.

Ice cream surprise

No, I didn't try any of these.

Detour

Typhoon 25 is brewing somewhere to the south, so some boats are cancelled, but we're on our way to Iriomote via a different port.