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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.