Bitts N Pieces

Hi friends, I’ve been thinking a lot about language and technology. Everything in Japan has been so accessible, with signage in english and Google Maps everywhere, even if hours are sometimes off. I do wonder whether that diminishes the authenticity a little. We had the breakfast in the hotel again, which is really pretty great….

Hi friends, We started our day with the included breakfast in the hotel. It was pretty nice, with miso soup, scrambled eggs, toast and a little lettuce salad. I’m happy to have an included breakfast. Hotel Inn Gion has been a great deal so far. The wonderfully helpful guy at the front desk tried to…

Hi friends, We woke up early today to catch the 7:55 ferry from Honmura to Uno and had a nice walk with the morning sun rising over the mountains to the ferry stop. The ferry was pretty crowded with children clearly heading to school and young adults to work. We got to Uno and stopped…

Hi friends, I woke up warm, even though the other room was absolutely frigid. A shower helped, and we walked up to Honmura. There were bikes we could take from the guest house, but Jake wanted a helmet and I was unsure if I trusted the bikes to work (or if one would fit me),…

Hi friends, Today was a big travel day. We had to take three trains and a boat to get to Naoshima, which took most of the afternoon. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to riding trains at home after traveling here for a month. Even the local trains are clean and…

Hi friends, We slept well in the ryokan. The blanket was heavy and almost weighted and even though we couldn’t figure out how to work the heat, it was comfy. We woke up early and groggily made our way downstairs in time for breakfast. Turns out an early Japanese breakfast would continue our streak of…

Hi friends, Woke up again to construction. We’ve had some problem with noise almost every morning: roosters, construction, what will be next…! Laid in bed and showered and packed up. It was raining so I got a chance to test out my little bright red Eagle Creek travel umbrella, which worked great for the short…

Hi friends, We woke up to horrible construction noises outside around 8am. Incessant. Jake described it as every type of construction happening at once, or like a kid banging pots and pans together. We’ve really had bad luck with morning noise so far, but it’s okay, it means we get an earlier start to the…

Hi friends, We wanted to go to Bread A Espresso again for breakfast but as we were leaving we realized it was closed. Not just Tuesday but Wednesday and Thursday as well. Disappointed, we found a suitable replacement nearby in NGS Coffee just around the corner on the main boulevard. It had an airplane motif…

Hi friends, We started our rainy day off by walking the windy streets to Bread A Espresso, a modern, sparse cafe run by a (again, I assume) husband-and-wife duo. Pastries and breads are laid out in a display case and a big coffee machine and grinder sits to the right. Other than a couple of…