Osaka, But Not Really Osaka

Before the jump: footage from the Osaka portion of my travels in Japan! After the jump: fragmentary jim-jams about that portion. You know the drill by now, right? Admit that you do.

The Shape of Things

Oh! It occurs to me, beyond all the trip reportage arglebargle, that relatives and farflung pals who read this for the sake of what's happening in my life might want an update on, uh, that. So after the jump: where are things in February?

Your looks are laughable, unphotographable

After the jump: ways of seeing, photography, and temples in Japan.

New Year Same Old Me

Before the jump: the 48 hours that marked the end of 2018 and the start of 2019! After the jump: words about that same 48 hours! Wow what a time to be alive and learning so much about two days in the life of a human being on the internet!!! Read on for boy band monks, fire ceremonies, night tours of cemeteries, crab feasts and hot springs, and     m y     b r a i n

I'm not sure these videos are cutting together as nicely as I'd like 'em to, so this might be the earliest indication that Travel Exhaustion was starting to set in. Although my journaling indicates (both in its happening and in its contents) that I was in a pretty happy and mellow place! So maybe I just didn't care to do such a great job of conveying the loveliness of the world to you, the viewer??

Kyoto: the temples and the cold

After my initial dazed thirty hours in Kyoto, I settled into a pretty solid routine for my remaining days. I'd wake up before 6 (often before 5), have a slow start to the morning in my guesthouse room after a quick shower, and then walk for about fifteen hours, mostly taking evenings off. Full rundown after the jump, but first: another ding dong video! Who needs it!

It's not clear to me if Youtube has been slapping ads on these videos - their language suggests they are, since I'm using copyrighted music, so they (apparently) throw on ads and the revenue goes to the artist. Works for me, though I hate ads! Let's all get ad blockers, is my point. Goodnight!