Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace

Today I went back to Kyoto, using the train system with eight different train segments in total. Incidentally I never saw a train car that was considered too full, more people can always be packed in. Above is the Nijo Castle, originally built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun (military general) Iemitsu. In America we certainly do not have any 400 year old castles.

This wandering fellow toured the inner building. An interesting aspect of the floors is they were purposefully constructed so that when walked on they squeeked. That way the general would know if someone was trying to sneek up and kill him. The floors still squeek with every step.

I can not imagine trying to attack a castle with a mote like the above.

Next I toured the Imperial Palace. Above is an example of the beautiful garden in the palace.

The buildings were so huge that it was difficult to get a good picture of them. This palace was used as the home of the Emperor from 1331 to 1869, when the capital was moved to Tokyo.

I spent the day with two people I met at the train station. The man was from Georgia but living in Malaysia and his niece was from Norway. They made the day even more enjoyable.

The sightseeing is now over and I am anxious to return tomorrow to the states. I may not live in a palace but it is home, where my beloved wife is. And by the way, it has a kitchen that is getting better by the day.

Kitchen Day 8

The tile is up. Tomorrow they will do the grout. Oh, and we now have a working sink!

Sightseeing in Kyoto

Today I saw some very beautiful temples and gardens in Kyoto. The age of some of the temples is over a thousand years, though reconstruction has occurred. Above is the Golden Pavilion.

Above is the Kyomuzi (Clear Water) Temple.

Above is the Silver Temple.

Above is the Heian Temple Gate.

Bridge in the garden of the Heian Temple.

I am predictably very happy to be on a bridge over this incredible pond. This is what my next pond will look like--maybe after the kitchen is finished.

Later my host and I had a delicious sushi dinner in a restaurant where the food travels around the front table. My favorite was the eel sushi.

The sink is in!

Today the sink was put in, by tomorrow it will be working. The hole as been cut for the stove top. It is beginning to look like a kitchen. Tomorrow they will put up the tile for the back splash. I am hoping it will look good. I am not yet convinced it is the right color. But then my color choices are not usually too good so I am trusting Shawn's choice. They will also finish up the walls tomorrow. They are doing what they call floating the texturing. Does that bring up a picture of the house being full of water and the walls floating around? Actually the texturing that was on there does not match the new texturing so they will even it all out.

We are considering putting in a skylight in the center of the living room. Shawn will let us know what the additional cost of that would be. It would be nice to bring more light in as that room tends to be on the dark side.

A Day at Nara

I had a wonderful day at Nara Park. Nara used to be the captal of Japan and it had lots of temples and older, incredibly huge buildings. It also had the most tame and aggessive deer I have ever seen. Here I feed one of them.

This is Todaiji Temple, which holds a 53 foot bronze statue of Buddha. The main building is the largest wooden structure. It is hard to give you a grasp in a picture of how big it is.

The day of sightseeing would not be complete without a good pond.

I found a path that went up and continued on the hike for a long way. It was beautiful on top of the mountain. At the peak I met a man from Pleasanton, it is a small world.

The Japanese people are very helpful with the directions. I had to ask a number of times for directions at the train stations but they all went out of their way to be helpful, even if the English was a huge challenge.

Kitchen Day 5

Here is what it looks like now. The cabinets are all up, the lights are in the ceiling and the walls are textured. The granite needs to be cut for the stove and the sink to fit in.

Curtis in Osaka

Today Curtis traveled from Hong Kong to Osaka, actually to an outskirts of Osaka in a place called Shin-Osaka. It was a very full travel day of about ten hours, start to finish. It all went smoothly but just takes a lot of effort--one bus ride, a flight, a train trip, passport stations and currency exchange. Also I have to attempt to calculate how much $ was lost when I changed Hong Kong dollars into Japanese yen, it is tricky.

Yesterday I sweated profusely at the island next to Hong Kong but now it is freezing outside. I should have brought my down vest. The hotel room has a good internet connection so I feel better. However doing this blog site all the text for the site is in Japanese. I have to remember what button is for what, the Japanese characters are no help. For a while it felt a little like prison with the 10 feet by 10 feet room size (including the desk), the absence of any English TV and total silence except for the outside traffic. I feel better connected now. Emails are sure nice to get.

My room overlooks the train station and you can see that it is pretty at night (below) and not so special during the day (above).

Dinner was a bit of an adventure as usual, though my experience from last time here is helpful. I asked for a receipt and the waitress asked me to write my name down on a paper. I wondered what it was for. Eventually she returned with a customized receipt with my name on it. The food was excellent--soup, rice, fried fish, cabbage and some wierd pudding tofu like thing.

The time changed an hour for me. I think I am now 14 hours ahead of California.

Good night.

A Day at Lamma Island

I took the ferry from Hong Kong island to Lamma island. The ride was about 30 minutes but cost only about $2. On the water you see lots of big boats but also some small junk boats.

The ferry arrives at the small fishing village of Yung Shue Wan. It was a nice change from the big city hussle and bussle. The only vehicles around were small special truck like contraptions.

The beaches and scenary were very pretty but the signs advised again getting into the water.

I hiked the approximate three miles to another village. Along the way were a couple of these Kamakaze Grottos. During the war the Japanese prepared these holes that could potentially be used as a base to attack the Allied forces.

This is the village I hiked to, named Sok kwu Wan.

There were lots of aquariums with live seafood. This squid may have made it to a lunch plate sometime that afternoon.

I had a four course dinner for about $13. The first course was these delicious shrimp. After lunch I walked back to the first village, a total of about six miles of hiking for the day. It was refreshing to get away from the city. I also met an interesting man from the UK and we hiked together and had lunch together. After a week with virtually no English one get hungry for conversation. Tomorrow morning I leave for Osaka, Japan.

Kitchen Day 4

Here is the granite top. It is hard to get a good picture of it but it really is very beautiful in real life. That hole is where the dishwasher will go. Perhaps the next picture will be of the sink? Time will tell.

Riding through the Sky

Above is the view looking out from the room in the hotel where Curtis has breakfast.

Curtis took the MTR to Tung Chung and rode a spectacular cable ride to the top of the mountain where the Ngong Ping Village was located.

It was a bit scary in the cable cars, no place for anyone afraid of heights.

Here are the three little pigs. This is the Chinese year of the pig.

The Buddha on the hill (not the guy in the blue shirt) is the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world.

Here is inside the temple.

Kitchen Day 3

The other side of the cabinets are up and the lights are in the ceiling, not an easy thing to do when there is so little space in the ceiling. We have no attic.

Kitchen Day 2

Here is today's progress. The old door has been taken out and the new and bigger door is in place. It will be much easier to move stuff in and out with the wider door. The wall has been extended and the window made. The oven and stove will be put in to the right of the window. One wall has the cabinets up already. You can see the spot where the refrigerator is going. I am amazed at how much they can get done in a day. These guys are definitely professionals. Good job Shawn and Rob!

Monday end of work

Here is our house. No kitchen or flooring. The fireplace bricks are gone. The cabinets are all in the computer room. The dogs are wondering what is going on.