The encounters were rewarding. A high point was lunch on Saturday at a school that is no longer a school – where local women that used to work at the school now have a catering business. We stopped at the school building where the women had put a white table “cloth” on the picnic table…

Taxi pickup at 7:15a. Because of yesterday’s reconnoitering, I knew which entrance of the Kyoto station to have him take me to (score!). By design, I arrived in plenty of time allowing me time to figure out how to use the ticket to enter the station to my train. I hovered around the “turnstiles” to…

Pretty and navigation-free 🙃 stroll to “my” sushi restaurant. As soon as I sat down at the sushi bar the two sushi chefs lit up in acknowledgment and recited “my” order. We laughed. I felt honored. 🙏🏼

What a day. Clear blue sunny and 75º. Walked over 10 miles again! Before I left on this trip, I purchased my Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket online for tomorrow morning’s Kyoto to Tokyo bullet train. I was issued a QR code to redeem for my paper ticket at the station. I decided I wanted to…

Walked over 10 miles today exploring Kyoto. Started the day with a taxi ride to meet up with my guide, Marcin, for a private, three hour Philosopher’s Path Tour: Nature and Buddhism in Kyoto. Marcin is from Warsaw, Poland. He developed an affinity for Japan after watching “Shogun” when he was quite young. He has…

I am staying at the Sowaka Kyoto a ryokan that “was created by allowing young artists and artisans to play at the intersection of preservation and innovation… It is a showroom of all things Kyoto… where the interplay between new and old, luxury and simplicity, tradition and flexibility create a warm dialogue between Kyoto’s past…

Wednesday was different. No routine of riding. Packed up. Loaded up. Drove off in the van. It was a day of transitions. A day of leaving “things” behind only to remain as memories with their associated feelings. Sayonara… It’s fascinating to me that over the course of a mere week that I would develop such…

Sad to say today was our final ride. It started off with a rain-delay wait in the van for about ten minutes. Thereafter it rained off and on throughout the ride.  We rode through sacred mountains, stopping along the way at the amazing mountain temple of a sect of esoteric Buddhism. The ride was spectacularly…

Today’s agenda differed in that we did not ride until the afternoon. We spent the morning exploring Kanazawa with lots of time in Kenrokuen, one of Japan’s three greatest gardens and the Kanazawa Castle. Kenrokuen means “combining six features”— spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, abundant water and panoramic views. Turns out today was a Japan national…