lWe arrived at the elegant & spacious home of Mrs. Masako Konishi, a llovely woman who welcomed us in the most gracious manner. Some of the stone pieces in the garden were from the Edo Period and her family dates back some 800 years in Koyoto. Shoes off...

Onto the tour bus for a hour and a half ride to Kurotani Village in the city of Ayabe.  Along the way we saw such beauty in the mountains, miles of huge pine trees.....the  forrest interspersed with Cherry trees (of course!) and white Magnolias.  The...

......It's Pam's birthday and that made it a very special day starting with seeing Toyonshima, the 'shortest' of the current sumo wrestlers.  He's in the top 3 and thanks to Pam's friend we learned how much fun it is to see a small guy defeat a giant by skill...

.....Wabi Sabi is a distinctly Japanese ideal. It's the world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transcence and imperfection.  Beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.  The characteristics of Wabi Sabi include asymmetry, roughness...

....and Sakae 'Eva' Yagino, our wonderful guide who we all fell in love with.  She is so knowledgeable and poured so much information into us that I'm sure some spilled out along the way. In the background is one of the touring ships that we could see from the...

I've long heard tales of the Japanese country 'inns' but this was way beyond my wildest dreams and I found it absolutely sublime! All of our rooms overlooked the lake with majestic cedar trees and awesome Mt. Fuji appearing just as in all the woodblock prints we've...

.......and everything else for that matter.  Remember high school gym?  Not your favorite thing?  Well, one visit to a Japanese bath....after the initial shock ....will change your mind about the whole communal thing. Here's the entrance....the red is...

The day began at Meiji Shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. I could hardly wait to get to our Sumi-e class at Carre Moji.  This is one of the most elegant galleries in Japan devoted to the most expressive Sumi painting and...

.Tony T. is the best, best limo driver and I had a relaxed Sunday drive to LAX International. JAL gets my vote for the best, best airline and business class was never better. I watched three movies that I had been avoiding....Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years a Slave...