This is the first time I have ever composed a travel blog entry on my cell phone. Errors and misspellings will prevail I am sure. Because I am dictating this, punctuation is also suspect but how anyone can use the tiny keyboard on these phones is beyond me so I will continue speaking and hope to clean this up before it is posted.
We are traveling with our son, Benjamin, the first time we have gone on on overseas trip with him since he was eighteen. That trip was to Australia when I was still working. Now I don't have the excuse of a convention or professional meeting to get travel assistance from the university. Fair enough. I never really attended much of those meetings anyway; they were so boring.
We arrived in Japan last week and stayed in Tokyo 5 days. The city is huge and somewhat confusing. The subway system is a bewildering maze of different colored routes. To complicate things further, there is more than one subway company, so you must buy separate tickets unless you invest in a multi-pass, an option we did not choose because our stay was so short.
We arrived in Kyoto two days ago and have found it a very different place. it is still a huge city, but with narrow streets and crowds of tourists navigating the streets is more of a challenge. This city was not bombed during World War 2. As a result the architecture seems more authentic and ancient.
Some brief observations:
1. The people are incredibly friendly and nice. Benjamin and I tower above the average citizen, and considering their pleasant demeanor they almost seem like H.G. Wells's Eloi to me!
2. We have seen few homeless and mendicants in thesec ities, quite different from Tucson or New York City.
3: The streets are incredibly clean. The the public green spaces are well maintained and inviting. We could learn so much from these people.
4. There is one vending machine for every 10 Japanese. None of them take a ¥50 coin, but they will return a 50 in change!
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