Man, That Cat is High!

Yesterday began as a normal quest for breakfast along the main street of Kyoto. The weather was perfect and the crowds of tourist had abated somewhat. We made our way to a giant shopping mall/arcade that features more stores and little eateries then you can shake a stick at. 

 I have observed once again that the cellphone (or the erroneously named "smartphone" is a mixed blessing. While it can help with one's navigation, it demands your attention to the point of excluding everything else. Perhaps I am just old-fashioned, but it seems to me that if I consult a paper map I retain the impression of the route longer in my mind than I can while periodically glancing at the tiny screen.haveen on the phone screen.  

This morning when we visited the huge shopping mall, we took in two rather unusual attractions. The first was a cat cafe where patrons pay a fee to sit in a comfortable lounge petting tame cats. The cats were very tame and gentle and loved. The little treats that we gave them while we enjoyed sodas and coffee. Customers are encouraged to draw pictures of the cats and Benjamin did a very nice sketch of one fellow with an ugly smushed up face that actually made the cat look adorable.

The second attraction was more unusual. There is a bar where one can drink beer and shoot air gun pellets at targets with the very friendly owner.  We had a couple of cold ones and then took our places on the firing line. My performance was dismal. The target was dark as were the sights on the automatic pistol I was using (at least that is my excuse!)  I never hit the bullseye!

I ended the evening by going to a movie that Benjamin wanted to see in a giant Imax theater. It was surprisingly uncrowded.

The the film was a science fiction epic featuring the "Predator " character. There was lots of action and great special effects along with several humorous  scenes hidden throughout the film. It was as if the director wanted viewers to not take the film too seriously. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dateline: Kyoto

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!

Boys will be boys....

Yessir, the vice president of the United States has reassured us that the vile text messages exchanged by the Young Republicans are just an example of kids doing "stupid things." I feel so much better now, but I wonder: what happens when these kids grow up?

Worm Your Way Out of This One

Can there be any doubt at this late date that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum? What national sin did we all commit to deserve these clowns? President Lincoln made the observation on more than one occasion that the Civil War was our collective price for the institution of slavery, but at least there was an end in sight back then. Now idiots like these are leading us all into a new Dark Ages, where superstition supplants science, and ignorance is celebrated while education is scorned. Recovery from this descent into darkness is most defintely NOT in sight.