Give a hoot, don't pollute

Can anyone please tell me where I can find a trash bin in this country? It’s been about 20 minutes of searching and I still have my empty chocolate milk carton and donut wrappers in hand. I’m not in the countryside; I’m actually in a major city with plenty of stores and restaurants [...]

Floating world or bust

Out of uniform Maiko

For about $30 you too can experience a small taste of the enigmatic and mysterious world of the Maiko.  Those beautiful doll-like people bedecked in old-style kimono, traditional hairstyle and pure white makeup.  Those women who duck in and out of exclusive restaurants on the arms of older Japanese businessmen, bells [...]

Put your wickets here

Look very closely

It happened to me again last weekend, not that I was really surprised.  After five years in Japan it’s happened so many times in so many places that the only thing I note now is how novel it was.  Sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose, to see our reaction, [...]

Red light, green light?

The streets of Kyoto are not safe.  They are not safe at all    I have witnessed things that would cause the sanest and most controlled of us in the US to begin screaming obscenities and shake our fists.  I know this for a fact because I have been hit by a car, not once but [...]