We took a trip the kinkakuji (the golden temple - another world heritage site) in Kyoto and it was a beautiful day with the temple reflecting in the water around it:

Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion
It was also another place where coins were thrown…this time to stone statues along the path through the temple grounds. I watched and [...]

As I mentioned before, prices in Japan can be expensive. We went for an excursion in the Japanese countryside and came across a bunch of Matsutake mushrooms for sale.

$200 mushrooms
While I must admit that these mushrooms do taste good ( I had a chance to taste them a number of years back at a friend’s [...]

I need to follow my own advice better. While I thought we had gotten a good deal buying the seaweed spread at the 100 yen (dollar store), it turns out we wasted that dollar. Paul had his seaweed spread on his toast this morning and said that although it was good, it was edible (”kind [...]

As I mentioned before, one of the goals of my friend is to eat a number of strange foods while in Japan. Yesterday we took off to Nara. It is known for the largest bronze Buddha in the world that is housed in Todaiji Temple (which is the largest wooden structure in the world). These [...]

Himeji Castle
We took a trip to Himeji Castle yesterday which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it was a beautiful day to visit. One part of the castle is Okiku’s Well:
This castle has a famous ghost story called “Banshu Sara-Yashiki.” A servant named “Okiku” serving the lord of the castle happened to learn of [...]

As I mentioned earlier, I have friends visiting me this week. Day one was spent at the hospital (long story that I’ll get to in another post when I have a bit more time to write) and today we’re off to Himeji to see the famous castle there.
One of the main goals of my friend [...]

The purchase of the $1000 I-Bonds (for my niece)went through without a hitch and now it’s a matter of waiting to see if I made the correct decision in purchasing them in October rather than November. Either way, it will be a good investment for the money for the time being as I look for [...]

“Money never starts an idea; it is the idea that starts the money.” - W. J. Cameron

It was one of the big trash days out here a couple of days ago. Now when people throw things away, one would assume that they are throwing away things that are no longer working, but that certainly is not the case in Japan. My theory of why so many perfectly good items get thrown [...]

I mentioned earlier that I opened a Treasury Direct account to place some of the money that my niece is saving for her college education. While the plane is for me to invest the money in Japanese antiques, I don’t need more than $1000 to do so at the moment and I didn’t want the [...]