there are a number of reasons i'm leaving japan after only one year. but views like this, and the other reasons for staying are becoming hard to swallow as time begins to run out... 

nothing quasi about the beauty, though 

... 

it was definately a quasi-hike as wooden-risers marked every step of the way, especially when they weren't needed 

the other day i took the cecil-roadster a couple minutes up the road to the kita nagato coast quasi-national park for a quasi-short, but quasi-terrific hike... 

oh yeah, we also saw this little-known temple: kinkakuji... 

and when i say "we," i mean, from bottom, torry, megan, eliza, paul, myself and kim. here's to a great four days in kyoto! 

and of course, that i still love candy. to the fellas back home, it wasn't scoops (sniff), but the colorful candy found in the monthly market at toji temple was tasty. 

that i may have lived in japan for 7 months, but i still suck at karaoke; 

how to drink holy water; 

how to use a japanese-style toliet; 

we also learned many things in kyoto: eg, one man in a toy bulldozer with two supervisors is better than three men with shovels when it comes to scooping gravel into toy dump-truck; 

and the thousands of tori gates that lead to the top of a mountain over looking the city at fushimi inari. 

the powerful walls of nijo castle, 

more maiko-sans outside kiyomizu temple, 

maiko-sans in gion, 

we saw sights like the spectacular gardens of ginkakuji,  

and again in one of the most impressive neighborhoods i've walked through in this country, near fushimi inari. 

and again, outside nijo castle 

a couple weeks before sakura season left a lot of the trees around town thin...as a result however, the crowds were thin as well. it was time-consuming enough getting around town, i can't imagine the scene at the height of tourist season. and, as seen here at the ryoanji rock garden, some of the ume were still holding on.

kyoto! last weekend i made my first trip to the cultural hotbed that is kyoto. 

...These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration...

--wordsworth

i completely agreed. guess you would have to go to matsuyama to truly understand this... 

then on to kim's surprise birthday party. it was a terrific night of great food (i had my first pig ears and nose), good music (here another dave is rocking out and tetsuro is digging it), and even dancing (megan took the ladies in the house through some hula dancing steps). 

the onsen itself is one of the oldest in japan. it was an amazing building and nice, if really hot, onsen.