They call it "Toronno"

[Read about the first part of this trip here.]

Americans know that Canadians talk funny. On the fifth day of our trip I started the day with a run along the falls (drier than my previous day's walk, thanks to less wind), then we headed out towards Toronto, and in the car we practiced saying "tuh-RON-nuh" rather than "tuh-RON-toe", since that is the way the locals say it. 

Along the way we stopped in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a quaint 19th century town with cute shops and restaurants - think Old Town Alexandria, but a little more spread out. The area around Niagara-on-the-Lake is well known for its wineries, but we didn't visit any, as I long ago learned not to take Valerie, who isn't a wine drinker, wine-tasting (that's a story in itself). Instead, we had a good time browsing the shops in town. I even bought a cool shirt - the kind of thing I'd wear to a gig We had a lovely lunch, then got back into the car to continue on to tuh-RON-nuh.

Our son David's partner's parents are Torontonians (yes, this is the right term - I looked it up). They met us for dinner at a hip, upscale restaurant in the downtown TIFF Lightbox building, home to the Toronto International Film Festival. Don't tell anyone, but I thought the food was just OK. The appetizer and dessert were quite good, but the main course was lackluster - a very fishy-tasting Canadian trout on a few pearls of couscous. Valerie felt the same way about her dinner. The company, though, was wonderful, and we lingered so long we basically closed the place down. This is only the second time we'd met Doug and Kate, but we share a bond via our children and have really hit it off.

The next morning Valerie figured out the Toronto mass transit system, which can involve hopping between subways and streetcars, and went with Kate to explore another art museum. Of course, the day also included shopping for craft supplies (Kate is an accomplished artist and was understanding of Valerie's arts & crafts shopping). While they did that, I hopped bikeshare bikes to several places around the city. First, because my main destination wasn't open yet, I previewed the Distillery District, which we'd be visiting together the next day, then I headed to the waterfront where I rented a kayak and paddled out to the Toronto Islands, a small set of barrier islands just off of the city. The good news is that their kayaks were better than the typical rental boats, but they put me in a Tsunami 145, which is meant for big boys - you could have fit two of me in it. Unable to brace very well inside this bathtub of a boat, I wound up relying on the rudder to steer. Still, I had a good time paddling my way across a busy waterway watching ferries and water taxies heading to and from the islands and planes taking off from Toronto's downtown airport (which seemed to service mostly smaller, regional propeller planes and general aviation). Unfortunately, in my haste to get underway I had forgotten to take my water bottle out of my backpack before sticking it into the hatch, so I had no access to water to drink. It was a hot day and I headed back when I started to get parched, which meant I wound up being out a little short of my allotted two hours of rental time. I'll note that with this outing I added Lake Ontario to my list of Great Lakes paddled (still to do: Lakes Michigan and Erie).

Bikeshare bikes and bike lanes (Toronto has good cycling infrastructure!)

Toronto as seen from a kayak

Exploring within the Toronto Islands

After kayaking I hopped another bikeshare bike back to the hotel (I would have taken a taxi or streetcar but I was dripping wet) and had just about enough time to shower and change before heading out by bike again to meet Valerie, Doug, and Kate at The Rex, a downtown jazz club. We were there for the club's early show, which featured a group of young musicians playing trad jazz, led by "Trombone Charlotte", a vocalist and trombone player who was very talented musically as well as being a very engaging performer. Even non-jazz-fan Valerie enjoyed the show. I'm happy to report that the club, a suitably divey jazz bar, was nearly full, even for a 5 PM show featuring young local talent. I ordered dinner there, a tofu sandwich which turned out to be just that - a slab of tofu on a bun. Somehow, it was actually pretty tasty. After the show Doug and Kate pointed us in the right direction, and thanks ton Valerie's knowledge of the mass transit system we made it home to our hotel with no issues.

Charlotte McAfee-Brunner and her band at The Rex

Saturday morning we walked over to the St. Lawrence Market, a bustling traditional food hall marketplace. DC doesn't really have anything equivalent - I guess Eastern Market would be the closest thing, but St. Lawrence is much bigger and has a broader variety of groceries, prepared food, restaurants, kitchen items, and so on. We love that sort of place, and had a really good time there. There was a store with bulk food where I bought soy nuts (crunchy roasted soy beans - for a while these were a health food staple, but they've kind of disappeared in the U.S.), while Valerie bought a variety of chocolates. 

Then we went over to the Distillery District, a collection of buildings which had started life as the Gooderham and Worts Distillery, but which now is a trendy SoHo-like collection of shops - looking back, it's funny how much of our trip was spent at places which could be described as "19th century something-or-other now transformed into 21st century coolness". As mentioned above I had been unimpressed when I visited the place the previous day, but it turns out it's much more alive on a Saturday afternoon than Friday morning. There was a band playing in a big courtyard outfitted with inflatable sofas. The shops were humming. Valerie got some top-notch ice cream (I was still recovering my my Sweet Jesus treat in Niagara, but I took a taste of hers) and I had so enjoyed the curried vegetable tart I had gotten a bakery the previous day that I got the same thing again.   

Checking out the band at the Distillery District

After a quick nap back at the hotel (hey, we're old), we caught some good Thai food for dinner then took the subway to the streetcar to the ferry which took us out to the Toronto Islands, where were catching a Grateful Dead tribute band at the marina bar. I didn't know exactly how to get to the bar from the ferry terminal, but fortunately Deadheads are easy to spot and we befriended a tie-dye wearing guy named Joe, who showed us the way. The band was pretty good, and the vibe was excellent. Marina bar with a view across to the Toronto skyline. Warm summer evening (but not DC hot!). A big crowd of people, all digging the music. Joe introduced us around a little (people tend to know one another in Deadhead communities), plus I chatted with some other people (Canadians are friendly).

Let me tell you something I heard from a lot of people in Canada, including otherwise mellow Deadheads - they're really pissed at the U.S. Trump's annexing Canada/51st state schtick has been very poorly received by Canadians, and multiple people told me they're avoiding travel to the U.S., and boycotting American products. More than one suggested we escape America and come live in Canada. Of course, Canada isn't perfect either.

Ferry - that's Joe dead center wearing the hippie hat

Cherry Garcia Band (start of the show - later on it got much more crowded!)

City view from the marina

We had discovered on our way to the islands that the ferry schedule was pretty loose - the 7:40 ferry didn't depart until around 8 PM. One the way back, after comically stumbling from the marina to the ferry terminal in complete darkness, we arrived early for the 10:20 ferry, but it turned out there was a 10 PM ferry which wasn't even listed on the schedule. We walked right on, then took a taxi from the ferry terminal back to our hotel.  

By our last full day we were tired of touring and decided to take it easy. I ate breakfast and worked out on an elliptical machine, then when Valerie woke up I went down with her and ate breakfast for a second time, and we played a few hands of canasta in the breakfast room. When we finally got moving we didn't go far, just directly across the street to the Allan Gardens Conservatory, yet another 19th century building housing an indoor botanical garden. I wasn't expecting much but the place turned out to be lovely, well kept, well landscaped, and stuffed with all kinds of pretty plants. We also returned to St. Lawrence market to pick up flowers to bring to our dinner engagement. While we were there we also bought more soy nuts and chocolates, since we liked them so much and they were a good deal.

Allan Gardens

Central hall of Allan Gardens

At Allan Gardens

That evening Doug and Kate had us over for dinner. They live in a residential neighborhood of the city about five miles (oops, 8 km) outside of downtown. That's pretty analogous to where we live (about 6 miles from downtown), though their neighborhood is a little more urban. It feels kind of like my first neighborhood in Brooklyn, with brick houses packed close together, separated by impractically narrow driveways. Actually, their house reminds me a lot of my friend Asapearl's house - similar layout, and likewise decorated with an artist's eye for style.

With Kate and Doug

We had a lovely evening together. Then, in the morning Valerie and I headed out for the long drive home. We crossed the border without incident, and a mere 10 hours later we were home!

A Ghost Stole My Money - Buffalo and Niagara Falls

Back in college, Valerie accompanied a friend who was going to Buffalo to visit her grandparents for a weekend. Buffalo, in case you don't know, is very close to Niagara Falls. Valerie really wanted to see the falls, but the friend's grandfather wouldn't let them borrow the car. Ever since that weekend, Valerie has been fixated on visiting Niagara Falls - it was on her bucket list years before she knew she had one, and it has become something of a running joke within our family (the rest of us have been to the falls at one time or another). 

This year Valerie and I are each taking big trips separately - me to Asia, Valerie on a cruise - but we did want to do some sort of vacation together as well, so we decided to fulfil Valerie's bucket list item of seeing Niagara Falls, which we would combine with visiting friends in Toronto.

Our first stop along the way was the AKG art museum in Buffalo. We rejiggered our trip at the last minute when we realized that our original itinerary had us visiting the museum on a Tuesday, when it's closed, and so made it to Buffalo mid-day Monday instead and spent a very pleasant afternoon at what turned out to be a very nice museum.

I don't want to brag, but along the way I was Guest of the Day at the Altoona Hampton Inn

Viewing the work of artist Yayoi Kusama

Dorky stuff at the museum

For our overnight in Buffalo I booked a room at the interesting looking Hotel Richardson, in a repurposed grand 19th century building located on 40 acres of parkland designed by the classic landscape designers Olmstead and Vaux (who designed NY's Central Park, and more importantly, Brooklyn's Prospect Park). What the hotel's website doesn't mention is the original use of the building - it was built in the 1890's to house the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Yes, we were staying in a Victorian era insane asylum. Cue the Scooby Doo gang, because the place had to be haunted!

The hotel was equal parts elegant and creepy. The place abounded with gorgeous wood accents. The hallways were enormous, and our room had what must have been a 20 foot high ceiling, but the place was creaky and nearly deserted (it's located near a college*, and July is definitely slow season for college towns). 

In the morning when I was getting dressed I discovered that all my cash was gone from my wallet. Nothing else was missing - credit cards, etc. were all there. The wallet had never been out of our possession. But my money was gone. The rational explanation for this was that the previous night I somehow dropped my money when paying for dinner - but that's something which has never happened before, and I didn't even pay for the dinner with cash. I think it was a paranormal event and that a ghost stole my cash. Creepy. I would say the Richardson is in close competition with the Luddington in Escanaba, MI, for the distinction of being the spookiest hotel in which I've stayed. 

The Richardson Hotel

Richardson Hotel interior

Our very tall room at The Richardson - what poor souls occupied this room in the past?

After recovering from our paranormal event, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks and headed to the New York side of Niagara Falls. I'd heard again and again that the NY side isn't worth visiting: that the view is sub-par, and the place is run down; however, it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. One accesses the falls via what turns out to be a lovely state park. Yes, you don't get the grand view there, but the location provides some great up-close views of the falls in a very pretty setting. Valerie and I enjoyed walking around all the major vistas in the park before hopping onto the tourist shuttle which took us back to our car.

A first view of the falls, from New York

Street piano in Niagara Falls, NY

From there we drove across into Canada, where we headed for our hotel, which was decidedly less haunted than the Richardson, but had a little history of its own - Marilyn Monroe filmed a movie there back in the 1953. I had reserved a room with a view of the falls, and the view did not disappoint.

View from our hotel room

After a quick nap (hey, we're old) we headed out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, along the way stumbling upon the city's tacky downtown. I had time and again heard that the American side was tacky and run down, while the Canadian side was SO MUCH nicer. Well, it turns out rather than being elegant and upscale, the Canadian side is home to a Vegas-y carnival sideshow downtown filled with mini-golf, a wax museum, go-karts, fast food, souvenir shops, and every sort of cheesy boardwalk entertainment imaginable. On my previous visit I had stayed way down at the end of the falls area and hadn't come this far into the city, and it was a real surprise to discover the bustling, cheesy main drag. 

The "elegance" of Niagara Falls, Canada

There's a fireworks show at the falls every night

We were determined to maximize our visit to the falls. By this point we had seen them from New York, from Canada, from our hotel room, from the waterfront, and lit up at night by fireworks. The morning brought a real highlight - the classic Niagara Falls boat ride (popularly known as the "Maid of the Mist", though it has a different name on the Canadian side). As cliche as the boat ride is, it turns out to be very cool to get up close to the falls and experience their power. And you get very wet. Fortunately the boat dock was walking distance from our hotel, so after our boat ride we ducked back into the hotel to change clothes. This was actually my third set of clothes for the day, since earlier I had taken a walk past the falls. The wind was blowing towards the shore and so I had gotten pretty wet.

Morning walk - if you look closely you'll see I'm pretty wet

The mistiness of the falls area means lots of rainbows (that's the Marriott all the way on the left)

Boat ride pix

In the afternoon we wandered around the tacky downtown, browsing in the souvenir stores and getting ice cream from a shop called "Sweet Jesus". I'm surprised that humorless Christians haven't forced this place to change its name - Canada must be more laid back about this sort of thing than America. 

Sweet Jesus ice cream

We also added to our falls viewing by riding the big ferris wheel. 

Valerie on the wheel

The Niagara Wheel

Walking around the town, it was amazing to see how many of the tourists were Indian, Islamic, and Mennonite. There were even some Hasidic Jews. I don't know why. Maybe nature is an acceptable vacation destination for even the most religious folks, or maybe they're the only ones left who don't think Niagara Falls is uncool. 

Anyway, in the evening we ate dinner at a diner-style restaurant which had a patio with a view of the falls, then after a brief hiccup when the hotel's fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate, we watched the fireworks from our room.

In the morning we would be heading out, bound for Toronto.

Continue reading here.

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*The Richardson Hotel is located right near Buffalo State University, which Valerie insists is the same school as SUNY Buffalo, despite the schools having separate web sites and being listed as separate institutions on the SUNY web site. 

CPA Belle Isle Camping Trip

 I haven't been on a CPA multi-day trip in a while. There aren't that many trips anymore, and they always seem to fall at times when I'm already committed. Well, I finally made it to a trip. Ralph and Sophie planned at trip which involved three nights camping at Belle Isle State Park on the Rappahannock River in Virginia, then another three nights about twenty miles up the Rappahannock at Naylor's Beach Campground. My plan was to join them for the weekday part at Belle Isle, but I would be heading home when they moved to Naylor's

Tuesday
The sites at Belle Isle have electricity, and believe me, I took full advantage. I have a brand new cooler-sized car refrigerator which I was able to plug in it the campsite. As it happened, the freezer at the camp store was broken and so people who were relying on coolers to keep their perishables cold had to leave the campground to replenish their ice supply - but no matter to me, I had a fridge! I also brought a string of Christmas lights to illuminate my campsite in the evening, an electric fan for my tent, and a folding electric kettle, which made breakfasts a snap. And since we're on the subject of camp amenities, I brought along a tri-fold mattress to sleep on. This is basically a three inch thick twin-sized mattress which folds in thirds. It's definitely not something you bring if you're at all squeezed for space (it's maybe 30 x 30 x 9" when folded), but I had room in the car for it, so I brought it. It was easy to set up (just unfold it) and mighty comfy to sleep on. More and more of my camping trips seem to lean towards "glamping" - I guess that's what happens as you get older.

My awesome little fridge (stinky neoprene boots for scale)

Campsite illuminated at night

Folding kettle

On the first day we all arrived at different times, so there was no group paddle. Ralph had, however, provided suggestions for local paddles. After taking a call at the launch about an upcoming gig (playing at Grateful Dead Night at the Bowie Baysox!), I explored the local creek and poked out into the river a little bit, paddling a little under five miles in all. A couple of people had launched earlier and explored further - out into the river and up the adjacent Lancaster Creek, but I didn't feel like paddling that far.

En route to the park I had stopped for lunch at Chipotle, but I only ate half my burrito bowl. The leftovers, which I of course had stored in my adorbale mini-fridge, served as the core of my dinner.   

In the evening some of us gathered around a campfire at Sophie and Jessica's campsite. Yes, in June in Virginia it was cool enough in the evening to have a campfire. It was really pretty perfect weather. It was at the campfire that I first met Peter, who turned out to be a memorable dude.

The morning of the second day I ran into Peter in the bathhouse. I wasn't sure it was him since I had only seen him in the dark, but also I may have had trouble recognizing him since I was distracted by the fact that he was naked from the waist down. I guess he hadn't counted on the possibility of someone else walking into the bathhouse while he was in there (or he didn't care) but there he was brushing his teeth at the sink, dressed in a blue t-shirt, bright yellow Crocs, and nothing else. If you put a sailor hat on him he would have been a dead ringer for Donald Duck. To Peter's credit, once I arrived he grabbed his pants and disappeared into a stall to get dressed. 

Welcome to the campground bathhouse!

Wednesday

We all met bright and early at Windmill Point on Fleet's Island. This is a really nice, recently developed launch. According to Ralph, until recently it was basically a dirt road which ended at the water, but the county has developed it as a recreational facility with a sandy swimming beach (which also serves as the car-top launch), lovely bathroom, and plentiful parking. Sweet.

One of the paddlers in the group discovered that she had left her PFD and skirt back in camp, which was about 40 minutes away. Ralph was ready to bend the rules and let her paddle without a PFD, which is mind-blowing if you are familiar with the safety-obsessed culture of CPA; however, another member of the group saved the day by running home (just ten minutes away) to grab her a PFD, which turned out to be one of those big orange Type II's you see on ferry boats - an appropriate paddler "cone of shame".

Oh, and Donald Duck showed up, wearing a keffiyeh wrapped around his head and face for sun protection. Now, go back a couple of years, say, to October 6th, 2023, and I really wouldn't have batted an eye over someone showing up with Arab headgear for a paddle - I mean, heck, people in the Middle East do know a thing or two about covering up to be sun-safe. However, in the years since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, the keffiyeh has been transformed into a pro-Palestinian (ok) / anti-Israel (bad) / pro-Hamas (pretty damn bad) and even antisemitic (really, really bad) political symbol. College kids who couldn't find Ramallah on a map drape themselves in keffiyehs to symbolize their support for the destruction of the Jewish homeland and its people. Now, in Donald Duck's defense, his keffiyeh was red and white, which is usually Jordanian rather than the black and white typically associated with Palestinians, and a look at his Facebook page shows no antizionist content whatsoever. In addition, he seems to be involved in re-enactments of 19th century European battles from the era when soldiers wore giant hats and plumes into battle, so I think for him wearing it was mostly a dress-up thing. But it bugged me to look at it every day. And the red keffiyeh clashed with his yellow Crocs. But at least he was wearing pants. 

Anyway, Fleet's Island (named after 17th century English settler Henry Fleet) sits just at the mouth of the Rappahannock. Our paddle took us up the outside of the island, which meant that we were paddling in the Chesapeake Bay. Windmill Point is at the bottom of the island and we paddled all the way around the top, where we took a lunch break at Cedars Beach. We could have continued and circumnavigated the island, but those who have done it said the inside of the island is hot and boring, so we made our way through some marshland at the top of the island and scooched our kayaks back onto the Rappahannock via a shallow cut which wasn't quite deep enough to float the kayaks. I was close enough to being afloat to be able to slide my kayak along by pushing my hands along the bottom; some of the group, that is, those endowed with heavier butts, had to get out of their boats to make it through. Once back on the river we retraced our steps to the launch, at which point some of us (including me) got off the water, while others got some extra mileage in exploring a little bit beyond the launch before heading in. I paddled about 8-9 miles.

Paddling around Fleet's Island

Scooching across from the marsh into the river

Lunch break (check out keffiyeh boy ibn the middle)

After the paddle there was a plan for the group to go out for an early dinner (4:30ish!) at a restaurant in White Stone called The Sand Piper. Based on a combination of health and religious-driven dietary restrictions, I don't do well at seafood restaurants, as I don't eat shellfish, beef, or pork. Typically, such restaurants have one or two dishes with either fin fish or chicken, but such dishes usually tend to be pretty sad. I mean, virtually no one goes to a seafood restaurant to eat chicken, so whatever chicken breast they have is some antique, freezer-burned thing they'll defrost for the rare non-seafood eater who comes in. I decided to skip the group dinner and head back to camp, where I enjoyed the home-made low sodium minestrone and fresh roll I had brought from home. There wasn't much hanging around that night, but that was OK - I read my book and had a beer at my campsite.

Sand Piper menu with all the things I can't eat crossed out

Thursday

Thursday's forecast called for high winds, so we headed for the relatively protected waters of the upper Great Wicomico River, launching from Cooper's Wharf. This isn't one of Ralph's favorite paddles, given the the Great Wicomico is entirely developed, that is, the shoreline is dotted with houses, but it made for a safe paddle on a blustery day. And blustery it was. We headed downriver first, with the wind at our backs. That meant we had to be careful, since the return trip was going to be more of a slog than the outbound leg.

The trip was uneventful We paddled down as far as the big Rt. 200 bridge over the river. Sophie and Jessica continued on to try and find a launch they thought existed somewhere near the bridge (they found it!) while the rest of us turned back. The paddle back wasn't as bad as I thought it might be -  keeping to the river's south shore gave us some protection from the south-westerly wind, though we did hit spots where we got blown about by the gusts.

Taking aa break from the wind in a cove

Given that the shoreline was all private land, our only choice for a lunch break was to paddle back to our launch point and take a break there. After lunch a few of us explored in the opposite, up-river direction for an hour or so. This section of the river turned out to be more remote and pretty, but it didn't go on very far. I paddled a total of 11 miles.

My plan had been to camp Thursday night at Belle Isle and to head home in the morning when the group broke camp. A forecast of rain overnight made me change my plans, as there was really no point in camping in the rain just to go home the next morning with wet gear, so I broke camp and headed home Thursday night.

The group had a scheduled potluck Thursday night, and I felt very antisocial when I stopped by to say goodbye. The previous night I had blown off dinner at the seafood shack, and here I was snubbing the potluck. Oh, well.

It had been a long time since I'd done a trip like this and it felt good to get out paddling in pretty places three days in a row, and to sleep in a tent on some lovely, not to hot or humid nights.

Also note that Thursday was the 27th anniversary of the day I bought my first kayak!

Japan/Thailand Trip in a Nutshell (for the TL/DR crowd)

OK, not everyone wants to read the full five part series about my trip to Japan and Thailand. With attention spans ruined by social media, they deny themselves the pleasures of reading thousands upon thousands of words of my masterful writing. Anyway, for such people (frankly, I'd be among them if it was someone else's trip), here's a summary of what was an amazing trip mostly in pictures, with only a little to read.

The genesis of this trip was that I wanted to visit my old friend Peter, who has chosen to spend his retirement years in Thailand. Japan has long been a bucket list destination for me, and so I deided to add some time in Japan along the way.

Tokyo

Shibuya at night

My trip started in Tokyo. I stayed in the Shibuya neighborhood, which is very glitzy, futuristic, high energy, youthful, and fun.

I've come to realize that travel has become unduly influenced by, well, influencers. People want to do activities either that they've seen on Instagram or TikTok, and which they can post about themselves. Tokyo is certainly a place where one can find outlandish, over-the-top experiences.  My one foray into this type of tourism was touring Shibuya by go-kart. Yes, I am wearing an Eeyore kigu.

My first day I also visited Chi-Chi's, Tokyo's Grateful Dead themed store. A Great Northern sticker has been added to their iconic VW bus.

Go-karting

Chi-Chi's

The next day I signed up for a bike tour around Tokyo. Well, around part of the city. Tokyo is enormous, with a population almost twice that of New York City. Our six hour bike tour (which included a lot of stops - we weren't riding for six hours) covered only a fraction of the city.

Bike Tour

One evening I booked a food tour. We ate great sushi, okonomayaki, chicken wings at an izakaya, ramen, and had a dessert of red bean cakes at a food hall. And we drank sake. Each and every dish was delicious, and I was so full afterwards that I didn't eat again until dinnertime the next day.

Toasting over our okonomayaki

Food tour ramen

Most of my days were spent just exploring on my own, taking in traditional sites like Senso-Ji temple, modern areas such as the upscale Ginza, home to the Yamaha Flagship Music store where they show off all their musical instruments, seeing the beauty of Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, going to observatories and jazz clubs, and just checking out neighborhoods. I averaged 20,000 steps per day.

At the gate of Senso-Ji temple

The shopping streets around Senso-Ji feel very old school

Trying keyboards at the Yamaha Music Flagship Store

Sunset at Shibuya Sky observatory

At Shinjuku Gyoen garden

This is not food - it's fake display food for restaurants,
for sale in the Kappabashi restaurant supply district

Samurai armor at the Tokyo Museum

Shinjuku, another neighborhood which feels like the future

On my last day in Tokyo I watched sumo wrestlers work out at their training gym then boarded the shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, which afforded a great view of Mt. Fuji along the way (how's that for a a lot of Japan packed into one sentence?!). This was also the day I received news of the death of Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead.

Bantam-weight sumo

Sumo practice

Mt. Fuji, seen from the train

Kyoto

While Tokyo leans into the future, Kyoto seems linked much more to highlighting its past. The city contains many historic shrines and temples, as well as historic neighborhoods.

After checking into my hotel I visited the To-ji temple, a beautiful, serene place. This was also the only uncomfortably cold day of my trip - I enjoyed the serenity for a bit then headed back to the warmth of my hotel.

To-ji temple

The next morning I visited Fushimi-Inari shrine, famous for its thousands of vermillion red gates. You do a meditative walk up the mountainside, passing through gate after gate after gate.

Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari

At the historic sights in Japan you'll sometimes see people wearing traditional Japanese dress. In another example of how Kyoto is more linked to its past, traditional dress seems to be more popular in Kyoto than Tokyo.

I visited a number of other temples and shrines, and the shogun's palace.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

City view at Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Kinkakujicho, the Golden Temple

Maybe my favorite neighborhood of all the places I visited was Arashiyama. It's on the outskirts of Kyoto and has natural attractions like a giant bamboo grove and park filled with wild (well, semi-wild) monkeys, and it's also a cute little town with lots of interesting shops.

Arashiyama monkey park, on a mountain outside of Kyoto

At the Rilakkuma Cafe

In the bamboo grove

Arashiyama street scene

My final stop in Kyoto was Nishiki Market, an amazing food hall experience

Octopus stuffed with quail egg

Food for sale

The most amazing tuna sushi I've ever eaten

Back home, my Grateful Dead tribute band performed at an amazing concert as a memorial to Bob Weir. I missed the show because I was on the other side of the world, but I was able to watch a little of it via a live stream while riding the Kyoto subway!

Watching Great Northern from half a world away.

One last thing. I spent the night at an airport hotel before my flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. In the morning I looked out the window and happened to catch a group of airport workers doing their morning calisthenics. Not something you'd see in the U.S.

Bangkok 

I had planned on spending my whole time in Thailand with my friend Peter. "Don't worry about planning anything," he had said, "I'll be your tour guide." However, sometimes life throws you a curveball. When I arrived in Bangkok I got a text from Pete saying that he was in the hospital with a medical emergency. He wound up being hospitalized for five of the seven days we had planned to spend together, so I had to do a lot of improvisation in terms of sightseeing (with Pete's guidance from his hospital bed!).

My first day I went to several of Bangkok's most famous temples, Wat Phra Tep (and the adjacent Imperial Palace), and Wat Pho. After the calm minimalism of Japanese temples, the raucousness of the decor in the Thai temples was mind-boggling. I almost couldn't believe my eyes even as I was standing there looking at these places.

Shops near Wat Pho

With some of the birdmen who guard the temple

Giant statues!

Gold statues, giant stupas, and more detail than the brain can process

Another giant statue!

Buddhas galore!

The 150 foot tall reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

The Emerald Buddha, a major cultural artifact

Chiang Mai

Peter and I had airline and hotel reservations to go up and spend a few days in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city, but the heart of the place - the 1 sq mile old walled city - feels like much smaller and older. Peter, still in the hospital, couldn't go, but I headed up there anyway. The old city of Chiang Mai seems to be a great hangout place which people travel to from around the world. Also, there's history - the old city is chock full of old temples. On the afternoon of my arrival, after lunch at a rockin' vegetarian place, I walked the city and popped into some of them.

Here are some pictures are of Wat Inthakhin, a shrine which holds the city pillar. It is said that if the pillar is properly venerated, it will bring prosperity and keep the city from harm.

Exterior of Wat Inthakhin

People press gold leaf onto statues for good fortune

Interior of the City Pillar shrine - that's the city pillar in the middle

Temple guardian

This is the towering Wat Chedi Luang, a 14th century temple, somewhat collapsed from a long-ago earthquake, but still huge.

Elephant statues at Wat Chedi Luang

There is always another Buddha statue

And another

Chiang Mai has wild night markets, with street vendors selling all kinds of wares, artisans, amazing street food, and entertainment. It seems like all of the city's million inhabitants turn out. There was a big market the first night I was there. The main market street was about a mile long, plus there are lots of little side streets and plazas to explore. It was so crowded that you couldn't really walk; you just had to shuffle along with the crowd.

Night market

Night market musicians

Entertainment on the big stage at one end of the market

Temples lit up at night

Street food in the courtyard of a monastery

Doppelganger

Thai grunge band!

Scorpions and other delicious snacks

Elderly musicians band

I spent my first full day in Chiang Mai at an elephant sanctuary. There are many such places in the area; the one I visited was small, with just four elephants, all rescued from hard work or mistreatment. Peter knows the owners of the place. I was pleased to find that it was an ethical sanctuary, where our interactions with the elephants were limited to feeding, and a guided walk with the elephants to a nearby river. 

Hanging with elephants

Elephants by the river

Monday evening Chiang Mai was much quieter than it had been on Sunday. I ignored Peter's suggestions to go out and party with the bar girls on Tha Phae Road. I did try to go to a music club which had been recommended to me by a guy on the plane, but paradoxically, while the rest of the city was quiet, this one place was packed to the gills - I didn't stay.

Even on a quiet night, people are out eating

On my second day in Chiang Mai I took a songthaew "red truck" taxi (a shared ride in a pickup truck with benches in the back) up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a striking temple up on a Doi Suthep mountain overlooking the city.

Golden chedi (a monument holding relics)

At Doi Suthep

Visitors circling the golden chedi

White elephant statue commemorating the story of the location of the temple

View down to Chiang Mai

Temple grounds

Riding in the red truck taxi back to Chiang Mai

Back to Bangkok

Our plan had been to spend another night in Chiang Mai, but Peter was finally out of the hospital back in Bangkok, so I grabbed a flight back there a day early so we could finally spend some time together.

Old friends, together at last!

Peter took me around like a local. I ate in a non-touristy restaurant with salmon heads, crocodile, and silkworm pupae on the menu (though I didn't order any of those things). We got around on scooter taxis and via Bangkok's confusing multiple mass transit systems. I got massages for eight bucks an hour at a totally reputable - but off the beaten path - massage place. We went to a Buddhist temple which wasn't a tourist attraction, but was still way cool.

Pete is brave enough to film while riding. That's me two scooters ahead.

Scooter taxi in Sukhumvit

Local Buddhist temple

Pete, the Buddha, and me

Chanting at Wat Suthat in Bangkok

We walked through Bangkok's Chinatown

In the evening we went to the Muay Thai fights

I insisted that we go to Lumphini Park so I could see the giant monitor lizards which just wander freely there

Finally, it was time to say farewell to the land of seaweed meat floss cake and head home

Thailand is almost literally on the other side of the earth from DC (it's 177 degrees of longitude away). With flight time and layovers, it takes about 30 hours to get home. I was happy to be home, despite coming home to a snowstorm dubbed "snowcrete".

From the warmth of Thailand ...

... to the cold of Virginia