David*Macinnis*Gill.com

Nuh.  Zzzzzzzzz. Snort. Zzzzzzz.

When it comes time to put a bow on an exchange, I try to think back on the sig­nif­i­cant moments of the trip.  There were many–Kyoto, the Peace Peak, the Umeda Sta­tion Crush at rush hour, get­ting nipped by the mynah bird at the pre-school, the lines of school chil­dren in uni­forms and white floppy …

James Till­man was born eighty-six years ago in Evanston, Indi­ana.  His mother was, as most women were in that day, a house­wife. His father, David, was a milk­man who made deliv­er­ies in a horse-drawn wagon.  Jim was a child of the depres­sion, and although his fam­ily didn’t have much in the way of money, he …

The crew went to Himeji to visit the cas­tle, which is the best pre­served of the feu­dal cas­tles. This is Himeji Cas­tle, where Tom Cruise *wishes* he lived. One of the many gates to the cas­tle keep. The rib­bons are to remind you that feu­dal shogun were four feet tall, and you are not. Stairs of death.  …

Seems like every­body wants to say they’ve been to Tokyo.  Sort of like every­body wants to see Rock City or get run over by a speed­ing bus.  It just so hap­pens that Tokyo–which wants to be NYC so much, its become LA–is a mix of both.  The crew took the Shinkansen up the coast to …

More pic­tures… A shinto tori at mya­jimaguchi. It floats as the tide rises, bal­anced by its own weight and struc­ture. Red wine and beer nuts.  Go fig­ger. Part of our crew.Teachers are rock stars in Japan. Prayers writ­ten on snowy white paper, tied to branches of a tree. It is said that you can buy any­thing in …

This is a one in a mil­lion shot by my adopted sis­ter, Denise, but I only had to pay 10 dol­lars. She took it from the win­dow of the Shinkansen train as we trav­eled to Tokyo for a day trip yes­ter­day.  Nor­mally, Fuji is masked by clouds dur­ing the sum­mer, so this was a rare …