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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 …

Today’s  pic­tures are from the trip to Hiroshima, Mya­jima, and Iwankuni.  They’re under the cut, and they are big. This is the Kin­tai Bridge, built by a samu­rai lord, Yoshikawa Hiroyoshi, in 1673.  It was washed out by a typhoon in 1953 but was rebuilt.  It’s high arcs and wooden struc­ture remind me of the spine …

I’m sit­ting near the open win­dow of my room on the ninth floor of the Aster Plaza Hos­tel.  The cool night air mixes with the lights of build­ings and streets light and with the sounds of traf­fic flow­ing over the city’s many bridges.  The clos­est bridge, Aioi Bridge, just out of the sight-line of my …