Nara

We rented bicycles in Nara and had a blast. The eastern part of town has a park referred to as "Deer parK" I'm assuming due to the abundance of 'wild' deer that roam around. There are vendors that sell crackers solely for the deer. If a herd of deer spot you with some, they'll rush you as a herd.

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Beware of Bird Poop

I thought this sign was interesting. It says something to the effect of "Be careful of the bird poop." There were a lot of small birds, likely sparrows, flitting about. I'm assuming they were the perpetrators.



Himeji is one of the more famous castle towns in Japan. I believe it was spared any damage during WWII and is still in great condition. Himeji is about 30 minutes by Shinkansen from Kyoto. It's a really nice stop. There's not much to see there other than the castle, so we only spent a couple of hours there before we were on to our next destination.

Tsukiji

Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world. It's located right off of Tokyo bay, pretty close to the Ginza shopping district and the National Kabuki theater. There are hundreds of retail and wholesale sellers with a huge variety of offerings, the least of which is fish.

Needless to say, we had some of the best sushi I've ever tasted here. That's going to be our first stop the next time we visit Japan.

See Tsukiji on Google Maps

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She runs

This past weekend I took Claire to a friend's house with a fenced in back yard. She went nuts. She reminded me of that dog from Funny Farm that took off at the beginning of the movie and only showed back up sporadically running across the fields in the distance. I think she'd run all day if she could. This animal deserves a fenced in yard. A big one.