My brother came to visit me recently, and I set up an ambitious travel itinerary. I'll do retrospective posts for each of these, but in general, this is what it looked like:

• Oct. 22 - Jidai Matsuri, Kyomizu Temple, and Gion in Kyoto
• Oct. 23 - Kobe ropeway, cruise, and stroll around Nankinmachi
• Oct. 24 - Osaka castle, Nanba, and the Umeda Sky Tower
• Oct. 25 - Tokyo sightseeing bus tour: Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, Asakasa
• Oct. 25 - Shinagawa and Roppongi
• Oct. 26 - Nihonbashi, Ginza, Tsukiji, Meji-jengu, Harajuku, and Shinjuku
• Oct. 27 - Kawaguchiko (lake near Mt. Fuji)
• Oct. 28 - Kyoto part two: Ginkakuji and The Path of Philosophy
• Oct. 29 - Nara: Kofukuji and Todaiji
  

All in all it was a really good trip. I did as much as I could to keep him disoriented and bemused. My only regret is I didn't keep a photo journal of the food. We hit some damn good places. In the future, I'll try to feature some of the bars, restaurants and venues I like in Japan, but I'm not making any promises. For now, you'll just have to accept any mention of food as a general overview of Japanese cuisine. Therefore, don't post asking me for directions or specific names, for you must remember that when people go out to eat it's just possible they might consume large quantities of alcohol which in turn may make them forget where they went, what they ate, or why they woke up next to that midget stripper.

The trip in fact lasted ten days total. Oct. 21st was the date of arrival. My brother, though not having had much sleep in the previous 48 hours, showed a remarkable ability to deal with the jetlag. To his credit, he opted not to punk out and go straight to bed, deciding instead to go to an okonomiyaki restaurant with us in local Nishinomiya. I must say, I was impressed.

On October 30th, Thomas went by himself to Hiroshima to get the most out of his JR railpass. I would have gone, but I couldn't afford the fare. If you're coming to Japan just for a short time on a travel visa, the JR railpass is an incredible deal. You can travel on any JR train from Kyushu to Hokkaido. And you can take the Hikari Shinkansen or Kodama Shinkansen trains (the two slightly slower ones) to anywhere for as long as the pass is valid. You get seven days for about $26o. Just to give you an idea of the normal fares, I paid roughly the same amount for one round trip Kodama ticket from ShinOsaka to Tokyo.

Anyway, you can get Thomas' take on Hiroshima directly and lots of other things he's interested in, including photos and info. on my nephew here. He left this morning, and should arrive back in Houston around 7:30 this evening. If only he'd bought that Ultraman suit for Halloween . . .