I need to sit down and update this thing more often. Now I can’t remember what it is we’ve been up to the past few days. I’ll try anyway and apologize in advance for the suckiness.

Before we went to meet mom at the airport Nancy and I went Osaka aquarium, home to an eighteen meter whale shark and her baby. The two were inseparable and stunning to watch. Equally fantastic were the jelly fish – all shapes and sizes floating in fluorescent blue and pink tanks. I suppose we stayed a little too long, because we were ten minutes late for mom’s flight which meant she ended up meeting us instead of the other way around. Oops!

After the airport we headed for Kyoto and a half night sleep. In the morning we took the train to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a mesmerizing shrine in the mountains south east of the city.

The temple was built in the 8^th century and is dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. There are stone foxes throughout the complex, as the fox is considered messenger of the god of cereal grains. But the real thing to see is the four kilometer path lined all the way with red torii gates. I’m too lazy to think of something clever describing how cool it was, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Later that day we toured Sanjusangen-do, which has 1001 people-sized wood carvings of Kannon. No pictures were allowed and my words won’t do it justice, either. The best I can do at this late hour is to say that it, too, was cool. Sorry and good night.