JAPAN TOUR-DAY 10
BACK TO TOKYO

It was very hard to leave beautiful Kyoto. The previous day was spent with me and Deborah enjoying ourselves at the famous Ryoanji Garden. Beautiful, considered to be the ultimate expression of Zen philosophy. We got there before the full rush of tourists-it did take us awhile to get there, we got alittle lost (I keep leaving my travel guide behind), a shop owner did send us in the wrong dirction, turns out we were only about two blocks from the Gion District, we both felt Gion in our bones when we were in the area-we had the feeling, just didn't listen to it, keep thinking we are getting lost-so, we are in Kyoto, and the weather is great, so no problems.

We spent most of the day at Ryoanji, also stopping for some tea, miso and some other trad. food. We were the only people in the place-which overlooked an amazing garden amist shoji screens. There was this huge, old fish that from time to time would leap above the water in the garden causing a loud splash. Was he a sea monster. How old to Koi live? 70 years?

So now it is next day and time to depart to Tokyo. The tour is in light speed now as I knew it would be. Many rest stops this time, which means much eating and snacking. Deb got her first experience with the Japanese rest stops. She loved chowing on unagi and tasty crackers, ice cream and Japanese Coke's rebuttal to Pocari Sweat, Aquarious. Very good beverage, like what you would want Gatorade to taste like.

We arrive in Tokyo by around 6PM. Me and Marshall have about an hour before we do an interview in the hotel lobby (back at the Asia Center-where the whole tour began). We go down, doing our press thing with thoughtful questions and relaxing answers with Michael Pronko of The Japan Times.

Deb and I hit the Roppongi district with heat! First, we must eat. Read afew menus-Korean, Italian, trad. We settle on a real local noodle-shop joint. Very delicious sliced pork, aromatic broth, little pot stickers-boiled, not fried. Very good, washed down with some Sapporo beer.

Got lost in Roppongi-I knew it too, right when we got to this huge 5 points and started taking different streets-up and down intersecting roads.

We found a great bookstore. I picked up a book on the Japan exhibition of Stan Brakhage's filmwork before he left the planet. Turns out on of the exhibition curators was the gentleman that brought me to lecture at Tama Art University, I could see his face in the book. We browse many shops and head back late to the hotel for some sleep, not before bringing Marshall a sandwich while he was attempting to finish some laundry (he did at about 4AM).