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Although your chopsticks are not vertical in the bowl, it is never a good idea to stick your chopsticks in a bowl of food. Chopstick etiquette in...

Time for me to sit down with Tokyo on Foot again (not my blog but decent visuals of the book). Aside from our personal photo album, it remains my...

Kyoto is amazing. Visit Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. Read about Emperor Yoshimasa. He built the Silver Pavilion. Or had it built. The book...

A member of my team just returned from 2 weeks in Japan, and went to a similar shop for ramen. She had to show up midday, get a ticket, and come back...

Udon - buckwheat. Hand cut. Only thing they made. Husband and wife ran the shop. Interior looked like this:

Is that udon or ramen? Looks good regardless.

Depending on where you are staying in Osaka, it is super quick to Kyoto. From Umeda, you can take a Hankyu express train which is 44 minutes....

With 8 days, I’d be looking at an itinerary within a reasonable orbit of Osaka. Kyoto for sure. Hiroshima. I’d look into Kobe and Nara because I...

Funny Louis…he keeps joking with my wife that they’re going to visit the 38th parallel in homage to my Dad who as a young Marine, was involved for...

Consider substack? Get paid with subscription to your knowledge rather than chase book sales.

Mark, I'll send you an email. If you don't hear from me by Monday, ping me an email to remind me.

Timothy Hill at Counter Culture has published a book on Ethiopian coffee he wrote with Getu Bekele that is pretty technical. I don't know if it is...

I would start here first. Oops, I just read the last sentence of your post. Carry on.

If you are there on Dec 31/Jan1, be in Kyoto for New Year's Eve. There is a Buddhist ceremony when they ring the Bells 108x for cleanse you of...

We have local experts who frequent this forum, and one of them even wrote a book about where to eat in Kyoto. Few things I'd like to do knowing...

Interesting you start this thread. I just purchased tickets for Osaka. Spending 8 days over the Christmas holidays. Struggling with a defined...

I'll ask my wife. She's spent a lot of time there recently. But she's 6 or 8 time zones away right now. Later then.

Just tell him to be careful if he wanders off looking for the men's room.

Nice. Hokkaido is miles and miles of empty roads. And some of the best food ever in the middle of nowhere.

The peak leaf colors are gone, but I still enjoy the view from saddle.

Speaking of dualies. One of the more interesting uses of a dualie was a sports camp client who trained hunting dogs. He had a massive stainless...

Okay Dustin has odd days of the month and RW has even. Saturday and Sunday off. I eat a lot of bread. Basically the medieval monk diet. Bread +...

Sorry for reviving this thread. Anyone had any IRS penalty lately?

I immediately recognized my stupidity. It ended up being $900 because I wanted both fuel filters replaced and the system flushed from the engine back...

Next Stop: Slab City.

I'm not knocking diesels, they are right for hauling heavy and with continuous use. What they are NOT for are folks who want a big bad truck to pull...

Bought a 6" banneton to make little baby loaves. Got one mixed up on Monday, will bake tonight. 250g of flour total. A bit of whole wheat,...

Manufacturers of such things should go to better lengths to make them more idiot proof. A DEF nozzle of any sort should not fit into a fuel filler...