Jya mata ne!

See you later, Japan! Thanks for the maple leaves and the great meals, the endless apologizing and the infinite courteousness, the intoxicating jumble of ancient tranquility and modern craziness, and the countless people who have out of the goodness of their hearts gone out of their way to make my trip enjoyable.

I am looking forward to washrooms that have soap and something, anything at all, to dry my hands with, but in general I've had an undeservedly wonderful time, and look forward to seeing you again when I can make it back here, if you'll have me.

Thanks to you also, dear reader, for following me on my journey. See you soon.

And sunkus to you too my good man

These adorable little creatures were pork-and-tofu-skin hot buns I bought at and then consumed immediately outside Sunkus, the erstwhile-ly mysteriously named convenience store.

I say erstwhile-ly because once again Toshi has shed light onto the darkness of my confusion. Japanese speakers pronounce it san-koo-soo, which sounds like "Thanks" to them, which at least makes some sense. However, their logo is still kind of creepy to me.

Star sighting

Saw the comedian/actor Yoshio Kojima doing some kind of TV or movie shoot while we were waiting outside a sushi restaurant in Tsukiji fish market. You should have seen the number of cell phones raised to snap a picture of him as he passed. Apparently he's famous here for doing variations on this.

He was wearing pants when we saw him, however.

Bacon and potato victory

Many of you urged me to follow up on this dangling story participle, so today, my last day in Japan, I dragged Toshi with me back to Makudonarudo. Surprisingly, the B&PP was pretty much exactly as advertised on the box. To wit:

"Now, Come Back! KARI KARI outside, TORORI inside. ATSU ATSU mashed potatoes and tasty bacon... Good for your snack time!"

I hope we'll be getting these in Canada soon. Yum!

Bomb Canada!

At the Edo-Tokyo museum, I discovered that at the end of WWII, Japan released thousands of hydrogen balloons with bags of gunpowder dangling from them, with the idea that they would float over the Pacific on the jet stream and then obliterate America.

Only one of them was successful, killing six people when a girl at a church picnic in Oregon tried to pull one out of a tree where it had landed. The rest landed without incident apparently, including some in British Columbia. I guess I wasn't paying attention that day in history class, because this was news to me. Am I the last to know?

Sea cucumber

in a thick yam foam. Indecently tender beef tongue with braised daikon. Monkfish liver, garnished with a pair of roasted gingko nuts skewered onto a single two-pronged pine needle. Sticky rice with shredded dried-smoked sea bream and pickled plum morsels. Urchin in egg custard, in a tiny cup with a persimmon leaf balanced on top. A completely insanely presented sashimi course (that's the pic).

These morsels were only part of the multi-course kaiseki dinner Toshi's mom treated us to last night, and it was exquisite. Thank you, Hamaguchi-san!

Late for the Olympics

Decided to make my Japan Rail pass work for its money on its last day and returned to Tokyo from Kyoto via Nagano, just to see the mountain scenery (I figure it's my small contribution to balancing the number of Japanese who do the same thing in Banff). It was impressive.

Nagano is also famous for apples, apparently, given the number of apple-themed products available in the shops. You could buy four in a nicely-printed paper bag for about 10 bucks (Y880).

They were pretty big apples, though.