Microblog

Took a ferry from Onomichi, where we’re staying in a “bicycle hotel,” to Ikuchi Island in the Seto Inland Sea. Rented bikes, then cycled back across islands and bridges (including the one in the photo), and past a children’s playground.

Last night we slept in a museum designed by starchitect Tadao Ando on Naoshima Island. Tonight we sleep in a bicycle-friendly hotel in a former warehouse on a wharf in Onomichi. There’s a bike hanger in each room for those with bicycle separation anxiety.

Our day pursuing art on Naoshima Island was interrupted by this happy scene. The men were having a great time occasionally hollering and making the platform sway, rise, and drop. Meanwhile the kids on the platform maintained both their composure and the rhythm on a taiko drum.

Posted Temple Plumbing 2019.

Walked into art at the Chichu and Lee Ufan Art Museums on the island of Naoshima in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Photography was not permitted, but I took this photo without fear of discovery. Note Tadao Ando’s signature concrete.

It was rainy, a good day to change plans and ride a bullet train for 230 miles to visit Meiji Mura, an architecture museum. After coffee in the lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel, we explored many of the 60 buildings. We then rode a bullet back.

Explored on foot, helped by two trains. Shikoku 88 temples (52, 53), pilgrims, a castle, a museum designed by Tadao Ando all about a novel, a convenience store, pre-schoolers shouting “hello” and “konichiwa,” houses and gardens, kind people, rice fields ready for harvest, … .

Rented bicycles, cycled across Japan’s Inland Sea on part of the Shimanami Kaido trail. The trail provides spectacular views as it crosses huge bridges and small islands.

Pilgrims have been backpacking the Shikoku 88 for hundreds of years, visiting 88 temples on a 750 mile route around the island of Shikoku. We stored our backpacks in a locker at Matsuyama’s main train station then walked between a few temples.

View from our seats: in-flight entertainment, 12-hour ANA flight, Chicago to Tokyo. It was a happy baby: happy babies make me smile. I’d bought cheap Economy tickets early to snag exit row seats at no extra cost. The baby spent most of the journey in a bassinet.

Between flights at O’Hare, rode the L Downtown. Finally visited the Tadao Ando gallery at the Institute of Art. This peaceful place, with the 16 permanent pillars, was a refuge for some after 9/11. Next weekend we’ll sleep in a place designed by Ando on the island of Naoshima.

Posted Japan 2019.

Prepared the final meals for Tip-the-Fridge Week: strata, ready to bake; risotto patties, ready to fry; vegetable soup. Stale bread, leftover vegetables, homemade stock, and leftover risotto all came from the freezer. I used up all our eggs and most of our milk.

Stood for human decency with many thousands of Minnesotans outside Target Center, Minneapolis. Inside, the president had a different agenda.

Posted Opportunity for All.

It will be 2020 before I can be a tutor again in the basement classroom with a fireplace. The 105-year-old building is about to close for a few months for renovation.