first days,a spectacular Buddhist Temple, and the best steak ever

We finally arrived on Friday morning. Our flight from Detroit to Tokyo was delayed so we had to spend the night at the Nikko at Narita Airport outside Tokyo. Then we had to get up at 4:30 am to take a bus an hour north to another airport for an early morning flight to Osaka. Then a 2 our van ride to Kyoto. My assistant Natsumi met us at the apartment, we dumped our bags, Natsumi quickly explained how to work all the appliances that are labelled in Japanese, and we went to lunch at the law school with the Dean and 5 other faculty members. I think we remained reasonably coherent, but if not, perhaps they'll think they just didn't understand our English.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Myoshin-ji Temple, which is just a couple of blocks from our apartment. It's actually a park-like complex of of 47 temples (see 2 pictures). It is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. I expect we will spend lots of time there.

Then we shopped for things the apartment didn't supply - enough hangers, pillows, etc. I showed Bill one of my favorite places-the Sanjo covered market, which is a mish-mash of shops selling everything from very weird fish to housewares (my fav is the 100 Yen Store - just like a Dollar Store). We ate waffles shaped like fish and filled with sweet red bean paste--a culinary delight!

We decided that we had earned ourselves a really good meal --- Bill will take over here. Indeed! After a 30 minute bike ride, we walked through some tatami matted hallways into a large room with counters circling five or six chefs. We sat down (on pillows in front of the counter) to an amazing meal of many courses, each prepared on the metal grill in front of us. The basic ingredient was beef - hand-massaged beef. The fillets were incredibly tender, almost like eating butter, literally melting in your mouth. The cold sake was terrific; we tried three different kinds, but they were all equally excellent. Scallops, fried vegetables, miso soup and other delights accented the meal, but the star, by far, was the most amazing beef imaginable (Omi beef--beer fed, and --really--hand massaged). Supposed to be even better than Kobi--Omi has 2 new converts!