OK, so I'll admit, I didn't see these vending machines on the streets every day. And believe me, I was looking. These were on the island of Miyajima. I understand that most of the beer vending machines were no longer used, so I'm particularly pleased I could find a few to show you.

I'm not a beer fan but I thought someone might get a kick out this anyway.

When I was there, the $1 US would get you 118 yen, so that Bud there is about $2.60 US.

It took some getting used to but it's "doable."

The good thing about these maps is that they're really big and you can see it. The bad thing about these maps is that they were often in Kanji ONLY. So you had to be good at knowing where your stop was in order to figure out how many yen to deposit into the machine.

For the lucky few (that would be ME!) an extremely handy Japan Rail Pass would gain you access to nearly any train your heart desired.

Another map showing more of the lines in Tokyo

All trains in Tokyo have ads in the cars. They line all walls and very neatly numbered for easy replacement. Most have lots of animated stuff and often you can't tell (unless you can actually READ the ad) what the ad's actually advertising. This ad, as you can see, hangs down from the ceiling. This is normally perfectly fine as the bottom of the ad is about 3" from the top of most Japanese heads. The exception comes when some tall Westerner gets on the train and he's about 6'3" and grazes the top of the train not to mention the entire hanging ad. If I'd been brave enough I would've taken a picture of that because it was pretty funny!

This sign appeared in every car on every train (in some form if not this form) at special seating locations. I love the little characters --- especially the pregnant lady. LOL! What was especially poignant about that is I saw....maybe two pregnant ladies in all my travels. They just don't exist in Japan.

And actually this isn't the way it looks typically. It's usually crowded and you can't even see the seat. But the people were always polite, quiet and respectful regardless of how many were crammed on the car. You RARELY ever heard a cell phone but you saw nearly everyone with one. I think my entire travels (on trains, in the streets, in the shops) I heard maybe two cell phones ring. That’s out of millions of people, folks! In the States, there’s one ringing every ½ second! But back to the trains - you also saw folks listening to their music, MP3s I'd imagine, but you'd never hear any of it. The people are incredibly polite.

This was the Keio Line to Tokyo, but I imagine most train controls looked like that.

Normally the trains just pulled up to the platform and people got on and off when the doors opened. At this station, and I'm sorry I can't remember which one in Kyoto it was, actually had a barrier between you and the train so there were two sets of doors - the ones on the barrier and the actual ones on the train. Odd - didn't see this anywhere else but that one station.

"The Bullet Train" http://www.japanrail.com/

Excellent ride. I highly suggest Green Car if you can get it.

Shinkansen "Bullet Train"

Very comfy seats!

I had read about these and had hoped to see one and on our way back from Tokyo Tower...Voila!...there he was. It didn't look like a bad place to be, just a little cramped.

Being the stupid Americans that we are, we stood for a good half hour trying to figure out how this thing worked. I don't think we ever came up with a good explanation. And we were desperate for someone to come by and either park their car or get their car out. Nobody came.

Here's a larger view. Still baffled.

Bridal Store Window Display

I don't know if these were office or apartments, but regardless they were pretty cool looking.

....you'd see the apartment buildings, which housed hundreds of families, all decked out with their bedding hanging over the sides. Saturday was cleaning day for most of Tokyo. There are even little clips especially made to make sure your bedding doesn't slide off the rail and onto the ground below.

Believe it or not, we didn't frequent McD's that often. I did get a Coke there and the staff was friendly, polite, efficient, accurate, quick and bowed when I left thanking me again. Try getting THAT kind of service at your local McDonalds.

And one of those where I'm not exactly sure what's being advertised, but it sure is interesting. Caught my attention!

This was on my way from Tokyo to Kamakura, but I saw plenty nearly everywhere I went.

This was in a subway/train station. Love the color. Love that they have a phone book, STILL located with the phone, and NOT chained down to the phone stand. Go figure! In the U.S.....well heck we don't even have phone books at public phones, much less ones that stay there longer than 30 seconds. Amazing!

There was quite a bit of construction going on at Kenchoji Temple, Kamakura, where this picture was taken. Isn't that cute!

Kenchoji Temple, Kamakura. Even the construction fencing was pretty!

Kenchoji Temple, Kamakura. These are much less offensive than our orange ones, no?

You have to be from coastal North Carolina to truly appreciate that comment. Leave me a comment if you're interested, but it won't be nearly as funny to y'all as it is to us. :-D

I really did not go visit the other parts of where the vegetables were, but I did catch this shot. I liked the green-ness of these.

This is a HUGE electronics store. I could spend DAYS in here, but my sister was there thankfully and kept me out of trouble. It was hard not to make a purchase at the digital photography floor. I did, however, pick up the brochures for my camera and lenses in Japanese! What a goober I am. :-P

You generally had to look up all the time since most buildings housed multiple stores. The only way you knew about the ones above was to look up and see the signs.

We found this cute little boat at Freshness Burger.

Big difference - Japanese vs. Western!

This is pretty much the only sign that had a funny typo. You'll probably see more typos in my text here than I did in all of Japan.

These convenient little yellow "markers" were there, I devised, for several reasons. One was traffic control - if you kept to the left you were more than likely OK. These yellow markers were also raised so that a sight-impared person could "feel" along and know where they were. See how the bar goes across the way where the steps start? Another guide for the sight-impared. Pretty clever!

These yellow markers were on every street and in every subway/train station.

(text from the program) The art of puppet performing developed in Japan in the 8th century. Since that time, Japan has a long tradition of traveling storytellers and traveling puppeteers. At some point, these two art forms joined. Bunraku is a highly sophisticated form of puppet theatre featuring large puppets, maninpulated by up to three men, narrators or tayu, and shamisen musicians. However, the beginning of what is now called Bunraku was 1684, when Takemoto Gidayu set up his own theatre in Osaka. Indeed, much of the Bunraku repertoire consists of stores about the merchant class, many of which are still popular today. Japan's National Bunraku Theatre is located in Osaka.

http://hotel.newhankyu.co.jp/kyoto-j/welcome-j.html
Japanese Site

http://hotel.newhankyu.co.jp/kyoto-e/index.html
English Site

Not too elaborate, reasonably priced, good location across the street from the station. I liked it.

Lots of buttons to play with.

Heated seat. Interesting.

It's for the "water closet". If you need instructions, it's too complicated for me!

I just love these "architecture" features!

Sometimes you get little "beeps" or even music!

7-11!

Normally, I would never set foot in a 7-11, however, the ones in Japan are great. They're clean, nice ... well all the stuff that IS Japan. And the food? Excellent and cheap. We at lunch on several days from 7-11. Sushi, rice cakes, YUMMMY!

My sister and I wondered what it was for since we saw it in lots of different types of stores.

Shoji (sliding paper door) to the "room" part, but it wasn't made of paper.

The slippers are used for walking around inside the ryokan, but not on the tatami mats. These slippers were placed in the alcove in the entrance to the room. They were just below the wooden landing that lead to the actual "room" part. The shower was on one side of the landing and the toilet on the other side. There was a door (Shoji - sliding paper door) to the "room" part. The shower and toilet had Western style doors with knobs.

This is the interior of my room. Very traditional. Very Japanese. Very spartan yet elegant. Extremely lovely.

(picture taken before the bedding was placed)

Another view of the other side of my room. Futon and all.

This is the Futon for the evening. Actually this shot was taken early in the morning. It slept very nicely I'll admit.

Another shot of the Futon. That little light at the head of the Futon? Very pretty.

This is the other side of my room. The windows are large and wonderful and overlook the entire town and the harbor of Miyajima.

Couldn't resist this shot. It's the shadow of the lantern that hung in the window. These were the doors in the room.

Again, with the borders......

...and some more....

They had just purchased these new tatami mats and they smelled WONDERFUL! I fell in love with these mats and should've brought one home.

Can you tell I was fascinated with these?

I know. It's a strange shot, but I wanted to get an entire mat in the shot and this was the only picture that looked good enough to put up here.

Notice the little faucet at the top for washing your hands. Too clever.

And the outlet is to plug up the heated seat.

You actually sit on a little stool (see next picture). This was the same type of set up for the public bath.

Little stool in the right hand corner; you sit on it and shower.

Yukata (robe) for Roykan Jukeiso

As it turns out, Beautiful Water isn't all that beautiful and it's not really water either!

http://www.breaktown.com/
The Official Kit Kat Japan site

http://www.biginjapan.org/archives/tokyo%20food/pages/kit-kat%20white.html
See somebody else liked it too, but Ooooo! We didn't even see the White ones! Drats!!!

http://www.sushicam.com/Journal%20entries/020626/020626.htm
And Banana too??

It was a kind of rice cake thing that was wrapped in this leaf. I had this at the top of Hasedera (The Hase Kannon Temple) in Kamakura. I have pictures in another gallery if you're interested in the Temple.

That box of stuff there was just sitting there. I did not eat that. :-P

Similar to a club, but with egg salad, some type of meat, and something else. I generally didn't ask what I was eating and as long as I didn't get 100% repulsed by the taste or texture, I ate it.

This was a rice cake with shrimp in the middle. What a cool surprise 'cause I had no clue when I bought this what I was gonna be eating. The green stuff is seaweed wrap. And yes, it was very good.

Very good. Very cheap. Very filling. Very good travel food.

http://www.freshnessburger.co.jp/

You've gotta love a place that has a website!

It was really good.

http://www.freshnessburger.co.jp/

http://www.freshnessburger.co.jp/

At least I think it was tea. I couldn't tell. It belonged to the guy in the seat in front of my on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I snuck this picture when we left his seat for a second. (BTW - don't bother Googling "love body" or even "love body tea"...Oh the things you'll get!)

This is a vending machine item.

http://www.glico.co.jp/info/will/choco.htm

This was OK chocolate. Not nearly as good as KitKat!

Unfortunately, I still can't read Kanji, but feel free to click around if you'd like.