Here are some photos of my recent trip to Japan. Sorry, they're not labeled yet, but they will be.

http://www.pbase.com/garyca/japan_2009

For those who read my before-trip postings:

1. Avoiding green tea was absolutely no problem.

2. Concerns about appropriate dress were ridiculous.

I don't know why I worry about these things. Too much time on my hands.

Thanks for the great pictures. Glad you liked the trip

Aloha!

very nice photos, thanks for sharing. I plan to go to Shirakawago, Kanazawa and Takayama on my next trip so the photos were a nice teaser. ;-)

Loved your photos Gary. You went to many of the places I visited and took many similar photos so it was fascinating to see much the same shots with autumn foliage instead of snow.

You even have the same pic of the German Bakery at Kanazawa eki. I recently reread my notes from my trip in 2006 and for some reason I had mentioned that place!

You weren't real lucky with the weather it seems?

Thanks for all the positive comments. No, we weren't lucky with weather, but being from Southern California, I love to get some rain except when I have soaked feet all day. I was with Smartours, which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, a woman died on the tour. I was very impressed with Japan and found that you could do it easily on your own as the signage is in Western script as well as Japanese characters.

I probably won't do a trip report, but one thing I want to do is rave about my dinner at Inakaya. There are three locations in Tokyo. To say it is like Benihana doesn't do it justice, but the format reminds me of it. You sit around a grill and the chef cooks what you want. The ingredients are fabulous, especially the scallops.

Just make sure you have a credit card with a high limit.