This lovely piece of work adorned the hotel room in Kyoto; the hotel was extremely nice for the low price we were paying, I thought because of this magical internet deal I stumbled across, but actually because no sane person would sleep with that thing above his head without some massive discount as incentive. And yes, you can see my reflection in the glass. No, I couldn't think of a way to avoid that. Just leave me alone, okay? I'm very sensitive.
We went to the Prefectural Art Museum, which is not the one I went to earlier, to see this big Monet/Renoir exhibit. The exhibit was notably lacking in robot dogs inhaling rainbows, but it was still awfully nice.
I tried to force revolving sushi on Grammy and Michael today, but due to some unexpectedly large New Year's crowds, this Schadenfreude-packed goal was shot down. Nonetheless, hopes are high for Sunday; what better way to celebrate the Sabbath than making your nearest and dearest eat food completely unpalatable to them while you take pictures and laugh? None that I can think of.
Today I had some time to read and actually managed to finish a book, albeit another very short one. It was more Akutagawa, who is really just too good to be believed. He writes mostly fairy tales and creepy stories, but every now and then he has these striking, simple stories about nothing in particular that are just amazing. I keep looking through amazon and bookstores in town for complete collections of his work (which always extend to at least ten volumes), then coming up with increasingly feeble reasons why I don't need to drop several hundred dollars on one man's books. I was just talking with Michael about how we like to waste our money, and I confess that sometimes blowing all one's money on bling-blingy bangles has distinct advantages over my book addiction. For example, I think I have one of maybe three or four girlfriends in the world whose little hearts would go a-pitter-patter over an author's complete works in attractive binding, while most women apparently find diamonds as attractive as, say, MothMonsterMan finds light.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
Naka-ku, Hiroshima
730-0803
JAPAN