It makes you wonder about how many ideas were communicated long before ships, paper, and compasses remade the map of the world.

Two years ago, my friend’s teacher, who is also a temple carpenter, gave us a tour of the Ise shrines, the most important and traditional temples in Shinto. They feature the same designs rebuilt every 20 years since the 800’s. I was struck by how much they resembled Scandinavian longhouses.

A little democracy for this zip code, not so much democracy for that one, tons of democracy for that zip code over there!

Josh, my best friend has been studying traditional Japanese woodworking for the last six years-he’s there right now on sabbatical. Have you done so? Your stuff reminds me of what he’s doing.

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.

I think this is the one that’s going to get me to unsubscribe.

if the president does something so awful it would be indecent to describe and ask about then you very obviously need to describe and ask about it, thats the entire job

the media has made a huge deal about Neutrality and Not Editorializing and it all falls apart when you realize they are too afraid to publish a factual description of the video Trump posted

Don’t give Californians any good ideas.

Imagine the glorious weirdos LA would elect if they had 20 senators.

We don’t, but we could!

That’s true! But many Americans don’t believe it!

I should clarify, more people than the ten smallest states *combined*. Which is why we should create ten new states and give LA 20 senators :)

Los Angeles County has more Americans in it than the ten smallest states but these folks would never consider someone living in the Valley as a typical American.

Last night, Eric made dinner for my final night. Then we walked over to the sento. Gojo Guesthouse has been my Kyoto home. They are closing in May. One of my little boltholes is going, and I don’t like it. I don’t want to return. I really don’t. I just feel a lot of loss these days.

Me, in Marseille, eating one of the most delicious plates of food I have ever consumed.

FYI Americans, apparently the Brits refer to pacifiers as “dummies”, which explains this hilarious headline.

Japanese brutalism.

Lemon jelly with whipped cream! A specialty of Hiroshima it seems. It was delicious and very 1970s. I think it was made with seaweed-extracted gelatin.

Dessert, 1973. Kyoto.

Yeah, and the deeply broken system is nearly impossible to negotiate without expensive legal help. When I was a resident in the Netherlands, there was an entire government funded office whose job it was to walk be through the visa process at no cost, and my actual application fee was around $1k.

Mt. Hiei. I don’t believe in sacred places-everywhere on our planet should be sacred. But this place, on a day like this, it makes you wonder.