–And where does one go to eat in Japan?  Dennys, of course. (!)

      (We actually did eat here.  The food was VERY different, however—but GOOD!)

      :) :)

      A little off the beaten path, in Kokubunji, there is this little park.  Shortly after entering, I, um, "broke wind" so loudly, lengthily, and repeatedly—that I attracted the attention of a young Japanese schoolboy—who promptly alerted his parents.  His mother found this most amusing, I don't know just what the dad thought.

Gaijin ambassador indeed.

      Some of Japan's very large (and apparently ancient) fish - dudes:

      Another one of Japan's enormous (and, apparently, ubiquitous) spiders.  (Laura HATES spiders—so I made the point of pointing them out, and photographing them, at every opportunity.)

      ( :) ;) )

      No matter HOW you slice it, Japan is just . . . breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL:

      This next picture just doesn't do the scene credit.  (When do they ever?)  These green trees, with the leaves just beginning to change, were very beautiful..

      Here is one of those "thunking water clocks"—one is always seeing in anime.  We were to learn, that they serve a practical purpose: They are meant to scare of deer and wild pigs.  I waited until it was actually "thunking" to take this pic.  Laura had actually told me about this specific one, in an email.  I found it absolutely amazing—that I could travel halfway around the world, and actually see it:

      Japan—always just under the surface: The collision and contrast, of the old and the new:

      A really cool tree:

      We started walking down some randon side street, following the signs for something called "temple remains."  Narrow Japanese streets, even at "idle," are VERY spooky.  We encountered an old woman, gardening, and talking loudly and incoherently to herself.  Heavy growth [of plants], narrow streets, crowded together mysterious houses. . . .  I wonder why these, in their own simplicity, are not a staple of more scary movies.  I think it may well be because—one is wondering why a fish, is not filming more about water. . . .

      Our trek ended, at one of Japan's ubiquitous vending machines, and children playing at a school.  We never found the "temple remains.."

      A big "colony"—of Japan's giant spiders.

      We never found out—what they were looking at, so eagerly; however, as there was a (presumably) tame owl there. . . .

      Then–still in Kokubunji–we found a sort of "park," built into and under, some choo-choo tracks.  I found that so very Japanese, and brilliant.  We then entered a park proper—complete with a place coined "field of dreams."  Laura commented that it was getting humid again; I commented that those two Japanese schoolgirls were making me tumid again.

      ( :) ;) )

      (Oh. –We stopped at a movie theatre, too—but Shin Godzilla was no longer playing there.  :( :( )

      A cool tree:

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