Bye bye Kyoto!

We leave tomorrow...I have a lump in my throat all day.

It's partly because people keep coming over to say good-bye. When they come, they bring us an entire cake or something, so we are constantly full.

Anyway, there are many daily things we will miss about Kyoto.

Here's one. It's important: Mango juice. Same price, same calories as orange juice. What's not to like?

I'll miss the fashion of Kyoto folks. Honestly. They are all so thin, so classy and (even when they don't wear yukata) they dress very fashionably. Everything they wear looks fabulous. I haven't seen an armpit or a muffin top in 11 months. And I don't miss it.

Public transportation. Here's our regular routine: Handing out (or getting back) the tickets at the turnstiles.
Our awesome fish store. Expensive? Yes.

Worth it? Definitely.

One block away.
Our bakery (Panda). Also one block away. I have them to thank for my last 2 kilos.

Vending-machine-san. This guy yells at our boys if they don't slow down on their bikes. He sings old style Japanese songs. He walks right into our genkan and shouts "hello!" and then gives us coffee, or french fries, or vegetables from his garden.

This morning he gave us this yellow melon from his mother's garden. We'll miss R-kun, whose photo was on Darrin's cell phone. We'd say, "what time is, it R-kun?" and then he'd tell us.
And we'll miss our friends...

And school. We'll miss school.

Oh yeah, and sabbatical. We will definitely miss that....