Kyoto slice #1

I've been working on my travelogue in analog form these couple of days and is not up to transcribing it online. So have pretty pictures.

Slice #1 are Kyoto's streets, which I love to bits. I'd pick walking around aimlessly in Kyoto over any other city hands down, New York included.

 Sannenzaka

 Gion, showing the door to Kyokinana, which you absolutely must visit for their soybean "ice cream"

 

Kamo River, I pretty much have a shot like this for every city I've been to (except Chengdu incidentally, it's hard to make those rivers look pleasant)

The best located restaurants

tpe

Connecting flight to CTU delayed, half day tour returned early, all that worrying for nothing. Since my layover is now ~12hrs, here's today batch of photos.

First stop of the half day tour is the 手信坊 wagashi factory, where we made green bean cakes and sampled a lot of other wagashi.  Ofc I bought some pineapple cakes. 

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The second stop is 清水祖師宮, which most definitely rivals the Vatican in terms of sheer intricacy. Although the larger scale of the Vatican trumps this temple, this can boost that all the wooden members are constructed without nails.

I apologize in advance that all the overall shots of the temple is crappy. Was too busy being in awe, and also more interested in taking photos of all the incense smoke. I also need to brush up on how to offer incense.

pie

Off to Japan in a couple of hours, so here's backlog of all the Toronto and Atlanta food photos.

last week of work involved a lot of eating out, thanks to our executive director visiting and another coworker leaving.

 food + friends back in Toronto, there is much catching up to do

 strawberries on sale = stew with black pepper and cardamon

 newest pasta sauce trick is to add a good chunk of butter (or cream) at the end

 arugula = best veg add-in to pasta. collard greens on the other hand, is really terrible in pasta sauce.

arugula is also good salad veg 

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Stay tuned on facebook for Japan eats :D

till

Currently frantically putting the finishing touches on trip to Japan/China, aka getting my visa last minute and regretting not exchanging USD to JPY before I left Atlanta. Absolutely hating the scrambling, makes the situation feel much worse than it objectively is. At least the expedited visa service is a reasonable price, and I finished my PEY report while waiting at the embassy for 4 hours. But I have no way to rationalize the much better exchange rate from USD, here's hoping the CAD magically increases in value tomorrow.
"orz

Note to future self: moving sucks, have buffer in place at least +/- 2 weeks.

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Otherwise enjoying the greener oolongs as spring finally comes to Toronto.

gate f

A photo of my dimly lit, always cluttered table that I'll never see again. Atlanta's goodbye is very neatly tied up.

iris

If in the future a series of emoticons becomes a mean of self identification, so like passwords, mine would be: glasses, cake, cat. Maybe potato if it needs to be four digits. 

caldisla

 image via.

Initial impressions of bravely default:

• love the battle system, took a while to learn how to default/brave properly, though it's now reduced to brave x4 when fighting mobs for the combat bonuses and generally default x3 then brave x4 when fighting easier bosses. 
• Ringabel == Alvin?! At least that's where I'm predicting his story is going based on the enigmatic notes and the minor spoiler in the artbook that I saw of Ringabel returning to his own world at the game's end. When Alternis first appeared, I thought that he was actually Ringabel in this timeline, and while I believe that less now because of the difference in rank, it seems too convenient that those two characters did not appear simultaneously.
• Disappointed that I can't play as swordmaster until a couple more chapters in :( and in general how slowly you accumulate the job classes. But I also remember being overwhelmed in the demo when you had immediate access to all of them. Currently sticking with white x black mage, and ranger x spell fencer, while leveling a merchant for that big pharma hack.
• Shipping Ringabel x Edea so hard, mostly cause Tiz x Agnes is such a calm and certain couple. Also it worries me that Ringabel is not mentioned at all in the promo materials for Bravely Second, though my theory is that he's the key art character with the hidden face and white hair, cause c'mon the hair. I hope it's obvious that I favour Ringabel so much more than the other characters.
• Edea's black / white is fairly static so hoping that there's more growth in her character when she meets her father. The encounters that she's had with her previous comrades seem unbelievable in how unhesitant she is, though its arguable that she got that trait from her father. 
• Agnes' head strong trait is fairly to my liking, and Olivia's death is pushing her character along nicely. It was cute when she relied on Tiz's judgement in character in the beginning when Tiz and her first met Ringabel and Edea.
• Tiz...jury's still out on him. Mephilia's comment makes me intrigued, actually the whole encounter with Mephilia is intriguing. All the art with Tiz and his sheep is adorable though.