A train ride away there is some great mountain hiking. I headed up to Karama to do the trail through the forest to Kibune. At several stops, ladies who were friends got on to make a day of hiking of together. As we started the trail I took their picture and then showed them how to use air drop to get it from me.Take a look at that neat Audrey Hepburn shirt.

The hike was really beautiful and I met many nice people with the same idea, including these two Austrian men. The photo at the top of this post is the start of the trail. I finished my hike with a nice lunch along the river and then made my way back to Kyoto. Tonight I will finally meet Gerhard who was introduced to me several years ago by my friend Amanda. As Gerhard grew up in Vienna, he helped me with that Shirleyfest in 2017. He lives in Tokyo so he was so much help on this current trip. He kindly stopped in Kyoto on a business trip to Osaka and we had a fantastic dinner and conversation at Maruhuku. The manager Yuki was a lot of fun and brought us lots of delicious sake to go with our sushi. My friend Momoko came by and introduced me to a new restaurant focused on locally sourced vegetables. It is called Izakaya Negiya. Negi means leek. We had a great lunch and then went gallery hopping. As an eye drop user, I was captivated by this one piece of art. Maybe I’ve been doing the eye drops all wrong.I took another cooking class recently. This time it was Bento Box cooking. It was great because once you learn the underlying basics you can apply them to lots of dishes. I even learned how to make sushi rolls. As the typhoon passed through Kyoto today I tried to use some of my newly acquired skills to make myself lunch at home in my little kitchen. I made my own dashi and that was the basis for home cooked miso soup, squash with plum topping and teriyaki chicken. Typhoon food!

I’m not sure I’m getting the high level of concern over this typhoon. It’s been raining today but I went out in it several times and it is no worse than a December California rain storm. They closed the Kyoto National Museum which seems odd as that is where people would want to go on a raining day. They even closed Starbucks early!This is what the sky looked like last night as I walked home from dinner. I always thought it was red sky at night sailor’s delight. Guess not. Tomorrow will be a beautiful sunny day here!