We spent about 7 days in Japan. We started into Nagoya, and then visited Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. The trip map below outlines our trip Our last stop in Japan was Tokyo.
In Tokyo, I found an apartment that was perfectly positioned near the fish market.
Tokyo’s fish market is the largest in the world. Witnessing the frenetic pace of the market was one of the highlights of our time in Tokyo. 
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 
(Below) I especially wanted to visit the tuna auction. Only 120 tourists are allowed into the tuna auction each day. To be in those numbers, I had to rise at about 3:45am and join the lineup of hopeful visitors. After the auction, I ate the world’s best sushi for breakfast (above).
“It’s as if Japanese men, all to aware that deep inside they’d like to stomp Tokyo flat, breathe fire, and do truly terrible and disgusting things to women, have built themselves the most beautiful of prisons for their rampaging ids.
Instead of indulging their fantasies, they focus on food, or landscaping, or the perfect cup of tea — or a single slab of o-toro tuna — letting themselves go only at baseball games and office parties.” ― Anthony Bourdain
“Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken of the Sea.”
― Jessica Simpson
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Kyoto is the spiritual center of old Japan. Kyoto was Japan’s capital and home to the Japanese Imperial Family for 1074 years! As with successful dynasties, the rulers supported large stables of artists who were charged with honoring their greatness. This culture of excellence and beauty has left behind 17 UNESCO World Heritage sights and over 1600 Buddhist temples. 
“It’s a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.” ― James Clavell, Shōgun
Japan
Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.
It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again…
― Billy Collins,
“Wish you were here, we can get lost in the forest together and eat bamboo rice.”
― Winna Efendi
The orange structures below are known as torii gates. The four-kilometer path in the Fushimi-inari Taisha shrine complex is lined with toriis dedicated to the gods of rice and saki. To enjoy the path, I had to rise early and catch the first train of the day to the park’s entrance. By the time I was finishing my walk, the path was filled with tourists.
It’s actually quite rare to see a real geisha in Japan. Kyoto’s Gion district is the place to go, if you want to see one. 
“She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes are deep water. It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances, she sings. She entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha 
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“Mercy, she had discovered, made mad alchemy: a drop of it could dilute a lake of hate.” ― Laini Taylor
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“Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes?”
― Pablo Neruda
“Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter — to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water.” ― Albert Schweitzer
The streams shall run in gladness,
The lakes shall shine and burn,
And sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-king’s return!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
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“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.”
― Tennessee Williams
“You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!”
― Dr. Seuss
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath
“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
― John Muir
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
― John Muir
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“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”
by P-Lo
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