We had a day to do more wandering in Osaka before heading off to Sapporo. Marie' was off to Kyoto to visit friends and we tried to figure out what we might want to see in Osaka without too much work. The couple of things that popped up were

This will be a bit different post. Because of timing and weather, the wanderings in Sapporo itself were limited. We always planned to spend a good bit of time at the Sapporo Brewery, but the weather was a disincentive for some of the places we wanted to go; Sapporo is

About a half-hour train ride from Sapporo, Otaru is a popular side trip for tourists (both Japanese and foreign). It is most famous for 3 things:

- It's canals lined by old warehouses

- Glass craft works

- Sushi

Time to move on from Sapporo to our other Hokkaido destination, Hakodate. Naturally the weather decides to be spectacular - after a week of not seeing sun, it came out with lots of blue...

The route to Hakodate follows the Eastern coast of Southern Hokkaido which opens

Hakodate is the Hokkaido city that we've most visited. Past visits were mostly in the snow, flying up from Tokyo to cross country ski and wander the city in the snow. It is far more interesting and historical than Sapporo - more like Otaru, but bigger. The city

Back to Tokyo for the final stint of this trip and it's so comfortable. We've settled in a residential neighborhood in Nakano-ku, not far from where we used to live before moving to Berkeley. While a lot has changed - mostly gotten updated and evolved to

I took a couple hour wander through the lower altitude Berkeley Hills - the Berkeley Foothills to me - and took the big camera. This was mostly to test a new lens. I came back with some decent shots and this blog is just hanging out here, so why not.

Pink on White

Test of Morning Ghost