just a list of things and moments I want to remember…considering I’ve already forgotten lots of them… will be adding any that pop to mind (fingers crossed).

• Qoo (pronounced “coo” like a dove), best juice drink ever.
  
• Morning set (preferably with Hotdog!)
  
• Green tea “milk” (latte)!
  
• incredible vending machine proliferation
  
• yes that gives you change for 100,000 yen ($100)
  
• Pocari Sweat!
  
• Calpis (swoon)
  
• “winning” the toy at the arcade (thanks to the arcade manager who apparently really really wanted me to win and moved the toy into an “impossible to lose” position)
  
• random shrine in the nishki market
  
• Japanese boy scouts spotting Americans: “Hi! Hi! Hello!” (my reply, of course: “Konnichiwa!!” which made them giggle like crazy)
  
• unbelievable proliferation of smoking. for a country obsessed with cleanliness…
  
• no glitzy postcards. plenty of other trinkets to buy, but…
  
• heated toilet seats
  
• noisemakers attached to toilet seats
  
• blue button = “for washing of the buttocks”
  
• pink button = “for Ladies only” (?!?!)
  
• the morning bowers/greeters at BIC camera in Kyoto
  
• cartoon characters hanging from phones, bags, jacket pockets, pants pockets…
  
• ancient hunched over grandmas & grandpas totally kicking our asses on the steps (both up and down) at Fushimi Inari
  
• duck ramen in Tokyo at the place Christoph found a “shortcut” to (ha ha ha)
  
• the japanese restaurant meal we had in Kyoto where Jackie made our reservation and pre-ordered all our food
  
• hmmm, I wonder what this is. fish? tofu? root vegetable?
  
• that is one LARGE piece o’ tentacle.
  
• “green pea soup”
  
• the first ramen restau we went to in Higayashima.
  
• teddy bears on benches
  
• rachel shutting the taxi door and the uproar it caused
  
• japanese set at the Hearton in the morning