8:30am JST

The hour has come, he said solemnly! Not who’s hour but what’s hour, the hour of laundry. I’ve piled my dirty clothes into a plastic recyclables bag and am now setting off to the coin laundry! The 7-Eleven is on the way so I pick up a quick breakfast of onigiri, a banana, and vitamin drinks. No need to buy a box of laundry detergent since that is usually provided by the coin laundry from a vending machine or fed into the wash by the machine automatically.

9:00am JST

First impression upon entering the coin laundry, they expect you to remove your shoes and put on slippers just as at home or to use the toilet.…

4:50pm JST

I catch the next number 17 bus from Nishi Honganji-mae and head home to Kawamachi Matsubara.

17:00pm JST

Yikes! Overshot my stop and have to bail at Shijo-Omeya, and now the story gets really strange…

I’m staring at my bus map when (and I am no making this up) a boy who couldn’t be more than ten years old, volunteers to give me directions. Not only did “The Prince of the Streets” take me to the nearest public bus map and try to explain the system to me, but he then led me across the street to the station where I could get a connecting bus back to Kawamachi Matsubara station.…

12:30pm JST

I now understand the bus system well enough to ride the bus to Nishi-Wonghanji Temple. Smart travelers use the city bus day pass, which lets you use the city busses for the price of the pass, 500 yen. I walk out onto the street and step right on the number 4 bus to Kyoto Station where I pick up a transfer bus to Nishi Hongonji-mae.

1:48 pm JST

I’m waiting for the number 28 bus and am cornered by a crazy woman who wants to exercise her English language skills and show me where the correct bus platform is.…

8:00am JST

Shooting some video footage with the new stereo microphone I purchased specifically for this trip. The location is picturesque and just around the corner from the neighborhood but suffers from an over abundance of noise. Also a lack of camera presence on my part.

11:00am – 12:00noon JST

I am now in search of the rumored neighborhood coin laundry. Google Street View found an empty building where the hotel flyer says there should be a coin laundry, but this doesn’t surprise me since the Google Car has probably been down this street exactly once in the past decade and stores come and go overnight in Japan.…

4:10pm JST

Its a little late for more temple hopping so Eric suggests we visit Lake Biwa, where we see many people fishing from the sides of the lake. The municipal authority actually encourages you to fish for certain species and eat them, or if you don’t like fish, at least destroy these invasive species one of which is the black bass.

5:00pm JST

Lake Biwa is ringed by mountains, making for gorgeous sunsets, which I am quick to capture on video and in still photography. As the sun sets, the wind picks up and creates a steady breeze that is delightful, as is the entire experience of peace and harmony with nature.…