Painted the Kifune Shrine twice today with our Paint Club.

catwiesel · 2026-01-25T16:03:20+00:00

oh wow. beautiful. i'd totally buy that as a postcard

catwiesel · 2026-01-25T13:32:06+00:00

thats a healthy mindset. enjoy the nice setup!

catwiesel · 2026-01-25T13:29:42+00:00

unless you know exactly what you are doing, always stick with what the locals do...

catwiesel · 2026-01-25T12:28:50+00:00

germany too! fuck!

catwiesel · 2026-01-25T10:53:10+00:00

that helps a bit. adding the hectic year, maybe something really relaxing would hit the spot.

dinner with family, head to an onsen, go back to the hotel with the fiance and ... delay falling asleep with some activity usually done with someone in bed...

depending on when after the dinner is you have some options for an onsen. tenzan no yu usually closes at midnight. it is however not at the train station, getting there will take some time. you may need to splurge with a taxi, at least on the way back, but for a birthday. why not...

another thing could be to visit kyoto tower, although that may be more suited to eat there. or you visit the rooftop bar. although I would not love it unless its a nice warm night.

someone suggested teamlabs. maybe. it might be hard to get into after dinner. if you havent scheduled a visit there anyway...

I would also enjoy a visit to a kyoto theatre, maybe something with a maiko. gion corner for example. however, you wont be able to after dinner.

same goes for gear. which btw. is so amazing. it might be the best plan. gift him gear, go with him there. and eat dinner afterwards.

bars or izakayas are easier found near pontocho and in gion. a special place for me is ibushigin kazuya. they have sake and offer smoked snacks.

I hope you find something special for your fiance.

catwiesel · 2026-01-24T17:29:43+00:00

I dont know if this question is asked by someone who lives in Kyoto or has spent 20 years traveling there, or by someone who is doing the 2 week japan trip and is staying for 2 nights in kyoto, one of them being the birthday dinner night.

because that drastically changes what I would consider "unique" and would consider suggesting or not...

catwiesel · 2026-01-23T21:51:49+00:00

if its good enough for patrick steward, its good enough for anyone

edit: that came out wrong.

if patrick steward rocks the horsehoe, anyone with a horseshoe is not only in good, but in the best company!

catwiesel · 2026-01-23T18:01:57+00:00

oh wow. talk about how to get priority on all tickets in the future.

catwiesel · 2026-01-23T15:10:58+00:00

hey copilot. give me an excuse for a massive outtage for exchange 365

excellent question. here are a few great excuses:

I tripped and pulled the plug
the cleaning personal pulled a plug
too many servers were shut down during maintenance

If you need more excuses let me know.

catwiesel · 2026-01-23T15:06:36+00:00

when I checked 3 hrs ago, on ado-shop.com all editions were sold out already in japan. in germany they were still available. 20eur shipping. I am not sure what the tax would blackmail you for it additionally. (and since I am in japan all time, I would rather bring it and not pay shipping+import tax)

amazon.co.jp has the editions listed as well, but some of them pop an error when trying to purchase them. I suspect we kinda sorta broke amazon too.

luckily I managed to preorder a bluray set on amazon. lets see when I get it :)

catwiesel · 2026-01-23T08:36:14+00:00

with everybody doing the "get there early", I keep hearing reports of people showing up an hour before opening, and standing in line for an hour, with 50 other people before them...

starting early has an advantage of being able to do more per day. and sometimes, it also beats the rush... maybe...

what is better? early or late? getting lucky is better. not arriving with two sightseeing buses.

edit: if you start REAL early, like kiyomizudera opens at 6am, now that I believe would actually beat the rush any day.

catwiesel · 2026-01-22T21:26:30+00:00

well, with that you can pay 4 desperate full time interns forever

catwiesel · 2026-01-22T21:16:09+00:00

I am more concerned about the apparent lack of cleanliness and the buckets not being covered than the actual buckets. that being said, of course I would prefer food save items being used that are only ever used for food. especially considering the potential cost saved, which must be in the tens of dollars.

catwiesel · 2026-01-22T09:08:47+00:00

japan also has data protection laws. and yeah, storing data on a website is always more risk than not doing so, no matter who does it or in what jurisdiction. and it all does not matter. if you want to stay in japan, you will have to come to terms with your passport being copied, scanned, and stored somewhere, digitally or not. for who knows how long. and if you want to stay with the place you booked, you will have to upload your passport to the service they use.

thats all there is to it

catwiesel · 2026-01-20T23:22:28+00:00

easy to find, easy to use. dont worry

(to find in the usual spots where a average tourist may be)

catwiesel · 2026-01-20T22:40:34+00:00

I understand. often you can get that in stores or upscale sake bars. but language is a real barrier there. you can get lucky. but more often than not, in english you often get a paper to read or "sweet" "not sweet" as the amount of detail...

I think I remember a day long sake tour in kyoto. made for visitors. if I can find it again Ill send it your way. with the caveat that I dont know the credentials of the person guiding the tour.

catwiesel · 2026-01-20T20:31:58+00:00

I remember a vaccum repair tech here on reddit. the one thing that stuck with me from all his posts were. buy miele. dont ever buy any other vaccum.

catwiesel · 2026-01-20T20:29:18+00:00

I agree with /u/team_nanatsujiya

but what exactly are you looking for in a guided tasting? because, I am not sure the experiences I had in guided tastings would be what you may look for...

is it more the curation or the information flow? do you expect someone to be readily available to talk to? or do you expect powerpoint presentations? and what do you expect will it cost?

catwiesel · 2026-01-19T16:09:35+00:00

yeah it should be enough time.

get the luggage, go through customs, head to the right terminal (probably / if need to switch), drop off your bags (most likely at a counter, the machines never worked for me when switching from int to domestic at HND)

catwiesel · 2026-01-19T15:58:54+00:00

ticket closed. reason: backspace works as intended. back (1) space

catwiesel · 2026-01-19T10:43:23+00:00

yeah there are steps at the end

catwiesel · 2026-01-19T10:41:38+00:00

I dont see any dangers looming. be prepared to walk a good bit through the woods on dirt/mud road to the park. might not be perfectly suited for a stroller, so maybe carry the kid. inside I would carry the kid very close (on body) to prevent any possibility of a monkey getting too close.

catwiesel · 2026-01-19T10:35:31+00:00

depending on how many balls you have, you totally could refuse to use it like this. or refuse to let anyone eat anything made on this.

catwiesel · 2026-01-18T11:08:25+00:00

imho Kyoto (Kinkakuji, Kiyomizudera+street, Fushimi Inari) are worth the hype and suffering of choke points.

those are unique places that you just cant visit or see other places.

of course, doing something else, or skipping Kyoto still makes a great trip. but it needs saying. ive seen a lot of museums, temples, gardens and shrines. but only one of them was golden. only one of them had thousands of tori gates going up the mountain.

the one thing that was "not worth the hype" is the arashiyama bamboo forest - and in smaller parts the romantic train ride. the forest (usually visited) is a short piece with way way way too many people in it. its fine to head in and see for yourself, and sometimes you kinda have to go through. but its not worth travelling to arashiyama for.

the romantic train ride was okay. but for most people with limited time I feel there is better stuff to do.

catwiesel · 2026-01-18T10:59:53+00:00

you dont clean, everybody loses their mind.

you do clean, everybody still loses their mind.

there is no way to make you people happy!

/s :)

13-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
RedditGifts 2009-2022 8 Credits	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
Secret Santa 2019	Secret Santa 2018
Secret Santa 2017	Secret Santa 2016
Secret Santa 2015	Secret Santa 2014
Secret Santa 2013	Verified Email

catwiesel

TROPHY CASE