We spent our second night in Kyoto with the O’Keefes at a machiya, an old style merchant home. Think of a long narrow apartment complex that is built vertical to the street. You go into the alley and there are about five or six units one after another. Our unit was not big but had two rooms so there was enough space for four people. I envisioned a much more of an antique ambiance, but there was a modern kitchen and bathroom attached.

It’s not luxurious, but it’s reasonable at 15,000 yen a room for up to 3 people and 4,500 yen for each additional person. That’s not too different than the temple, but the nice thing is this place is more centrally located and there’s no curfew. Plus they provide towels which the temple doesn’t.

The company that owns the complex is a rice company called Shindoshokuryo. As part of its service, they present women with a small bag of natural exfoliant scrub made from ground rice. They also provide a bag of rice in the kitchenette for use.

The friendly woman that showed us to our unit said they had many guests from overseas, and when we were there, there was an Italian couple that was staying as well. The woman herself spoke a little bit of English and said she had spent several years in Maryland.

The machiya has been covered on Japanese television shows and can fill up, so I would suggest making reservations early. I definately recommend it though as a way to experience Kyoto a little bit differently than if you stay at a hotel.

I don’t know what that means either, but that’s what I made, loosely translated. It’s not my best work as you can see. There’s a bit of oasis (the green stuff that you stick the flowers into) that is peeking out.

There’s a really odd international lawyer who is on Japanese TV frequently these days. His name is Takashi Yuasa. He’s got hair that’s too long that he sways back and forth and claims to be an international playboy, popular with the women. He also claims to be Rockerfeller’s lawyer. He claims to charge $50,000 (or is it $500,000) for 10 minutes of his time, or so he reminds us at least three times during any show I’ve seen him on.

The thing is he’s no Tom Cruise in terms of looks. I suppose women would flock to him if he’s got as much money as he says he has. He also seems to lack a little too much sophistication for the kind of international laywer he claims to be. His demeanor is even a little repulsive if you ask me. (In a recent show, he claimed to be responsible for turning Manhattan into a safe city. He said his research revealed one specific street near Times Square where the bulk of crime was occurring, he told Rockerfeller, and Rockerfeller told Giuliani, who fixed it. Um, yeah.)

On the other hand, he’s unable to answer basic questions about life in the U.S.. In a recent quiz show, he didn’t know the answer to the question — what method did one U.S. state use to alleviate heavy traffic on its freeways. The hint was they did something to one of the lanes (answer — they created a carpool lane. duh)

I did a search for his name in English on the Internet, and it comes up with just two entries, both of which seem to be Japan-based Web sites. Seems a little strange that an international lawyer of such supposed fame would not have more entries than that. He supposedly has law degrees from both UCLA and Tokyo University, and studied at Columbia and Harvard Law. I would love to speak to him in English and see how capable he is in the language. I’d also love to see concrete evidence of his “accomplishments.”

I took a week off last week to hang out with some friends, who were visiting us from Chicago. We spent a few days in Kyoto. We spent one night at a temple called Myoshinji about 15 minutes away from the Golden Pavilion.

For a mere 4,700 yen a person, the four of us were given two fair-sized rooms with air conditioning. We had to roll out our own futons, but the rooms were clean and had a pot of hot water to make tea as well as little sweets to go with them. All of the guests share the toilets and baths, but if you take a shower in the morning, you are pretty much assured privacy since most Japanese bathe at night.

In the morning, you might wake up to a Buddhist chant and a vegetarian breakfast at 7:30. We had a poached egg, sauteed burdock root, cabbage in a sesame dressing, miso soup and some of the best rice I’ve ever tasted.

The only drawback of the place is that there’s a 9:30pm curfew and lights must be out by 10pm, so as not to disturb other guests. After a long day of touring though, it’s not too hard to turn in early, and the rare opportunity to spend a night among beautiful grounds is definately worth it.

The nice thing about this particular location is that you’re staying in an actual temple instead of a youth hostel-ish facility as with many other temples. They also welcome foreigners although they prefer that one of them speak enough Japanese to understand simple directions (versus at other temples where they don’t accept foreigners unless there’s one Japanese person with them).