THReddingJr.: Goodbye Korea! Hello Japan!

An hour to Inchon. Crowds. An hour fifty to Osaka. An hour forty to Kyoto. Lots of sitting. Everything ran smoothly except Customs at Osaka Airport. A nice young woman in uniform with a very soft voice asked me to put my suitcase on a table and open it. (My bag had been searched on leaving Cleveland way back on 8 October, too.) She went through everything and spoke so softly that I had to ask her to repeat herself. Whose medications are these? What are they for? Etc. She went through the whole case. Then she brings out what can only be described as 'the notebook'. Pictures of items that are not allowed in Japan. She pointed at the pictures and I had to say yes or no.

Weapons? No

Drugs (Recreational variety)? No

Pornography? No

Viagra? No

She never asked to see my backpack or the package I was carrying for Meagan of stuff I had to mail for her when we got back home. BTW, I did have contraband. Marigold seeds from China and Korea. And I would add Marigold seeds plucked at Hiroshima. But she didn't ask and I didn't volunteer.

Side note: I must look like a terrorist or something because I was thoroughly patted down at SFO and again in Orlando after my uncle's funeral. Maybe it's because they have a Napoleon complex and hate tall people. I just laugh. What else can you do?

Once in Kyoto we settled into our hotel and I went and knocked off country number three by running thorough some midday crowds to reach the Takasegawa and Kamogawa Rivers. Two rivers separated by geology and a footpath. A beautiful place to run and no getting lost. And we never went near them again on any of the tours we took from Kyoto. No pictures either since I run old-school. No iPod. No Camelbak. Just shorts and shoes and an appropriate top.