Today the names of three local Keihan stations were changed to promote tourism. I just happened to be riding keihan today. Keihan Shijo became Gion-shijo, Gojo became Kiyomizu-gojo, and Marutamachi became Jingu-marutamachi. This was timed to coincide with the opening of the new Nakanoshima Line of Keihan in Osaka.

rotating headers…

and turned into an underwater spam link farm. My fault for not upgrading WordPress. Doing it now…

Here’s the deal: the phone is cheap; the calling plan, not so much.
Japanese only so far:  iPhone 3G service plan details
8GB iPhone 3G handset charge:  JPY960×24 monthsï¼�JPY23,040 admirably close to Steve’s $199
16GB iPhone 3G handset charge:  JPY1,440×24 months�JPY34,560
Service plan details
White Plan basic charge    980円
Unlimited Packet Charge     5,985円
S! services (navigation, GPS, wallet, games, etc)     315円
Total 7,280円
Call waiting, extra answering machine space and 3-way to 6-way calling are extra.

TOKYO and SAN FRANCISCO — June 9, 2008 — SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.(SBM) and Apple® today announced that the highly anticipated iPhone™ 3G will be available in Japan on July 11.
link

Japanese adventurer Yuichiro Miura, 75, whom I photographed at a lecture in Kyoto in 2005, climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest last week in an attempt to recapture bragging rights he previously held as the “oldest summiteer.” It didn’t quite work out. One day before he reached the top, a 76-year-old Nepalese climber got there first and set a new record. Man, I hate when that happens.
At the lecture, Miura pointed out that people are always surprised that he does not have an athlete’s body. he’s fairly short and …

We just got back from almost a month’s vacation in the U.S., staring in Oregon with my brother Kris’ family and moving on to California, Louisiana and Seattle, Washington. Many non-Kyoto-related pictures will be posted here and on the flickr page: http://flickr.com/photos/kyoto/

Oh, man, did we get everything and more in Louisiana: crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya and lots of stuff that isn’t even mentioned in that song, like heavenly pecan pie and fried catfish and po’ boys and fried chicken…and that’s just the food. We went to New Orleans for …

There was a forest fire yesterday climbing up the mountainside above us, but the fire department managed to get it under control within a couple hours. It seemed to be coming from Manshu-in Temple, which would be a great tragedy, but a gentleman coming down the hill later in the evening told me it started at a maintenance building for a nearby graveyard and spread to the forest. It got bigger and looked as though it was going to burn out of control, but somehow the fire department managed to …

900 photographers cropped out