While Jules and Kang were in town, we all took a trip to the Science Fiction Museum. They had a mess of neat stuff, including Korben Dallas’s gun from The Fifth Element! Wowz!

Seattle is the type of city where you can get away with a statue of Vladimir Lenin, a Masonic lodge, and fish tacos, all in one photograph.

My good friend and partner in video game construction [Julian](http://grappa.kuiki.net/) came to town. We played *The Chikyuu Boueigun 2*, ate tasty dinners, watched *The IT Crowd*, munched Cheez-It, and worked on our game. Oh, and I suppose he got to see his fiancée, my roommate, Ann, too. We both took a liking to this sign. In Seattle, even the vandalism is artistic.

It’s good to have a job which, when I return from Japan, is still fun to do. Here’s my desk, with stacks of reading material, boxes from various internet purchases, toys all around, iPods, and miscellaneous paraphernalia. An electronics product doesn’t feel right to me until it’s worn out, and a desk doesn’t feel right until it’s cluttered. We all got new 30″ Cinema Displays, so I went on the hunt for a 2560×1600 desktop image. The first nice image I found was this fine drawing by my friend Peet.

Much of our time in Kyoto was spent walking around Kyoto Station and its environs, trying to decide what to eat. We went into a bookstore and did some tachi-yomi (standing and reading) at the travel section, flipping through books of restaurant recommendations. We found a book of Kyoto’s 100 best ramen joints, and one was just around the corner. The noodles were delicious, and the lady even called out “ôkini!” as we left, Kansai dialect for “thanks!”

Family graves were crowded all around, with countless objects of offering and devices of faith. Perched innocently in the middle of it all was this machine vending smokes.