“The same people who last week were screeching about the government having concentration camps now want me to give my AR15s to that same government.
“The same people who last month were hyperventilating about the government slaughtering black people now expect me to surrender my guns to that same government.
“The same people who last year were setting stuff on fire and yipping about the government rounding up the gays and Muslims for liquidation now think it’s a good idea for me to just hand over my rifles to that same government.
“You chuckleheads need to make up your damned minds.”
— A helpful reminder from Lawdog…doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.

At the airport, when airline employees are calling customers up to the counter for checkins and upgrades.
Not all of our adventures were outdoors. One wonderful evening was spent at Gion Hatanaka, with a Geiko and a Maiko. Great fun, and I absolutely smoked the maiko in a traditional drinking game. Sadly, while the customers had to drink a beer if they lost, the maiko merely handed over a pair of souvenir chopsticks.

I still want to take this trip in the Spring, with white-water and cherry blossoms, but I was not the least bit unhappy to see it again in Autumn, especially since this time we took the scenic train up-river first.

There were a lot of people at Hikone Castle (more on that later…), but when we came down the hill after seeing it, there were two paths, and the lady at the booth tried to dissuade us from heading off to the right. Not because of a problem with our tickets, or because it was off limits, or even just a longer walk, but because the other way was more popular. I’m glad we didn’t listen, because we ended up having the place to ourselves, making this the only popular tourist site where we didn’t have to worry about people getting in our pictures.

I’ve barely started looking at the pictures we took, but this makes a decent vacation postcard.
