Pinnacles

Close enough to SF that it stopped being a trip and became a normal weekend. After enough visits, we've got the itinerary down to something we can run without discussing it.

Marrakech, the dunes at Merzouga, then north through Fez and Chefchaouen and back down the coast, all of it in August, which was the one clear mistake. Came home with lamps, leather jackets, and a suitcase that should have been a size bigger.

They call it little Kyoto, which undersells it. The samurai town, quieter than Kyoto and better for it. Sat in a tea house at Kenroku-en with matcha and mochi, drizzle coming down on the pond, and I'm not sure I've had a better hour anywhere. Also had omakase at Soki that I still think about.

Kyoto turned me into a morning person for three days straight, purely to get ahead of the crowds. One afternoon we gave up and went back to the hotel. Beautiful place, and I probably won't return, because of the crowds, of which I was one. Nara was mostly bowing to deer. In Osaka we planned every day around food — omakase, sushi, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, onigiri, 7-Eleven — and at one point split an entire fluffy cheesecake in a square, which is defensible at 20,000 steps a day