Japanese CliffsNotes and Buddha's Slippers

Despite Mike's propensity to list 'reading' as one of his hobbies, you may as well know that this perhaps may not be 100% accurate. My husband says he enjoys reading, but he just doesn't have the TIME. Ahhhh....so that's what it is.... Well, we found the perfect solution to his problem while visiting the Hasedera Temple in Kamakura. Here's a picture of Mike turning a bookrack called rinzo, where the important Buddha sutras for the temple are kept. They say that rotating the rinzo has the same honor and is equivalent to reading all the sutras. Leave it to my husband to discover Japanese CliffsNotes! I wonder if they have rinzos for all the books around the house that he doesn't have 'time' for....

Now, Mike may not be the best example of a reader, but at least he has normal-sized feet. I, on the otherhand, am cursed with disproportionately large feet for my petite height. Basically, I've got clown feet, okay? I'm fine with them now, but for many years, shoe shopping was a chore, not a pleasure like for most women, because I could never find my size. Living in Japan has doubled this dilemma because I am now in a country where when looking for house slippers, size XXL is still too small for my gargantuan feet. However, Buddha has helped to relieve any insecurities I may have. Check out his slippers behind us in this picture!