1. She who must be obeyed started complaining about her iPhone 4S which has apparently suddenly started acting strangely, although she found it hard to explain exactly what was wrong. But it was enough for her to decide that she needs a new one.

2. Apple announced that the iPhone 5S will be released in Thailand on the 25th October.

Only the brave would suggest that there is any link between these two events. I am not brave, and in addition I need to handle this strategically because Apple will be announcing a new iPad on the 22nd and my existing iPad 2 is likely to also encounter some severe operational problems around that date which will necessitate a replacement.

After a four hour trek around the shrines of Fushimi Inari, we were ready for a quiet afternoon. But instead we took a train ride out to Arashiyama, an area on the west side of Kyoto. A tropical storm a couple of weeks previously had devastated the area and left many homeless; but the tourist information centre advised that the main sites were open. Sadly, this did not include Tenruji temple, a UNESCO world heritage site which appeared to be in the middle of a major renovation and was surrounded by scaffolding.

The gardens around the temple were beautiful; but not as impressive as they will be in November when I go back to shoot the autumn leaves.

I purchased my first computer more than thirty years ago. It was one of these:

An Atari 400, primitive by modern standards but exciting in the early 1980s. It had a flap on the front which opened to reveal a socket into which you could drop a cartridge. It might be the “Star Raiders” game, or it could be a Basic language cartridge with which you could write your own programs. This was particularly attractive because the computer featured four joystick ports, and so writing simple games was possible for even an idiot like me.

The other attractive feature for the father of a three year old child was the provision of a touch sensitive keyboard. This meant that The Son could be let loose on the machine with a jam sandwich in one hand and some of the jam from the sandwich in the other; nothing that a wipe with a cloth couldn’t resolve later. It wasn’t too long before he was writing “Hello World” programs of his own; and as we migrated to a more powerful Atari 800 (which I still have in a box somewhere) we even undertook some joint game writing projects which tended to be heavy on the initial graphics screen and not so hot in the gameplay department.

The Son went on to be the coding colossus that he is today, and I didn’t. What happened instead was that Windows came along and access to immediate, easy programming became less evident. So I stopped pretending I could write code and pretended to continue working in an oil company.

There was a brief resurgence about fifteen years ago when Sony released the CLIÉ range of PDAs, and someone else released a basic compiler that would run on them. This was more like the old times! Knock out a bit of code and run it on a handheld device. My major successes was “Bullshit Bingo” which generated a grid of management bullshit words which you then had to listen out for in management meetings and try and get a line of bullshit. I shared this with the Drilling manager and we lifted the boredom of lengthy management team meetings by seeing who could whisper “bingo” first. We later progressed to playing “Bluetooth Battleships”; but this had to stop when I whooped with excitement after sinking his destroyer and not surprisingly aroused the suspicions of the managing director.

The Clie disappeared, and it was not until a year or so ago that I tried programming for the iPhone. After a struggle, I gave up; I just couldn’t get my head around the logic. If only there was something really simple I could play with….

And now there is:

I tried my best to keep she who must be obeyed away from shopping malls in Kyoto; using the reasonable argument that she had two days of shopping till dropping when we went to Osaka. But she used the counter-argument that she really needed some better shoes for all the walking around we were doing, and disappeared for an hour into Isetan.

This was my chance to pay a visit to Bic Camera, a massive electronics emporium bolted onto the side of Kyoto station. I was disappointed to find that there was only one floor given over to cameras; but they did seem to offer every camera and lens currently in production.

The second full day of our stay in Kyoto, and our legs are pretty knackered from several hours of walking on the previous day. But there is no rest for the wicked tourist and we are up at 0600 (0400 Thai time, our bodies remind us) in order to visit the Fushimi Inari shrine. The guides recommend an early visit to best enjoy the site, and the fact that this is a Sunday morning of a Japanese long weekend supports the idea for an early start.

But tired legs and the appeal of the excellent breakfast buffet do not speed our progress, and it is later than it should have been before we leap on the train. We had been caught the previous day by catching an express train which sped past our intended station, requiring a long return trip once we had finally managed to escape; so I ensured this would not be repeated by asking a fellow Japanese passenger if this train stopped at Inari. Indeed it did, he confirmed; and we settled down for the short journey. After quite a long journey and no Inari station, the ticket checker arrived and advised we had to get off at the next station and catch a slow train back. I was as surprised and disappointed by this news as my fellow passenger, and several other Japanese, who had also thought we were on the correct train. So we all got off at the next step and retraced our steps; and finally arrived at this:

The Japanese have always had a reputation for gadget-equipped toilets; but I was surprised just how prevalent they are. From five star hotels to public conveniences, a host of surprises awaited at every bowl.

Here is one example:

The heated seat was a suspiciously pleasing surprise every time I sat down; as was the immediate flushing that took place to ensure I was presented with a clean drop zone. This mini-flush repeated itself every few minutes, to remove any intermediate debris and remind that I had probably spent enough time with my iPad.

After a morning at the market, it was time for another adventure;sold to she who must be obeyed on the basis it had the word “shopping” in the title. The target was Hagashiyama, an area with preserved streets containing assorted shops. It was quite a walk through a park and past a couple of temples before we finally stumbled across it: