Last night we ate two beautiful bowls filled with juicy udon noodles in miso, topped with tempura shrimp and fried tofu. Absolutely delicious. We found this at a tiny little place Charlotte knew about, right next to the geisha district of Gion here in Kyoto.

We eat dinner out roughly every other evening. On the main road just a couple of blocks from the hotel, there’s a well-stocked grocery store called Fresco.

On the evenings when we eat at the hotel, that’s where we buy our dinners.

Tonight we were so tired after all the walking, shooting, and filming at the temple Otago Nenbutsu-ji – and still pretty full after a hefty lunch in Arashiyama – that we grabbed a couple of onigiri – triangles of rice with tuna and mayo wrapped in nori (おにぎり) – two packs of shredded cabbage salad, and a couple of cold Kirins.

Why didn’t we eat at one of Kyoto’s fantastic little izakaya joints that are literally everywhere?

The thing is, even though it’s cheap to eat at regular neighborhood restaurants here, it still adds up over seven weeks in Japan – far beyond what we budgeted for meals.

Besides, it’s actually pretty fun to shop for dinner at Fresco, especially because the selection of tasty and inexpensive ready-made food is so enormous.

I think the woman at the checkout in “our” Fresco recognizes me now. The last few times she’s offered a small smile when she drops the chopsticks and a wet wipe into my bag.

The hotel we’ve been staying at for a week has a large breakfast room that, once the buffet is cleared away at 9:30, stands completely empty. That’s where we eat dinner undisturbed, with a bit of jazz playing in the background.

Jazz is commonly used in stores and restaurants as ambient music – a huge relief not to have to listen to any auto-tune crap. So thoughtful.

There still isn’t a single day when Charlotte and I don’t say to each other how ridiculously good we have it here. We’re already thinking about our next trip back.

I wonder if other visitors also reflect on how lucky they are to experience everything Japan has to offer.

I can’t remember the last time I photographed, filmed, and wrote this much during a single trip to Japan.

Charlotte and I are both childishly enthusiastic and we can barely wake up before wanting to head out to discover, explore, and keep getting inspired. Japan is so addictive.

For me, the most important thing at this stage of life is to keep working on getting better at what I love: being creative and expressing that in different ways. And traveling, of course.

The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (the one Seinfeld quoted in a clip I saw on Instagram) often spoke about three simple principles: ignoring what others think, focusing on your own improvement, and working with virtue and discipline.

The Japanese seem to have taken this to heart – both in how they work and in how they interact with the world. What they do, they do simply (minimalistically), they do it with focus, and they do it properly. A life philosophy that seems to permeate so much here.