Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Stole Photos from Facebook and a Healthy Dose of Narcissism
Elspeth and I on swings; Kyle and I, at the moon viewing; it was raining, overlooking Shirahama from the top of a mountain; The Purple Ranger, The White Ranger, The Pink Ranger fight their arch nemesis, the villainous Black Ranger, who betrayed them to evil (Re: Halloween); loving pandas at Adventure World; HAPPY!; fighting with Pikachu-mobiles at Adventure World; Carolyn can fly; my claim to fame, chilling with a shinto priest and then getting on TV for it; penguins on tour at Adventure World; this is basically a poster for AKP next year.
Kimomoing
So I totally forgot to post these pictures. I've been taking kimono lessons for the past semester. If you don't know much about them, you might default to "how hard can it be? it's a robe". Yeah, no. It's really hard. It's one thing to go through the movements and another entirely to get the right feeling for when people see you in your kimono. There's definitely a difference in perceptions of aesthetics between myself and my kimono teacher whether it comes to color, shape, or angle.Whenever I think I've gotten something right, she shifts it half an inch before nodding approvingly at her work. Thus part of learning to wear a kimono isn't just going through the motions but adding a certain flair in the small tucks and folds of the fabric. It is also a great lesson in seeing how fabric affects itself in the way it is pulled or pushed. The kimono itself is made up of rectangles and the obi is another very long rectangle. All in all very simple, but the way it can be folded appears to be so much more.
Anyway, those are my half-awake thoughts.
KT
Friday, January 29, 2010
Pavement Like Butter
Pictures shown: Battle Stations! Julia's birthday party; the road outside the train station; Julia, Robin, and Becky at the cafe; a menu at the cafe; delicious tart; delicious cake; the notebook and the prompt as I answered it!; a cup of tea near the Byodoin as Uji is famous for its green tea; the Byodoin; green tea noodles in Uji.
Like many cities, Kyoto is a bike city. Everyone here rides bikes whether in the glorious countryside with sweeping green fields and arching mountains obscured by fog in the distance or in the crush of the city where buses and other bikes threaten to crush or knock you over. I’ve seen people of all ages riding on bikes here at all hours of the day. The busiest time in my neighborhood seems to be on a Saturday morning just after breakfast, when everyone is heading to the train station or an appointment within the neighborhood. Even when I’m walking home after the last train, cautious of the witching hour shadows, gangs of middle schoolers ride by laughing and shouting “hello!” when they see me.
The bikers are fearless, too. They zip through the tiny streets around pedestrians and mini-trucks. They shoot past one another, another inch closer and they’d be grazing one another’s legs and knocking each other off balance. But, having grown up in a large city, I know that the ebb and flow of how we co-exist in such close proximity is to allow your personal bubble to be pressed and sometimes to push it against others while still maintaining that you are the only person on the road.
The stern warning we received by police officers at the beginning of the year in a required bike safety lecture regarding keeping to the left side of the road is probably a more dangerous suggestion than anything. More than once I’ve nearly collided with a fellow biker or moped when they decided they wanted to stick as close to the curve as possible and I just wanted to follow those bike laws!
The new pavement feels like butter under the wheels of my host mother’s bike on my return trip from my kimono class. I’ve spent the better part of two hours tying and retying a Nagoya Obi. At least that’s what I think it’s called, my kimono teacher talks lightning fast which does wonders for my Japanese aural comprehension, but sometimes I miss a proper word or two. This week we worked on a mannequin instead of on myself, which I’m grateful for as I missed breakfast and spending two hours bending my arms behind my back in angles I never thought possible would’ve been enough to send me scampering back to bed upon returning home.
The weather is unseasonably warm, the wind that of one of the more chilling April breezes back on the East Coast. Women stand outside their machiya style homes and sweep whatever leaves and specks of dust may have accumulated overnight. Other bikers sail up and down the back streets, which are so quiet that you wouldn’t suspect the noisy nearby intersections. As I come to the main street, I pass a house, one I pass every day, but today in particular the palm trees strike me as curious. It is January and just yesterday morning, I could see my breath inside my bedroom. But today is beautiful and so I loosen my scarf around my neck. I heard a rumor that, somewhere nearby, the sakura have already started to bloom. To say this is unseasonably early would be a severe understatement. In the next chill that takes Japan, they will certainly die. In fact, we shouldn’t be seeing Sakura until March or April.
Speaking of sakura, I have been invited to a sakura viewing party by the woman whom I am currently tutoring. She’s an older woman who makes a study of English through American politics. Once or twice a month we go through Time Magazine and The New York Times together, reviewing whichever concepts, words, and grammar points she does not fully understand. Her spoken English is astounding, which certainly makes my explanations easier to perform.
When she isn’t busy outdoing all her friends in English, she is busy as a rakugo performer. Rakugo is traditional Japanese comedic theater using only a fan and a towel as props. She has invited my friends and I to view their English performances, for which I have helped in editing their translations. She also works with a small institution that shows foreigners living in Japan some interesting sights around Kyoto, which they may not have previously known about. All in all she is a very lovely woman who I am glad to be getting to know. And to think all it took to meet her was to be sitting with a friend on the train!
As usual these days, I haven’t been up to much. Going out with friends, doing puri-cura, and escaping the cold weather. This week I’ll hopefully get to a few of the temples I’ve been intending to explore. I also sent an email to the Kyoto Costume Institute yesterday in the hopes that they will give me something fun to do with their fantastic collection of Western wear. I’ve been reading their book on fashion from the 18th to 20th centuries since middle school and have been wanting to work there since I first cracked open the pages. I regret not having gotten to them till now, since someone else in my program heard about it from me and not only applied but got the job! Alas, the early bird gets the worm, even if the late bird is going to be right pissed about it. Anyway, hopefully they have something that needs to be done. Maybe they have some bonnets they’re curious about!
Going a little more backwards in time, Rachel and I, before I got back to New York, wrote each other a notebook, each page with a new prompt for each day. In that notebook, one of my prompts was to go somewhere new. I wrote a similar prompt for her regarding the places we pass every day and never go in to because we’re too busy (don’t worry Rachel, this isn’t a spoiler). Because of this, I chose to bring a few friends with me to a café I’ve passed a few times, but never had the time or guts to go in to. Let me tell you, I’ll be heading there as often as I have a few extra coins jostling around in my pocket! It’s a little Japanese interpretation of a French patisserie. It has a somewhat colonial feeling with its rustic colors and three wooden tables, two for small parties of three and one large one for a party of six. The smells from the small kitchen in the back are incredible. Between the four of us we got two pieces of cake and a chai each. The chai wasn’t fantastic, but the cake most certainly was and the warm, comfortable atmosphere more than made up for the chai! They have Edward Gorey books in English and Japanese on the shelves next to the door and play a nice selection of music including Frank Sinatra and my main gal Billie Holiday. If you ever find yourself in the Nagaoka-Tenjin station, I suggest going to Café Katemao. Their blog can be found here: http://blog.katemao.jp/
Additionally, I was invited by a few friends to accompany them to Uji, a somewhat romantic location, easily accessible from Kyoto Station. We walked across a bridge Yoshitsune also did, which was interesting. We took some historical footsteps! Unfortunately we also took some footsteps straight past the Genji Museum, which I still have a great desire to go back to see. Anyway, we got a chance to check out the Byodoin, which is on the back of the ten-yen coin similar to our lovely depiction of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the American penny. The building itself, as is often so with many famous places around Kyoto, was once part of a larger complex but is the only part of the complex left standing. In its prime, the inside of the Byodoin was painted in reds, greens, golds, and blues. Mirrors were placed all throughout it so that despite its lack of windows, it was illuminated during the day and even had a certain glow about it in the evening. Within the Phoenix Hall, which is all that remains, stands the only remaining Heian period statue from a famous sculptor, whose name currently escapes me.
Until next time (hey, lookit that, a fairly timely blog!),
KT
The bikers are fearless, too. They zip through the tiny streets around pedestrians and mini-trucks. They shoot past one another, another inch closer and they’d be grazing one another’s legs and knocking each other off balance. But, having grown up in a large city, I know that the ebb and flow of how we co-exist in such close proximity is to allow your personal bubble to be pressed and sometimes to push it against others while still maintaining that you are the only person on the road.
The stern warning we received by police officers at the beginning of the year in a required bike safety lecture regarding keeping to the left side of the road is probably a more dangerous suggestion than anything. More than once I’ve nearly collided with a fellow biker or moped when they decided they wanted to stick as close to the curve as possible and I just wanted to follow those bike laws!
The new pavement feels like butter under the wheels of my host mother’s bike on my return trip from my kimono class. I’ve spent the better part of two hours tying and retying a Nagoya Obi. At least that’s what I think it’s called, my kimono teacher talks lightning fast which does wonders for my Japanese aural comprehension, but sometimes I miss a proper word or two. This week we worked on a mannequin instead of on myself, which I’m grateful for as I missed breakfast and spending two hours bending my arms behind my back in angles I never thought possible would’ve been enough to send me scampering back to bed upon returning home.
The weather is unseasonably warm, the wind that of one of the more chilling April breezes back on the East Coast. Women stand outside their machiya style homes and sweep whatever leaves and specks of dust may have accumulated overnight. Other bikers sail up and down the back streets, which are so quiet that you wouldn’t suspect the noisy nearby intersections. As I come to the main street, I pass a house, one I pass every day, but today in particular the palm trees strike me as curious. It is January and just yesterday morning, I could see my breath inside my bedroom. But today is beautiful and so I loosen my scarf around my neck. I heard a rumor that, somewhere nearby, the sakura have already started to bloom. To say this is unseasonably early would be a severe understatement. In the next chill that takes Japan, they will certainly die. In fact, we shouldn’t be seeing Sakura until March or April.
Speaking of sakura, I have been invited to a sakura viewing party by the woman whom I am currently tutoring. She’s an older woman who makes a study of English through American politics. Once or twice a month we go through Time Magazine and The New York Times together, reviewing whichever concepts, words, and grammar points she does not fully understand. Her spoken English is astounding, which certainly makes my explanations easier to perform.
When she isn’t busy outdoing all her friends in English, she is busy as a rakugo performer. Rakugo is traditional Japanese comedic theater using only a fan and a towel as props. She has invited my friends and I to view their English performances, for which I have helped in editing their translations. She also works with a small institution that shows foreigners living in Japan some interesting sights around Kyoto, which they may not have previously known about. All in all she is a very lovely woman who I am glad to be getting to know. And to think all it took to meet her was to be sitting with a friend on the train!
As usual these days, I haven’t been up to much. Going out with friends, doing puri-cura, and escaping the cold weather. This week I’ll hopefully get to a few of the temples I’ve been intending to explore. I also sent an email to the Kyoto Costume Institute yesterday in the hopes that they will give me something fun to do with their fantastic collection of Western wear. I’ve been reading their book on fashion from the 18th to 20th centuries since middle school and have been wanting to work there since I first cracked open the pages. I regret not having gotten to them till now, since someone else in my program heard about it from me and not only applied but got the job! Alas, the early bird gets the worm, even if the late bird is going to be right pissed about it. Anyway, hopefully they have something that needs to be done. Maybe they have some bonnets they’re curious about!
Going a little more backwards in time, Rachel and I, before I got back to New York, wrote each other a notebook, each page with a new prompt for each day. In that notebook, one of my prompts was to go somewhere new. I wrote a similar prompt for her regarding the places we pass every day and never go in to because we’re too busy (don’t worry Rachel, this isn’t a spoiler). Because of this, I chose to bring a few friends with me to a café I’ve passed a few times, but never had the time or guts to go in to. Let me tell you, I’ll be heading there as often as I have a few extra coins jostling around in my pocket! It’s a little Japanese interpretation of a French patisserie. It has a somewhat colonial feeling with its rustic colors and three wooden tables, two for small parties of three and one large one for a party of six. The smells from the small kitchen in the back are incredible. Between the four of us we got two pieces of cake and a chai each. The chai wasn’t fantastic, but the cake most certainly was and the warm, comfortable atmosphere more than made up for the chai! They have Edward Gorey books in English and Japanese on the shelves next to the door and play a nice selection of music including Frank Sinatra and my main gal Billie Holiday. If you ever find yourself in the Nagaoka-Tenjin station, I suggest going to Café Katemao. Their blog can be found here: http://blog.katemao.jp/
Additionally, I was invited by a few friends to accompany them to Uji, a somewhat romantic location, easily accessible from Kyoto Station. We walked across a bridge Yoshitsune also did, which was interesting. We took some historical footsteps! Unfortunately we also took some footsteps straight past the Genji Museum, which I still have a great desire to go back to see. Anyway, we got a chance to check out the Byodoin, which is on the back of the ten-yen coin similar to our lovely depiction of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the American penny. The building itself, as is often so with many famous places around Kyoto, was once part of a larger complex but is the only part of the complex left standing. In its prime, the inside of the Byodoin was painted in reds, greens, golds, and blues. Mirrors were placed all throughout it so that despite its lack of windows, it was illuminated during the day and even had a certain glow about it in the evening. Within the Phoenix Hall, which is all that remains, stands the only remaining Heian period statue from a famous sculptor, whose name currently escapes me.
Until next time (hey, lookit that, a fairly timely blog!),
KT
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A surprise trip to New York and back to our regularly schedule programming!
Pictures left to right: Pizza, Jenna and Becky...I mean Darth and Storm Trooper, blue cat (Ashley) person and...the girl in the pearl necklace (Rachel), a lone peach, me and my new kittens who are tentatively Sherlock/Sirius and Watson/Dorien
And now we are entirely caught up! Over winter break I ventured back to New York. I did not tell anyone, however, that I would be returning except for my mother and Rachel and so I spent the first few days surprising those close to me such as my father (whose mouth fell open and dropped all his bags on the floor), Madi (who started to yell at me to leave because she thought I was a ghost), Josephine (who let off a high pitched squeal and then proceeded to yell at me for being so sneaky), and my cousin Sierra (who grabbed me and proceeded to stroke my hair as though I’d been rescued from a burning building)! It was wonderful fun and a fantastic nineteen days in which I saw as many people as possible, went to the movies a few times, did a ton of shopping, and generally enjoying New York.
I got the chance to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie (three times…) as well as Avatar in 3D. I didn’t get a chance to see The Young Victoria, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, or The Princess and the Frog, but those I can watch on DVD. I also picked up Chaplin and the first season of Fringe on DVD, which I’ll take my time to enjoy on off days here in Kyoto.
The day after I returned to Kyoto, school began, and so I spent a jetlagged two days of class. Last night was Julia C’s birthday party and so we went to the new TGI Fridays on Kiyamachi (a truly Japanese experience…really) before heading to our favorite bar Milan’s, where he surprised her with a cake and a bottle of rum. It was wonderful, the amount of people who showed up to celebrate her birthday!
As I left my cell phone in New York—it is now en route to Kyoto, though won’t be here till Tuesday due to the holiday on Monday—I suspect that this weekend will be rather quiet. I spent today cleaning, writing, and reading, as well as spending some quality time with my host mother putting the kotatsu (heated table) together and eating Reece’s after dinner.
On Tuesday, school will be in full swing, but this semester I have three afternoons free a week, so I suspect more trips will be made to Kyoto shrines and Osaka in the coming months in my spare time. I have five months left in Kyoto and have no intention of slowing down! I want to see and do as much as I can!
And now we are entirely caught up! Over winter break I ventured back to New York. I did not tell anyone, however, that I would be returning except for my mother and Rachel and so I spent the first few days surprising those close to me such as my father (whose mouth fell open and dropped all his bags on the floor), Madi (who started to yell at me to leave because she thought I was a ghost), Josephine (who let off a high pitched squeal and then proceeded to yell at me for being so sneaky), and my cousin Sierra (who grabbed me and proceeded to stroke my hair as though I’d been rescued from a burning building)! It was wonderful fun and a fantastic nineteen days in which I saw as many people as possible, went to the movies a few times, did a ton of shopping, and generally enjoying New York.
I got the chance to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie (three times…) as well as Avatar in 3D. I didn’t get a chance to see The Young Victoria, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, or The Princess and the Frog, but those I can watch on DVD. I also picked up Chaplin and the first season of Fringe on DVD, which I’ll take my time to enjoy on off days here in Kyoto.
The day after I returned to Kyoto, school began, and so I spent a jetlagged two days of class. Last night was Julia C’s birthday party and so we went to the new TGI Fridays on Kiyamachi (a truly Japanese experience…really) before heading to our favorite bar Milan’s, where he surprised her with a cake and a bottle of rum. It was wonderful, the amount of people who showed up to celebrate her birthday!
As I left my cell phone in New York—it is now en route to Kyoto, though won’t be here till Tuesday due to the holiday on Monday—I suspect that this weekend will be rather quiet. I spent today cleaning, writing, and reading, as well as spending some quality time with my host mother putting the kotatsu (heated table) together and eating Reece’s after dinner.
On Tuesday, school will be in full swing, but this semester I have three afternoons free a week, so I suspect more trips will be made to Kyoto shrines and Osaka in the coming months in my spare time. I have five months left in Kyoto and have no intention of slowing down! I want to see and do as much as I can!
Vacationing in Sunny Shirahama and Other Such Adventures
Pictures from left to right: paper cranes at Fushimi Inari, the tori gates at Fushimi Inari, Jenna in the submarine tower in Shirahama, view from the top of the submarine tower in Shirahama, a diver cleaning the submarine tower, sunset from the beach in Shirahama, Jenna and Becky jumping for joy on the beach!, dolphin in a tank, during the dolphin show at Adventure World, Jenna and Becky saving the world, one whale at a time, parrot at Adventure World, Panda at Adventure World, polar bear, flamingo, marina at Adventure World.
So in November, during Fall Break (shush, I know it’s January!), Becky, Jenna, and myself got up at a rather disgustingly early hour and got on a train towards Osaka to catch up with the Panda Train, which stops at several locations in Wakayama Prefecture, last but not least being Shirahama. A few weeks prior, when attempting to figure out what we wanted to do for fall break other than excessive shopping, eating, and touring around Kyoto—which is the usual remedy for school anyway—we procured the idea of staying in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan). Of course, if you’re looking to stay in a traditional ryokan, including the wooden structure erected in the woods with a magical natural hot spring and far off mountains to contemplate, you certainly can’t do it on a students’ budget. I think it was a yearning to be at Smith in November, when the cold weather is just setting in and the fresh scent of the fallen leaves is fills the air. I digress. We went to the Doshisha Coop where we searched and searched for a ryokan that was affordable, but had a hot spring and some nice, natural surrounding views. This landed us in Shirahama during a November heat wave in a hotel by a small, beautiful beach with soft white sand, a stunning sunset, and a Caribbean blue ocean stretching out to the horizon.
We arrived too early to check into our hotel and so, after dropping off our bags, headed out in our fall clothes in summer weather to explore the small, mostly closed shopping area around the hotel. If you’ve been to the Hamptons or Montauk or anywhere on Cape Cod in the winter, when the tourist season has long gone, you can imagine the somewhat ghost town feeling of the area, which is also a summer hotspot for many people in the Kansai and surrounding areas. Pictures of Shirahama beach in the summer show that it is completely covered in those looking to catch some sun and waves. The water is relatively calm and warmer in November than the Atlantic on Cape Cod in August. While the few other visitors still donned their winter gear, the three of us immediately took to removing our shoes and socks and frolicking in the water! We eventually made it in to our hotel room, first spending about an hour marveling over just how nice it was! Entering the genkan, you remove your shoes and find yourself in a small hallway with a mini fridge and a door to a toilet. The sliding doors to the right open to a large tatami room with a small table and four floor chairs. Beyond that is another seating area with comfortable arm chairs and sliding widows that mostly boasted a view of the hotel in front of it, but the beach was visible to the left. In the distance to the right was also a tori gate leading into the forest. (Upon further inspection it lead to nowhere, how disappointing!) To the left was a closet full of bedding and beyond that a small bathroom complete with a cozy wooden bathtub. We were so exhausted from waking up early that we cobbled together the beds as best as we could muster and spent the next few hours snoozing.
When we awoke, we ventured out once more to buy some Yellowtail wine at the local Family Mart and went back to the hotel for dinner. The wonderful part of the package we bought was that breakfast and dinner were already paid for and so we ate to our hearts content (really our stomachs fill!) of a variety of foods, mostly Japanese, though some American inspired dishes, including some very rich cakes and custards. We then spent the evening enjoying our nerdy sides and watched choice episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series whilst partaking of our Yellowtail and, in truth, being quite silly as young ladies are known to do.
The next morning we awoke just in time for breakfast, which was even more delicious than dinner the night before, and proceeded to walk to Adventure World, a large amalgamation of an amusement park and a zoo. There we were privy to elephants, red pandas, penguins, polar bears, flamingos, pandas, and dolphins to name a few. There was even a small dog park, which I patiently waited outside of while Becky and Jenna lost their minds to wagging tails and drooling tongues. We managed to spend the entire day there wandering about and purchasing precious items such as panda shaped meat buns and polar bear hats. We especially enjoyed the dolphin show and got pretty up close and personal with them (ok, through a glass, but I’ve never been that close to dolphins before!).
That night we went to the naturally heated salt-water bath, soaking in the deliciously hot water and letting whatever stresses we had float away. We were also able to sit in the sauna for a while, clearing our sinuses and breathing in the wonderfully hot air. Full and warm, we slouched back to the room to watch some Avatar: The Last Airbender, a children’s show, yes, but terribly fun to watch! The next day we went to the submarine tower, which allows you to view the tropical fish, lured close by food, from underwater. By that evening, we were back at home in Kyoto.
With break still in full swing, a few days later I headed off for the first time to Fushimi Inari, one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto, with my friend Megumi. Many people on my program have been several times but it took me until November to finally get there! It was most definitely worth the wait. You start at the bottom of the mountain it is perched against and pray to Inari; you then begin your ascent. The first part is flat, as you traverse the maze of walkways encased in orange hallways made of tori after tori. If you wait just long enough for someone to pass out of sight, you can get a wonderful picture, free of fellow tourists—this is a rarity in Japan. There is an austere air about the place and almost immediately the city sounds disappear. You then make it to the stairs, which seem to go on forever. Climbing and climbing it took us about forty minutes to truly reach the top. Every time you think you’ve gotten there, there’s another set of stairs awaiting you. The tori gates never seem to cease, though they thin out towards the top. The most magical part of Fushimi Inari are the small restaurants that hang off the side of the mountain, allowing those eating their noodles to simultaneously view the fall foliage. The noodles aren’t great, but the view is.
That night we ended up seeing New Moon and being obnoxiously loud in the theater, which I only sort of feel bad about. I go out to see movies to connect with the crowd around me, so seeing movies in Japan is very strange for me. Everyone keeps very quiet, even at hilariously funny moments. In New York, for example, even weeks after opening, people come to the movies and make comments, laugh out loud, and generally connect with the rest of the audience. Seeing a movie isn’t just about watching the film, it’s a community experience. If you’re not going to connect, just watch it at home!
After fall break, time certainly flew. Two weeks of classes and one week of finals later would see us enjoying winter break! We went on a few field trips, visiting some monks in Mibu, who told us stories about the history of the Shinsengumi. We also went to the Gekkeikan sake factory to learn about the history of the area, which was rife with trade (namely in sake) during the Edo period and is certainly a beautiful part of town. Other than that, school impressed itself upon us and thus the majority of touring must wait until after winter vacation.
As promised, though a month late, here’s the other half of my last post about life in Japan! If you didn’t see it, there’s a final post about my exhibit on bonnets, which is the fruit of my hard work this past summer at Smith with Kiki Smith in the theater department.
So in November, during Fall Break (shush, I know it’s January!), Becky, Jenna, and myself got up at a rather disgustingly early hour and got on a train towards Osaka to catch up with the Panda Train, which stops at several locations in Wakayama Prefecture, last but not least being Shirahama. A few weeks prior, when attempting to figure out what we wanted to do for fall break other than excessive shopping, eating, and touring around Kyoto—which is the usual remedy for school anyway—we procured the idea of staying in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan). Of course, if you’re looking to stay in a traditional ryokan, including the wooden structure erected in the woods with a magical natural hot spring and far off mountains to contemplate, you certainly can’t do it on a students’ budget. I think it was a yearning to be at Smith in November, when the cold weather is just setting in and the fresh scent of the fallen leaves is fills the air. I digress. We went to the Doshisha Coop where we searched and searched for a ryokan that was affordable, but had a hot spring and some nice, natural surrounding views. This landed us in Shirahama during a November heat wave in a hotel by a small, beautiful beach with soft white sand, a stunning sunset, and a Caribbean blue ocean stretching out to the horizon.
We arrived too early to check into our hotel and so, after dropping off our bags, headed out in our fall clothes in summer weather to explore the small, mostly closed shopping area around the hotel. If you’ve been to the Hamptons or Montauk or anywhere on Cape Cod in the winter, when the tourist season has long gone, you can imagine the somewhat ghost town feeling of the area, which is also a summer hotspot for many people in the Kansai and surrounding areas. Pictures of Shirahama beach in the summer show that it is completely covered in those looking to catch some sun and waves. The water is relatively calm and warmer in November than the Atlantic on Cape Cod in August. While the few other visitors still donned their winter gear, the three of us immediately took to removing our shoes and socks and frolicking in the water! We eventually made it in to our hotel room, first spending about an hour marveling over just how nice it was! Entering the genkan, you remove your shoes and find yourself in a small hallway with a mini fridge and a door to a toilet. The sliding doors to the right open to a large tatami room with a small table and four floor chairs. Beyond that is another seating area with comfortable arm chairs and sliding widows that mostly boasted a view of the hotel in front of it, but the beach was visible to the left. In the distance to the right was also a tori gate leading into the forest. (Upon further inspection it lead to nowhere, how disappointing!) To the left was a closet full of bedding and beyond that a small bathroom complete with a cozy wooden bathtub. We were so exhausted from waking up early that we cobbled together the beds as best as we could muster and spent the next few hours snoozing.
When we awoke, we ventured out once more to buy some Yellowtail wine at the local Family Mart and went back to the hotel for dinner. The wonderful part of the package we bought was that breakfast and dinner were already paid for and so we ate to our hearts content (really our stomachs fill!) of a variety of foods, mostly Japanese, though some American inspired dishes, including some very rich cakes and custards. We then spent the evening enjoying our nerdy sides and watched choice episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series whilst partaking of our Yellowtail and, in truth, being quite silly as young ladies are known to do.
The next morning we awoke just in time for breakfast, which was even more delicious than dinner the night before, and proceeded to walk to Adventure World, a large amalgamation of an amusement park and a zoo. There we were privy to elephants, red pandas, penguins, polar bears, flamingos, pandas, and dolphins to name a few. There was even a small dog park, which I patiently waited outside of while Becky and Jenna lost their minds to wagging tails and drooling tongues. We managed to spend the entire day there wandering about and purchasing precious items such as panda shaped meat buns and polar bear hats. We especially enjoyed the dolphin show and got pretty up close and personal with them (ok, through a glass, but I’ve never been that close to dolphins before!).
That night we went to the naturally heated salt-water bath, soaking in the deliciously hot water and letting whatever stresses we had float away. We were also able to sit in the sauna for a while, clearing our sinuses and breathing in the wonderfully hot air. Full and warm, we slouched back to the room to watch some Avatar: The Last Airbender, a children’s show, yes, but terribly fun to watch! The next day we went to the submarine tower, which allows you to view the tropical fish, lured close by food, from underwater. By that evening, we were back at home in Kyoto.
With break still in full swing, a few days later I headed off for the first time to Fushimi Inari, one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto, with my friend Megumi. Many people on my program have been several times but it took me until November to finally get there! It was most definitely worth the wait. You start at the bottom of the mountain it is perched against and pray to Inari; you then begin your ascent. The first part is flat, as you traverse the maze of walkways encased in orange hallways made of tori after tori. If you wait just long enough for someone to pass out of sight, you can get a wonderful picture, free of fellow tourists—this is a rarity in Japan. There is an austere air about the place and almost immediately the city sounds disappear. You then make it to the stairs, which seem to go on forever. Climbing and climbing it took us about forty minutes to truly reach the top. Every time you think you’ve gotten there, there’s another set of stairs awaiting you. The tori gates never seem to cease, though they thin out towards the top. The most magical part of Fushimi Inari are the small restaurants that hang off the side of the mountain, allowing those eating their noodles to simultaneously view the fall foliage. The noodles aren’t great, but the view is.
That night we ended up seeing New Moon and being obnoxiously loud in the theater, which I only sort of feel bad about. I go out to see movies to connect with the crowd around me, so seeing movies in Japan is very strange for me. Everyone keeps very quiet, even at hilariously funny moments. In New York, for example, even weeks after opening, people come to the movies and make comments, laugh out loud, and generally connect with the rest of the audience. Seeing a movie isn’t just about watching the film, it’s a community experience. If you’re not going to connect, just watch it at home!
After fall break, time certainly flew. Two weeks of classes and one week of finals later would see us enjoying winter break! We went on a few field trips, visiting some monks in Mibu, who told us stories about the history of the Shinsengumi. We also went to the Gekkeikan sake factory to learn about the history of the area, which was rife with trade (namely in sake) during the Edo period and is certainly a beautiful part of town. Other than that, school impressed itself upon us and thus the majority of touring must wait until after winter vacation.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Bewitching Simplicity and Abundant Grace--Belated Bonnets
So I know I haven't posted in a little over a month and I certainly need to be working on that post which talks about my trip to Shirahama or my sneaky Christmas return to New York City to scare my friends silly (as I didn't say a word about actually coming home from Japan), but as I'm currently applying for a museum studies concentration at Smith, I thought I'd get my post up about my exhibit....only a few months late! I actually ended up losing a lot of the pictures and had a friend go back and take them. They're a decent representation of the completion of my internship with Kiki over the summer.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
We Climb Mountains, Yes We Do!
Pictures shown: Himeji castle, fall foliage at Himeji castle, fall sakura at Himeji castle, Heian Jingu, twilight view from the top of Mt. Hiei, a child at Nagaoka-Tenmangu, tori (shrine gate) at Nagaoka-Tenmangu, a roof shingle at the Gosho (Imperial Palace in Kyoto), a screen painting of a crane at Gosho, Julia Becky and myself at Gosho, night view from Mt. Hiei.
Well goodness gracious me! I’ve just looked at my last post only to find that the last time I posted was before climbing Mt. Hiei. If that’s the case then I am most certainly lackluster about new posts and this time more so than usual! Once one settles into a routine, it seems, it becomes easy to forget to update ones blog. Alas. Luckily I’ve got plenty of pictures to remind me exactly what I’ve been up to for the past three weeks or so…a month? More? I’m bad.
Before ascending Hiei, a few friends of mine and I took advantage of the Imperial Palace across from Doshisha being open to the public. While being foreigners gives us the advantage of being able to waltz in nearly unannounced whenever we please, it was nevertheless enjoyable to crush ourselves into the throng of Kyoto-ites and other such tourists itching to view what lies beyond the somewhat foreboding walls of the Gosho. Once we made it past the somewhat lax bag check, we clamored on in to view the extensive grounds, which seem so much more spacious than what the walls surrounding it suggest. Of course, as it can take a good twenty minutes to walk around them, it is perhaps no wonder.
The interior is well kept, especially for the big event. The pillars are painted a stark red and many scrolls and items of import such as armor or musical instruments were displayed about. Interior screens depicting a number of art styles could also be seen. Simple black lines on white paper suggested cranes and other paintings were similar to those of Nijo Castle, elaborate paint and gold stark against cool colored woods. The gardens are also quite neat, small bridges offset by large, old trees, arching forward over the calm, clear pond waters. Even in the crowd, the entire palace held a certain amount of austerity and quiet. After a little over an hour of wandering about, we had grown tired of the periodic rain and vowed to return on another day to view the extensive gardens we were unable to make time for.
A few days later, on our day off, we made our ascent of Mt. Hiei. Emperor Kammu chose Kyoto as a location for the capital in 795 because of its protective mountains. Not only a perfect Zen capital in the days of Heian-Kyo, the mountains served to protect the prosperous court. Mt. Hiei is one such mountain along with Kurama, which we climbed a post ago! It takes a great amount of time to reach the peak, especially when taking ones time. There has also been a history of marathon monks, who climb the mountain day and night, with only a few hours of sleep in between, for years. Just one climb was certainly enough for me for a while. After starting out on rough terrain for quite some time, one makes it to a series of stairs, which prove even more difficult to climb. It is by far not the most difficult mountain to climb, but perhaps next time better shoes than Converse are in order! Once reaching the top, we enjoyed our lunch outside, freezing our poor little noses off, as it was absolutely glacial, and then heading into the café for some tea and soup. It was, admittedly, a little strange to find a lovely flower garden and café at the top of a mountain, which we had been climbing with vivacity and vigor and dirt and mud for the past few hours, but a little civilization was also a relief.
The view offered from Hiei was absolutely spectacular. To one side is Lake Biwa and to the other one can see Osaka far in the distance. The nice warm watchtower located at the top improves the view. We ended up taking the cable car down, as it was getting dark after we had visited the temples located on the far side of the mountain from Kyoto. In these temples can be found the Zoroastrian eternal flame and very, very cold floors on your sock clad feet! They were quite beautiful—alas no pictures were permitted—and there was a huge bell patrons may ring.
A week or so later a few friends and I then headed to Nagaoka-Tenmangu, another temple located in Nagaoka-Kyo by my house. This temple in particular is known for its relationship to education, and if someone desperately wishes to pass an exam or do well in school, they come to pray at Nagaoka-Tenmangu. As far as size, it is not the most impressive temple in Kyoto I have been to, but its location is absolutely stunning. Set against the mountains and near the Nagaoka-Tenjin stop on the Hankyu, to get to the temple from the avenue, one must traverse a large bridge spanning a clear reservoir-like lake. Passing under a large stone tori-gate, one enters the temple complex. We had gone on a day where parents take their three or five year old children to shrines or temples, dressed to the nines, and pray. Thus there were children everywhere, the girls in flashy furisode and the boys taking cool stances as samurai. They were absolutely adorable!
With a bit of shame I admit that far too many days went by before I took advantage of living in a city like Kyoto. At the beginning of fall break, I headed out with a few friends to see Heian-Jingu. Unfortunately we took too much time in getting there and they were half an hour away from closing when we did indeed arrive, but after a short while there, we decided that it was perhaps a little more kitschy than we were accustomed to. Thus we headed off in the direction of Kodaiji for a temple light up. Light ups are really big in Kyoto during the fall season, the powerful lights meant to accentuate the beauty of both the temple structures and their juxtaposition with the fall foliage. As a result of their popularity, the lines to enter temples during these times are incredibly long, some requiring hours of waiting. Of course, my host mom provided me with four tickets to a temple light up, allowing us to skip past the line! As far as experiences go, it was most certainly an interesting one. While I am prone to taking hoardes of photos at every place I go, taking photos in the dark is particularly difficult, even with powerful lights highlighting the trees and the flash on my camera. And thus I was contented to put my camera away and simply enjoy the beauty of the temple and the amazing flow of people. The most notable moment was when we turned the corner to find the trees standing over a wonderfully clear pond, every detail of the night as clear as a mirror on the pond’s surface. Afterwards we went and shamelessly feasted on Italian food!
Later that week is when the real adventure portion of the vacation begins…but I’m exhausted and this post is getting long! Thus I will write the next three events over the weekend and post more on Monday! Coming up: Vacationing in sunny Shirahama, getting spirited away at Fushimi Inari, and visiting monks in Mibu! There are pandas involved.
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