Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.
(clicky-go-biggy)This large park is on the other side of Shirakawa street from our house. The International Conference center at left
is where the Kyoto Protocol was debated, and the mountain is Hiei-zan. Our neighborhood is between Hiei-zan and the hill at right. There is an equestrian center in the park. This new digital camera takes much better pictures than our old one (see photo below this one).
The biggest collection of free tooroo images on the Internet!
I look forward to hearing say one thing:
"How's the food in here, Slobo?"
The Japanese word for lawyer is "bengoshi."
You know how the first time you hook up a webcam, it seems like a cool idea, but then you think, "Why would anyone want to watch my life in realtime?"
I first saw this Kyoto barbershop webcam more than a year ago, I'm pretty sure, so I have to wonder, Why are they still doing it? The shop is actually halfway between Kyoto and Nara in Joyo-shi (surrounded by agricultural fields). I can't bad mouth Joyo-shi because a friend was born and still lives there.
A haircut in Japan is an old-world treat, if you've never experienced it. They give you a full-service shave with a French straight razor, and often finish up with a shoulder massage. There is something undeniably sexy about being shaved by a woman with a straight razor, no matter what her age. She has to be licensed to do it, by the way.
I have a purple map of Australia on my butt, after falling and "surfing" downstairs in my house the other morning, the first time I'd done so since just after we moved in 3 years ago. It has to do with foot size and Japanese stairs. But the location of the bruise made me wonder: If we (American guy of Danish/Irish descent and pure Japanese wife) had a baby, what are the chances it would have the so-called "Mongolian blue spot" that many Asian babies (I don't know the distribution of this phenomenon) are born with? Anyone know?
Google it if this is the first you've heard if "Mongolian blue spot."
This Kurama photo is NOT Anime. This is a picture of Kibune Shrine in the Kurama mountain area of Kyoto.
click for 800x600 desktop background/wallpaper image
You want cliches? I've got your cliches. This is on Mama's street.
not my garden, my mother-in-law's garden
An upcoming show at Kyoto Fine Arts University (Geijitsu Daigaku) including two artists I know. Women who work in different media. Click for bigger images
info
If you go down to the east bank of the Kamo River in the morning or early evening, you'll come across a lot of dog walkers, who, thankfully, are almost all fastidious about cleaning up after their dogs. Just north of Gojo is a spot where dog lovers congregate and chat, almost like a club. I've taken a lot of pictures of their dogs.
This baby keeps our upstairs "blue room" and "green room" warm at night, central heating being a luxury reserved for the super rich.
Sitting on this pavilion at Renge-ji and just breathing is a very relaxing, peaceful exercise.
Having a little culture on the pavilion at my favorite temple. We always pay extra and have the tea and cookies here. Question: Do you know which one to go for first, the the tea or the cookie?
This is a family name plate outside a house near our place. You'd be laughing your ass off if you were Japanese and could read this guy's name.
Nice use of the in-camera posterizing effect, Nils.
Rhymes with "go-low." The reason I don't write "toro" is that the vowels are doubled, they get two beats. I should actually write Kyoto as Kyooto (or Kyouto, it's complicated), because the first vowel in Kyoto is doubled. Did I mention that kanji character for the Kyo in Kyoto actually represents one of these lanterns visually. You can see at the top of this page the gray characters "Kyou" (left) and "to" (right) on either end of the title.
UPDATE: As of May 2003, Iwanami Ryokan's owners have retired. No reservations.
Visitors occasionally reach this site on a search for ryokan (Japanese style inn) in Kyoto. If you can throw down $600 a night, by all means stay at Hiiragiya with all the Hollywood weasels. Other ryokan are in the range of $200-$350, but suppose you don't want to spend that much, but you don't want to come all the way to Kyoto and stay at a hostel, minshuku or, unforgivable in Kyoto, a western-style hotel.
Let me go on the record as recommending Iwanami Ryokan in Gion, where I put my mom up for a week in 1996 when she visited me. The location is perfect, the house is very Kyoto, about 80 years old, and out back is the little shirakawa stream, with ducks.
I'm not sure about prices, but in 1996 it was only 9500/night with breakfast, about $80. It's on Shinmonzen dori (just north of Shijo), near Higashioji dori. That street has lots of antique shops. 075-561-7135. I remember the first time I called to get directions, and trying to follow the lady of the house's directions in Kyoto dialect: "Shinmonzen-Higashioji nishi-iru." In Kyoto, directions are given according to the nearest intersection, then "agaru" (north), "sagaru" (south), "nishi-iru" (west) or "higashi-iru" (east).
(view of the entrance. sorry, my mom's parrot bit a hole in this picture.)
Recent events in the news made me wonder whether organ donation has become more popular in Japan, since brain-death donation was approved in 997. I remember polling my students when the law was being debated, and few were willing to donate organs after their deaths, but almost all wanted to receive transplants if needed. They saw the selfishness in that, but didn't modify their answers.
My Anerican and Japanese cards are right next to each other in my wallet, if need be. The Japanese cards were available only in hospitals at first, which is not a good idea because the timing is bad.
A year after enactment, I read a newspaper article where a journalist polled 100 doctors and nurses in a hospital, and found only two, both nurses, had filled out cards. Amazing. Now the cards are on the counter in many convenience stores.
How about you, reader? Are you registered to donate? Please leave a comment, with your country of residence. I don't teach anymore. Any fellow gaijin in Japan want to poll a class and get a percentage of donors. I'm guessing that around 10% are card carriers.
(clicky-go-biggy)
This is a photograph of fresh air. It's the best thing about not living downtown.
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
In the previous issue of Kyoto Journal there was a very insightful essay on the gathering storm, to borrow a phrase from Churchill. In it, author David R. Loy makes an excellent case for his assertion that good vs. evil dualism is fundamentally to blame for the coming war.
It's longer than your average online read, but well worth it.
GETTING BEYOND GOOD vs EVIL
A Buddhist Reflection on the New Holy War
Too many funny items and games on the Geisha Asobi Blog right now. I'm not going to steal her stuff, just go directly to the site.
The garden gate at a well-known old ryokan (inn) around the corner from our house.
Takaragaike Park near our house, looking quite different from usual.
This was last month, the biggest snowfall of the year. I got a new coat from my brothers and sisters-in-law, a taller coat than you can get in Japan. Thanks. This is the daikon (giant Japanese radish) field next to the train station (just a platform, actually). In a happenin' town, there would be a pachinko parlor or convenience store here instead. Yamabana has never been called happenin'. Daikon are harvested in November and are used in many tasty winter stews, among other things.
There have been numerous reenactments, fire experts, in-studio models and computer graphic models on Japanese TV news to explain how this fire caused such a horrible tragedy.
Japanese train cars all have fire extinguishers, but in such a crowded situation, with paint thinner spreading out quickly on a smooth floor, all the trouser legs and overcoats and handbags for fuel, a fire extinguisher may have been no good. Another thing we have in Japan is an emergency quick release to open the doors in a power failure. That would surely have helped.
Whenever I check into a hotel or ryokan, the first thing I do is confirm an escape route and ckeck for the location of fire extinguishers. I swear it is true.
We live in the northeast corner of Kyoto City, sort of in a notch between two hills that pinches off a neat corner and marks a threshhold between "up here" and "down there." If you walk 10 minutes SOUTH from my house, you'lll find Kitayama (northern mountains) Street. If you walk 5 minutes north, you'll be on the twisting mountain road to Ohara.
The office where I do editing work is about 4km south, about 20 minutes by bicycle, but there is something interesting about that small distance. About 3 km down is a major east-west street called Imadegawa, which is where the fabled Kamo River and the somewhat less-fabled Takano River meet on their way into town from the aforementioned "northern mountains." North of this confluence, say Kyotoites, the temperature is always a few degrees cooler than it is to the south, even though the terrain is only gently sloping up toward the north.
I was reminded of this today as I rode the train home in the rain, a 10-minute trip. As we moved north over this short distance, the rain became sleet, and then snow as we reached my station. (Not a station, actually, just a platform. This is a rural route.) I remembered that I had seen this phenomenon several times before, raining south of Imadegawa, snowing to the north.
This is even better in summer. Kyoto is sometimes referred to as the bottom of a cooking pot, because it is a basin, and gets terribly hot in summer. Up here it is just a few degrees cooler, and we have a cool wind coming down from Mt. Hiei, so that we get a crossbreeze upstairs from front to back, and almost never need to use our air conditioner at night in summer, unlike the people downtown.
Head found floating in bay finally identified as Osaka businessman
But the part that makes it so perfectly Osakan is that the family didn't file a missing persons report for 3 months after he disappeared.
President 1:
"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?"
President 2:
"We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not claim to know all the ways of providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life and all of history. May he guide us now, and may God continue to bless the United States of America."
(clicky-zoomy)
It was cold today, but it will be warm enough soon to go riding again. I think we have the only tandem bike in Kyoto, judging by the stares. This is Yoshiko posing at the entrance to Kurama-dera Temple with Samba-chan, our bike, made by the good people at Burley in Eugene, Oregon. The top tube slopes so that it effectively has separate frame sizes for the front (captain) and rear (stoker) riders, something so very important for us.
Not being able to test ride one from Japan, I made a video of Yoshiko riding her Trek, emailed it to Burley with frame measurements, and the guys at Burley used the video to confirm the appropriate frame sizing. it arrived on Valentine's Day in 1999. If you knew the steepness of the route from downtown Kyoto to where this photo was taken, you would be impressed at the muscle power of my wife on the back seat. I swapped the hybrid-width tires for cushy 2 inchers, as we do a lot of riding along riverside trails. Actually, we haven't been doing enough riding the last few years, but I really want to make a commitment to change that this year.
clicky-go-biggy
This is one of my favorite side dishes, so Yoshiko makes it often. Roasted whole, with a little lemon juice, just grab the tail and eat it head first.
Spring is emerging, the sun is a little stronger, perhaps the last snow has been snowed for the year (at least in town), and I can't help but look forward. Dining al fresco on the yuka (terrace) of a restaurant along the Kamo River in summer is one of the delights of Kyoto. We did it last year for Yoshiko's birthday. You, too, can be an aesthete. (more images inside)
I was testing my new camera, Sony Cybershot P-71. I like it. I like the camera, I mean, not the tower.
Kyoto's most conspicuous eyesore reflected in Kyoto's newest eyesore.
This is a very friendly dog in my neighborhood. he pees through the black gate to show appreciation for scratches.
That's high frequency sound in Japanese. Today I had an ultrasound exam for the first time, as a final check after a week of daily antibiotic i.v.'s for a kidney infection (all OK). I saw my own heart on Valentine's Day, as well as spleen (boring), pancreas (just sitting there, hardly earning its keep) and kidneys (I'll never take you guys for granted again). The ultrasound guy turned the screen so I could watch the whole thing, but for all I know the screen was showing weather radar over Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. In fact, I was going to try out a "too cloudy, circle the airport again" gag on him, but my wife was in the room, and she gets mortified by my antics.
There is a major flu epidemic in Japan, so originally I thought I had that, but after a few days of roller coaster fever I went to a hospital and got fully checked out. Disease names being equally technical in Japanese, when she told me what I had, I kept hearing it as "Jean Genie."
"With Jean Genie, it's important to get a lot of rest and drink at least 1.5 liters of water per day."
"Jean Genie can be caused by..."
Hey, I never even had the album with Jean Genie! That night, David Bowie appeared in my dream. He didn't do anything, he was just there.
Leaf Kyoto is a guide to some of the restaurants, bars and cafes of Kyoto which are housed in traditional Kyoto-style townhouses.
There is nothing too esoteric for Japan. Made by a natural cosmetics and health food company, it's like nori (seaweed for wrapping sushi), except orange, and it turns to carrot glue in your mouth. That's all you need to know.
The torii gate spanning the road in front of Heian Jingu.
From Ebisu Jinja in Gion, Kyoto. Ebisu Matsuri (festival) in January is when you ask the gods for business success in the coming year, and buy lucky fronds with attached talismans to ensure same.
A lot of visitors came to my old site after searching google for "kurosawa effect." Hi, guys.
I have been out of service since Tuesday evening, after starting to feel slightlly dizzy on Monday evening. I went to the hospital on Wednesday, with slight fever, fatigue, diminished appetite. We are in the midst of a huge flu epidemic, but swab rapid detection tests for strains A&B were both negative, so the doctor sent me home with a tentative diagnosis of early course of common cold.
By the time I got home my fever was over 38.5, and rose to 39.25. No throat, nose or lung symtoms at all, but slight headache and increased fatigue and dizzyness. The fever reduced somewhat by bedtime, then was further down Thursday morning. However, it sloped up again toward the evening, and down slightly thereafter, with other symptoms unchanged. Same thing Friday, except that now, as I go to bed, my fever is still up somewhat. I'm going to a bigger hospital tomorrow, this ain't no cold. If anyone can accurately guess what I got before the doc does, you win...something.
Are you ready to accept the challenge?
I got 9 out of 10, and arial does not appear between "verdana" and "sans-serif" on my stylesheet.
Has anyone noticed that Gojira (Hideki Matsui) left Japan (for the Yankees) on Setsubun? Coincidence? The biggest monster left in Japan is rising TV star Bob "The Beast" Sapp, who would do well to give up K1 to focus on his growing celebrity.
Every time I try to print something high-res like a greeting card, a terrible toll is exacted from me for every clean copy that I get. Wasted paper, clipped content, entire cards printed on the roller, I somehow had this fantasy that things would be different in OSX. Today we were printing post-New Year's follow-up mourning cards for those who sent us New Year's cards after not getting the mourning cards we sent in early December. If you don't live in Japan and this makes no sense to you, you are lucky.
