Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.
Clear your mind, clear your desktop. Click for 800 X 600 (others if requested)
In 794, Emperor Kammu proclaimed this valley Heian-kyo, the capital of peace, which turned out to be rather ironic, but lots of things do. It was the capital for over 1100 years, as the Imperial family was there, but for most of that time it was the capital in name only.
Some info by request from a reader: There are about 1.5 million residents of Kyoto city, and about 40 million visitors per year, so yes, tourism is an important part of the economy.
Most of those visitors are from other parts of Japan, so if you come in spring, summer or autumn, and ask a stranger for directions, there is a good chance that person is from out of town and can't help you. Perhaps that is why Kyoto-ites have something of a standoffish image with Japanese elsewhere.
About 10% of those 1.5 million people are college and university students, as Kyoto is known as a college town.
Kyoto leads the nation in officially designated National Treasures (22% are in Kyoto), Important Cultural Properties (16%) and Living National Treasures (artists with specially-recognized skills, 25%)
It can be done right, see, so why is so little done to preserve the architectural heritage of Kyoto? I used to be a beat reporter in San Juan Capistrano , California, a historical city which has very strict design guidelines making almost all construction subject to approval by a planning commission, design review commission and cultural heritage commission. Shops can not have big signs, none of the allowable signs are illuminated from the inside, no neon, no billboards along highways, and a lot more.
Again, taken Saturday on my whirlwind Kyoto tour. It was the first time I had been there since 1996 with my Mom. click the image for 800 X 600 dektop background and marvel to yourself, "It looks just like the postcards!" Kinkakuji was built in 1397, but it was completely burned in 1950 by an obsessed monk, and this one dates from 1955.
The mysterious garden of Ryoan-ji, built sometime by somebody, but no one really knows when or who. Probably in the 1400's-1700's, but that's a big window. Unfortunately, this meditation garden seems always to be the noisiest place in Kyoto. The rest of the gardens at Ryoan-ji are worth looking at, and Mason Florence writes in the Lonely Planet Kyoto Guide that if you go early in the morning, you can get a little more peace for your meditation. Kennin-ji in Gion and Tofukuji down south offer quieter conditions for refelection at karesansui (dry landscape) rock gardens.
Kiyomizu-dera was built in 798, and rebuilt in 1633, so they should get about 500 more years out of the current timbers, if things go well. This veranda, built without a single nail, is immortalized in the Japanese expression, "Kiyomizu no butai kara tobioriru", to jump off the veranda at Kiyomizu-dera, which describes something done with reckless daring. This is one of the basic cliche photos that you must take in Kyoto.
A better picture of my brother, to be fair.With my Mother-in-law and Yoshiko, after a feast, which was after a full day of sightseeing (Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Yasaka jinja, Gion, Sannen-zaka, Kiyomizu). My brother was in town only one day, at the end of his first business trip to Japan. I can't say enough good things about my mother-in-law. She's a great host, a gourmet chef, kind as there is, and puts up with me. Very accomplished as a mother, too.
I have to go back with a better camera than I brought that day. Tofukuji also has a dry landscape (karesansui) garden with a checkerboard pattern.
This is my little brother Peter, who arrived in town tonight on the tail end of his first business trip to Japan (he works for Mitsubishi Motors USA) and leaves on Sunday. After he took a shower, Yoshiko caught him putting on his shoes in the living room. What a barbarian. He arrived in Japan on Tuesday and has been working solidly, and he's leaving Sunday, so basically we have one day tomorrow to show him what Kyoto's got. It's hard to narrow it down. I hope it doesn't rain anymore (It's raining hard now.)
We laid out a futon for him, and he went down with a thump, still dressed. Jet lag. It's always worse going the other way, back to the states. I always fall asleep at 11 p.m.. If you come to Japan, just try to stay up as late as you can the first night, and jet lag should be no trouble.
My shoes, my little brother's shoes, the shoes he hauled across the Pacific for me, and Yoshiko's little shoes. We are both size 13 U.S., size 12 U.K., size 47 European, and size gozaimasen Japanese. What would it be in Japan, theoretically, maybe 31? Are there other shoe sizing systems? What would be my shoe size there?
Another ocha-ya picture for you. I don't know the name of this place in Miyagawa-cho (south Gion). Peter Macintosh (see menu at right) knows the names of all of them, I think. Miagawa-cho is an area where you can really feel Old Kyoto. In a lot of places, you really have to artfully compose your photos to hide the modern houses adjacent to the traditional. Kyoto tourist brochures are made with photos from carefully selected angles.
Kyoto is not a museum of quaint Japan, although some people want it to be so. It is the 7th largest city in Japan, and ironically it is a high-tech leader. Kyocera, Rohm, Nintendo and other leading companies are headquartered here, along with Kansai Science City and Kyoto Research Park. It is also one of the most international cities in Japan, and I think it is a very hospitable place for foreigners. Kyoto University has turned out almost all of the country's Nobel Prize winners.
Because Kyoto was the capital for more than 1,000 years (much of that time in name only, however), it has special cultural significance. Also, because it was not bombed to cinders during WWII (almost certainly because it was being saved as a potential target for the atomic bomb), many of its ancient treasures are alive and well. There are even building restrictions here, and SUCCESSFUL protests of development projects.
Also known as o-sembei or arare, o-kaki are rice crackers, often with sweet soy sauce glaze, wrapped in seaweed. Funahashi-ya is a never-changing (since 1885) landmark at the edge of the Sanjo St. bridge over the Kamo River. This area is almost totally modernized (I had to wedge between Starbucks tables to take the photo), so this place really sticks out. I swear, nothing about the arrangement of this display has changed in the 8 years I've been around, except of course the crackers themselves. This place is always doing brisk business. Japanese on holiday cannot resist rice crackers. Have your picture taken here if you visit, and get the "5-color" fruity sembei if you don't fancy soy sauce and seaweed.
Update: May 1, 2003
Go to my home page for latest information on SARS in Japan.
As of May 1, there are still NO confirmed cases of SARS in Japan. Zero. Travelers' advisories are in effect for stricken regions of China, but the warning for Toronto has been lifted. Airport checks and quarantines have been tightened, and Japanese returning from infected areas (many companies are recalling employees to Japan for safety reasons) are being instructed to stay home for 10 days and wear masks.
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20030501155
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Of 56 cases of suspected SARS-like symptoms in Japan, 44 have been already determined not to be SARS, and today it was announed that of the remaining 12, 10 have been found to be unrelated to SARS, leaving a potential epidemic of 2.
I mention this because I got email from a client today lamenting that registration by overseas participants is down for an international conference to be held in Kyoto later this year. People are afraid to travel to "Asia," it seems, without drawing distinctions.
Further down the lane, a guy was playing the accordion for our entertainment.
One woman, one bassoon, one dream.
Did I mention my brother-in-law has a website. He is a schoolteacher on Tanegashima island, between Kyushu and Okinawa. Tanegashima is where Japan launches rockets from, and it's also one of the best scuba diving spots in the nation, which has something to do with why he is there with his wife. He has all the underwater photography equipment, and has gained notoriety among the sea slug hoi polloi.
For the past few weeks, I've hardly paid any attention to TV news stories about SARS, because Big White Guy has been posting frequent updates from HK on the situation, distilling the important news and adding informative commentary. I highly recommend you go there regularly. He's always been interesting, now he's really useful.
This is a photo of Carla taken two years ago when we called her Carl, not knowing any better. This week Carl jr., the son of Carla, came out of hibernation and returned, briefly, to our kitchen window, an insect hunter's paradise on warm evenings. Each of the three (how many will there be this spring?) geckos that regularly use our window as hunting grounds has unique habits that make them easy to identify. Carla likes to hang upside down with her feet wide apart. Carl jr. swishes his long tail madly when he gets excited. Mr. X comes swooping across the window at high speed, more concerned with asserting territorial rights than catching bugs.
The gloomy weather that continued all weekend reminded me of this cold, windy, rainy day when we set off on our last leg of the bicycle trip around Lake Biwa. This torii gate was just south of Takashima on the western shore of Biwako. Perhaps it is Shirahige Jinja. The weather cleared, and we rode 104km that day, back to Takatsuki.
Some pain is physical,
And some is mental.
But the one that is both
Is dental.
-Ogden Nash
If I were speaking these words instead of typing them, I would sound like Sylvester the Cat, which is odd because I saw a Sylevester cartoon this morning for the first time in a dozen years or so, but not as odd as biting into a forkful of green, leafy vegetables at lunch and hitting something that CRACKED HALF A TOOTH OFF, forcing me to make an emergency dental appointment, but oddly enough just last week Yoshiko went looking for a dentist and found one that was open on Saturday, so now I have a temporary filling and a jawful of anesthetic and I sound like Sylvester.
Thufferin' Thuccotash!!
The Philosopher's Path, between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji.
I finally got the "Dear blogger" form letter that others have been getting. I was feeling sooo left out.
Dear Nils:
We are creating a TV pilot about blogging. We want to bring this phenomenon of personal expression to television for the very first time, and have been scouring the web for appropriate sites. Your web site seems like a potentially great fit for the show.
If you would like to be a part of our pilot, you can do so by submitting a video that encapsulates you and your blog...
Another photo that smells like Kyoto. One of the great things about Japan, not Kyoto in particular, is the appreciation and dignity attached to things (or people) that quietly persevere. Great gardens do not become great by having dazzling objects, or even through particularly spectacular arrangement of objects. They are great because people have tended them dutifully and unobtrusively season on season, year on year, removing the fallen leaves and trimming things that took more than their share of light or space. That's the most interesting thing I came to understand in Marc's book I can't remember whose essay I was reading that said probably the best thing that Japan can teach the world is how to live well in dignified poverty. This may sound funny, with all the electronics and hi-tech cars and toilets with 12 functions, however, if you live here for any amount of time, you'll notice this esteem attached to a well-worn tool, the way someone will turn the pages of a book carefully, tuck things back into their cases with more diligence and appreciation than back home. It means something to be simple and useful.
Stone-moss-wood-flowers. This picture smells like Kyoto.
Camellia is tsubaki in Japanese, but Mifune fans already knew that. have you see his production company's website? There's a button for english on the main menu page. Only on the Japanese side can you order "Seven Samurai" T-shirts, though. As Apu would say, they're surprisingly expensive.
Do you think Kyoto has enough temples and shrines?
the lighting conditions produced a strange effect here. I think it look like I photoshopped them into the picture. I didn't. Photo taken Saturday at Honen-in, Kyoto.
I saw this amazing guy again in his usual position out in front of Ginkakuji yesterday. I bought a painting from him five or six years ago, but I know he's been there longer. I really wonder how long. I ought to interview him. With a crowd standing around, he paints lovely pictures with tattered old brushes and entertains the crowd in Japanese and English. foreign tourists can't resist his patter. He looks like a derelict, but he is genuinely warm, witty and friendly. I asked him to sign the painting, and he flipped it over and painted another whole picture.
Along Okazaki Canal, heading toward Ginkakuji. I find the falling and fallen cherry blossoms as lovely as those in full bloom. They line the gutters like pink sakura snow, and fly up in great plumes behind the bus.
No more sound trucks for a while. They were more numerous, louder, and more annoying than I can remember. Why on earth do people hire young girls to ride around in cars wearing day-glo orange, pink, green and blue windbreakers waving like royalty to no one in particular (that is, to everyone simultanously). Is this impressive to anyone? And why were so many of them leading off their campaign messages and decorating their cars with "Stop the Iraq Attack" or "Stop the American War"? These are candidates for Kyoto municipal and prefectural assemblies, not national seats. They are not going to have any impact on American foreign policy. Zero.
Outside looking in at Nanzen-ji.
Kyoto is thronged with tourists in spring, but there are great places that are not highlighted on the tourist maps, and thus quieter. Hounenji has magnificent stone stairs and paths, and earthy, mossy gardens. The buildings are not especially striking, which is probably why this temple is less crowded, despite being just off the Tetsugaku-no-michi (the philosopher's path).
I was just about to go downstairs an hour ago to eat my low-carb dinner, having lost 8 kg on the Atkins diet in the last 3 weeks, and just as I was about to snap the lid shut on my ibook, I saw a headline on the front page of cnn, "Atkins critical after fall." I had to click it, and when I did, the ad server made a very unfortunate choice. I can't laugh at this.
An Osaka specialty. If you ever meet an Osakan, ask them if they have a takoyaki pan at home. They almost certainly do, and if they don't, they will be embarrassed. Admonish them to show a little Osaka Pride.
That's about how many of you have been here in the last 24 hourse since this little site was linked on the front page of Webmonkey. It's very cool to be linked by the site where I learned how to use CSS, and what mySQL is.
You might want to look at some of my wallpaper.
Cherry blossoms for your desktop. Click picture for 800 X 600 version. Others below.
They are ghostly in winter, without their leaves.
This was really funny at the time...
Barbecuing under the sakura yesterday in Uji in southern Kyoto. the rain finally let up on Sunday, and we went to Michiyo's house. Uji is famous for tea, and they own tea fields. Their front yard is impossibly large, about the size of 4 or 5 houses in my neighborhood. It has a group of 4 cherry trees that form a giant canopy. I have more pics to come from this evening.
On Oike Street, between Kawaramachi and Karasuma Streets.
Sorry, no cherry blossom pictures yet, but they were only at 70-80% bloom, so maybe they survived the mostly light rain that fell over the past two days. We canceled today's party, and will try again tomorrow, after my weddings
Stay tuned...
On a more positive note, I started working on v.3 of www.kyotown.com
So fast you can see the piano through her. Is it wrong to post these?
When I returned last year to the house that wasn't home anymore without her, I didn't know what to take, so I took this little pocket-sized album.
Kyoto's kabuki theater, across the Kamo (duck) River in Gion. Today is April 1, the first day of the fiscal year, the first day of the school year, the REAL start of spring. Feels good today. Now, let's see if I can fool my sleeping wife...
People do great things with small spaces in Japan. No setback requirements, this country is older than that, so the front of the house is often the edge of the street. Watch out for cars.
Photo discreetly taken from oblique angle showing office where *cough, cough* digitally-challenged gentlemen *cough* hang out. Seems they have a zippy new scooter to check up on the action at the love hotels.
