Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.
*news update* Typhoon 21 sems to have broken up as it was passing over Kyoto, after hitting Shikoku pretty hard. Quiet now.
In all that regalia, with impossible blocky shoes, still they manage to flutter swiftly but gracefully this way and that, okiya to ochaya, door to taxi, to the convenience store around the corner.
This is just the entrance. It's BIG.
Seibo (Holy Mother) Gakuin is a Catholic school (Kindergarten through University) founded by French nuns in Fujinomori, Kyoto with another campus halfway to Osaka in Hirakata city. The main buiding of red brick was originally a Japanese military post from the turn of the century. The previous century, I mean. The school was open for visitors over the weekend.
There are several shops in kyoto where tourists can dress up like a maiko, have a photo session, and then tour around town in full regalia.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend. The Singing Cowboy of Kyoto since 1958.
Country Dream - All Japan Country Music Festival: Saturday, October 9 at Maruyama Park
Monday to Friday he is a dentist, then on Saturday night his bar Kenny's on the floor above his clinic opens and he becomes Kenji Nagatomi and the Tennessee Five. Fiddle, pedal steel guitar, and now even banjo. I saw them play on Sunday on a big bandstand in front of City Hall during the Kyoto Festival. They often play at various festivals around town and further afield, including the Grand Old Opry in Nashville.
Kenji's daughter Mari, a singer, will also perform with Nashville country harmonica legend Charlie McCoy, a frequent collaborator with Nagatomi.
Kenny's is just north of subway Kuramaguchi at Karasuma-Shimei dori. (usually opens at 8 p.m., ¥3000 cover includes 2 drinks.)
UPDATE:ASICS link with confirmed price info, more background (Japanese only)
Nishijin ori ASICS sneakers. Made with real Kyoto Nishijin kinran (=woven with real gold) cloth. Nishijin cloth is kind of thick brocade style made in the Nishijin district west of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. These sneakers are not for sale, however. A limited number of promotional pairs were made by Kinran.
These were on exhibition today at Kyoto Matsuri-related design exhibition. A few more sneakers. I heard secondhand that the sneakers sold for ¥12,000 or about $100. Later I talked to the company representative, who sounded hopeful that there would be another limited run if there was enough interest.
Kiyomizu-yaki is pottery made in the area below Kiyomizu (pure water) Temple in Kyoto, exemplefied by intricately-painted patterns of blue on white. Taking pure water to a whole new new semantic level, a traditional Kiyomizu-yaki shop has branched out into the very un-traditional kiyomizu-toilet.jp. I leave it to you to choose your favorite model.
If you ever come to Kyoto at festival time, MK Taxi (look for a heart-shaped sign on the roof) offers 10% off your fare if you wear kimono, yukata or jinbe. So, every time we go to Grandma's house, we pack Greg's yukata or jinbe, and before we go home we change Greg into it so that on the way back we get our discount. (We always ride downtown to Grandma's house by Aoi Taxi, because their office and motorpool is in our neighborhood, so they get here right away.) Also, MK just finished a Kimono Campaign, in which we filled up several stamp cards, so we are hoping to get a prize.
Hozugawa kudari is two-hour boat ride with lovely scenery. More info here.
Earlier this year the Kyoto Shimbun published this book of painted photographs of Kyoto: "Bakumatsu Ishin: Saishoku no Kyoto" (colorful Kyoto in the period around the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and Meiji Restoration).
I happened to buy one on the second day after publication; there was a table set up outside the geisha dance theater during the spring dances. The book is page after page of great old hand-painted photos, and of course the real fun is in comparing then and now.
Here's Nijo Castle and my picture from last year.
Accidentally found this link yesterday. From Phoenix to Scottsdale to Chandler, Kyoto Bowl has Arizona covered. Sometimes you just gotta have that Kyoto-style sweet and sour pork with a fortune cookie (menu).
*News item* Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima (with the famous floating torii) has been extensively damaged by Typhoon 18. Not the torii, but the planked walkways and buildings that stand in shallow water.
(in all of its undiluted glory)
OK, so my station is really just a platform, no ticket machines, no wickets, no attendant, no pachinko parlor, no kouban. The one- or two-car Eizan trains stop at every station (no express trains) on the way up to Mt. Kurama or Mt. Hiei (The tracks fork in two directions at Takaragaike, so this is the place to confirm whether you are on the right track). You take a ticket just like a bus, and pay the driver when you alight at your destination. In addition, you can use Surutto Kansai cards as of this March, and some major stations do have ticket machines.
Between earthquakes and typhoons, who knows when we'll get another chance. Seismologists are predicting another big quake within days, and two more typhoons are also incoming. Greg was fascinated by Yoshiko's cold can of tea, since he doesn't drink cold stuff yet. He was touching it and making this look of amazement, and Yoshiko snapped this shot when he put his tongue against the cold can.
Photo by Yoshiko Ferry
*Lots of earthquakes here tonight* Scary, now that we have a baby to take care of...
You probably wouldn't notice this raised hedge outside a Kyoto Prefectural Medical University building across the street from the hospital, because it looks like nothing special. But is is something special.
It's one of the last remaining bits of a 22-km berm and moat called the "Odoi" that Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered built to surround his palace's realm and defend the capital as it was in 1590. The Odoi had two embankments on the East to protect against flooding of the Kamo River. People still describe the city not just in terms of wards (Ukyo-ku, Kamigyo-ku, Sakyo-ku, etc.) but also according to the terminology of the Odoi: Rakuchu (inside the Odoi), Rakuhoku (north of the Odoi), Rakuto (east), etc. More small segments are still visible up west of Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, but berms don't wear too well against the march of progress.
$850 for a pair of sandals, and it's not because they are super comfortable.
For those of you that commented and emailed about purchasing the "Four Seasons in Kyoto" commemorative stamps, I got some and updated the previous thread with buying info.
Very cool "logo." Take a circle, punch out an off-center circle like so, slide it over a bit, and you have a dangling monkey, known as "kukurizaru." This is the emblem of the little Yasaka Koshindo Temple in eastern Kyoto.
The cloth talismans hanging in the temple represent the monkey with its hand and feet bound. As I understand it, Koshin was considered a sort of radical cult-like sect of Buddhism with Christian-like severe punishment for those deemed "bad."
The good thing about it is that Koshin-san (you can see a bit of him through the talismans) is here to help you on the path of righteousness. The monkey is an animal very like man, but lacks self control and gives his playful desires free reign. The kukurizaru's hands and feet are bound by Koshin-san to control his desire, representing mastery over our desires.
In order to achieve something you want to do, something that your laziness is preventing, you should buy a kukurizaru, get rid of one of your desires by putting it in the monkey and ask Koshin-san to help you. When the monkey in you wants to come out and play at the wrong time, remember Koshin-san's angry face and his promise of punishment, pray to him and recite the sutra:
"On deiba yakisha banta banta kakakaka sowaka."
Now that I think about it, I need to go back and buy one.
