Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.
Sunny day, white face in deep shadow under white veil, the light meter almost exploded...I had to blow out something, didn't I?
Fire everywhere, this Oct. 22 festival in the mountains north of Kyoto is very ethereal and other-worldly. (Big 1280 X 960 desktop background image)
A sea of fire floating on a sea of people, and yet no one seems to get burned.
The Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages) is going on now. I just came back from the parade downtown, a pageant of hundreds of people in costumes from the various eras of Kyoto's history. Tonight is another of the year's bigger festivals, the Kurama Hi-matsuri (Fire Festival). Can I make it to both in one day?
I finally got my absentee ballot, so I can help do something about this.
Founded 1662. I've never seen a foundation stone like this anywhere else.
Another shaky handheld video clip (RealVideo, 6.5MB) from the Country Dream jamboree last weekend. I thought I'd seen some good harmonica players, but I'll probably never see anyone approaching the skill of Charlie McCoy, who didn't miss a note all night as far as I could tell. You don't get into the Smithsonian collection by faking it. He has been coming to Kyoto for years as a guest of Kenji Nagatomi. Here he is playing the classic bluegrass railroad tune "Orange Blossom Special" at maximum velocity, swapping two harps and trading verses with an equally fast fiddler going only by the name "Haruka."
Crisp autumn weather has descended upon us.
Country Dream 2004 (RealVideo, 6.5MB)
See Oct. 10 post for more.
The typhoon mercifully spared us, and the rain let up JUST in time to allow us to attend the Country Dream open-air concert at the amphitheater in back of Maruyama Park, for which we bought tickets a couple weeks ago. I'll chop together some video of that and post it. You have to see the yodelin' obasan cowgirl.
Sunshine Cafe is a great place for healthly and organic lunches with herbal tea.
UPDATE: December 2005 -- Sunshine Cafe has moved to a new location near Kawaramachi-Sanjo. It is now inside the shopping arcade on Sanjo at the north end of Shikyogoku, on the 5th floor.
You can see the sign right next to Shakey's Pizza, so there you have a choice and a dilemma right at the entrance: healthy food or lots of cheap pizza. What's it gonna be?
This lake/marsh in the north of Kyoto is not much to look at, but it has been around since the last ice age, scienticians say, and it has one more interesting feature. Ask a taxi driver to take you here late at night and you'll find out about it.
A very small tambo (rice paddy) between houses. They hang it upside down on these wooden bucks to dry out, and usually cover it with netting to keep the birds away from the rice grains. A few dozen sparrows were sitting on the roof of a house next to this field and taking turns swooping in and snatching the bounty. In Japanese, rice is called "ine" when it's in the field, "kome" when it's processed, and "gohan" when it's cooked. Is it ine or kome in this stage, or something else? I don't know.
the days have become cool and autumn-like in Kyoto.
I was just getting ready to leave the house early this morning when a group of monks came through the neighborhood chanting, actually bellowing, "Oooooo-e" over and over, walking up and down each street, neighborhood by neighborhood. I think they come down from Enryaku-ji on Hiei-zan, the ones of ultimate discipline, in simple robes, straw sandals and conical ajirogasa hats. They often do this on weekend mornings. I think it used to be more common to give them alms of money or food; they don't seem to be interested in collecting anyhting from residents.
I was in a hurry, and so just managed to pick up my camera, turn on the video function and point it out through the window screen to catch a glimpse (1MB QT movie).
*Unrelated news item* As of Oct. 1, the exceedingly sweet smell of kinmokusei is in the air, a sure sign of Autumn.
Zen and Kyoto is a new (published Sept. 17, 2004) softcover book by John Einarsen, founder of Kyoto Journal. History and development, approaches, guide to zen temples in Kyoto, clear explanations of connections with other Japanese arts, a lengthy glossary and a list of resources. Brief sidebar features throughout the book enrich the practical information. So many foreign authors on Japan simply wave a few sticks of incense and deploy a smoky cloud of tired "exotic and mysterious Japanese" phraseology, because it sells. Einarsen's deep background knowledge of both subjects, Kyoto and Zen Buddhism, brings clarity and understanding to this book. In keeping with the subject, the design is unadorned, with monochrome illustrations and photographs (by Stewart Wachs?) throughout. 135 pages, ¥2,500 Zen and Kyoto (Amazon Japan , Japanese)
