Amongst the Foxi

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Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

Rion: I has no red bib? LOL

Fox: In time, little one. In time...

Blake @ Byodo-in

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Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

The temple behind me is on the 10 Yen coin. I asked the people at the ticket counter to give me 10 Yen so I could show you the contrast, but all I got was two 5's...

Fushimi Inari

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Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

There are lots of Torris. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of Torris

Maid on board

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Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

... introducing the all new Toyota 2008 model, aka "The Maidpocalypse!" It runs on a combination of petrol, hydrogen and delicious cake.

Earth

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Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

In a Larry Niven story I read a long time ago, there was a replica map of the globe being updated in real time by satellite imagery. The story was set 500 years in the future

I took this photo on Monday in Miraikan, the "Future Museum" in Odaiba, Tokyo. I thought the museum's name was quite appropriate, to be honest

As seen on a 10 yen coin!

Greetings folks. This is my second blog this week on the Shinkansen. We've just passed the cloud-covered area where Mt Fuji is supposed to be, but today she (are mountains masculine or feminine?) graced us with a glimpse of her snow-capped summit from the side. It also made me wrench my neck, so a visit to the chiropracter is due in the near future.

Kyoto was pure edutainment. Les and I went to a small town on the outskirts of Kyoto called Uji. If all the signs, tourist information and plaques are to be believed, the town features quite prominently in “The Tale of Genji.” It's also famous for its green tea, but more on that later. After taking some photos of famous bridges, we headed over to Byodo-in, a famous temple that is on the 10 Yen coin. It was really crowded and full of vicious photographers who would push, bite and kick anyone in their way to get the perfect shot. After we surveyed the temple grounds and recovered from the photographer's beatings, we headed to an Japanese tea shop to sample some good quality mochi. I find drinking strong green tea to be relaxing, but I still can't get over the bitter taste. One of these days I'm going to try and put sugar and milk into it, but I'm afraid I might lose my visa.

Continuing with the travelogue, our next stop was Fushimi Inari, a place renowned for its many red torri gates. When Les and I read Lonely Planet about a “Holy Mountain,” we fixated on the wrong part of the phrase. While it was certainly “holy,” it was also a mountain. A small one, but still nothing I wanted to carry a laptop bag full of pamphlets and food up. At times the climb up Fushimi Inari was crowded, at other times quite and restful. Some of the torris were brand new, while others were covered with cobwebs and about to rot away. When we began to approach the top there were more and more graves guarded by fox statues (the aforementioned “Foxi”). The top of the mountain was indistingushable from any of the other graves and shrines, but there were a lot of stray cats up there for some reason. I had to restrain Les from using them as furry soccer balls. Both Les and I went a bit camera crazy. He took over a hundred photos there alone, I nearly half as many. It's going to require more effort to go through the lot of them and prune the ones I don't want to keep than it was to take them all.

The next day saw a return to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. While I have been there numerous times and still enjoy it despite the crowds, this was Les' first time. He was suitably impressed, although the crowded bus we took there left him in a whiny mood for the rest of the day.The higlight of my day was asking a passerby to take a photo of us using my best Japanese. It turned out she was Korean. After that particular debacle, we visited Gion to look at some tea and sweet shops that had been recommended by my students.

We called our second day in Kyoto to a premature halt in order to return to Anjo. I hope to chronicle it a bit later in the future

Until then, peace and out

-Blake

A little Shinkanesen called Hikari/You are (not) alone

A little Shinkanesen called Hikari/You are (not) alone

Hello everyone. In case you were wondering, Les hasn't killed me yet. But the trip is still young!

I'm enjoying my Golden Week holiday immensely. It feels like an actual vacation, not time spent working in other places. For the first few days I took some time off and just relaxed around the house. It gave me the time to do some much-needed cleaning as well as some Warcraft Battleground bouts. I went on a picnic with my girlfriend as well as to a neighbourhood barbeque in the suburbs of Nagoya. All in all, some peaceful time spent away from the classroom :-)

On Tuesday night, my “friend” Les (aka Rion aka Danathon aka The Woodbridge Strangeler) arrived in Nagoya for a week of travel and R&R. Having lived in Japan for over a year and a half now, I decided to take him out to see some of the less touristy things about Japan, like yakitori bars and the fine art of Lawson's-shopping. Afterwards, weighed down by ice cream snacks, large bottles of coke and our troubles we returned to my hole-in-the-wall to watch the first half of the Eva remake (Les's verdict: Good, but what the hell are they saying? Also, where is Asuka?)

The next day we woke up early to go to my local kissaten for breakfast and coffee. Les met some of my friends who are regulars there and managed not to make anyone lose face. Afterwards, we travelled out to Toyokawa to visit Toyokawa Inari, one of the largest shrines in Japan. Les was particuarily taken by Ghost Fox Hill, a secluded grove covered with hundreds of small fox statues wearing red bibs. Les dubbed them “The Foxi” and sought to gain their favour by acting... well, fox-like (Pictures coming at 11!)

It was only afterwards that we realised the Daystar had been trying to burn us with its' hateful wrath, so we stocked up on sunscreen and caught another train to Naka Okazaki to see Okazaki castle, birthplace of Ice T(okugawa). There were a lot of school children on the castle grounds, painting watercolours. Some of them waved to us, which I thought was cute but Les thought agravating. I would like to have stayed longer and chill in the garden shade, but unfortuanately we had an apointment at Anjo High School to meet.

We had been invited to attend to and participate in Anjo Gauken's Kendo Club training. After managing to find some gear big enough for Les to use, he went out onto the floor to represent himself and Australia. I don't think they took him seriously at first, but in the first bout he managed to knock the kendo-sensei over. They treated him a lot more seriously after that :P Judging by the comments of the spectators, I think he now has some highschool girl admirers. I did my part by attacking a dummy in Kendo armour that couldn't fight back.

At night, we watched the final half of the Eva remake. The second half is where all the major changes take place. By this point, we had decided to rename all the characters as delicious deserts. As such, whereas I enjoyed the interaction beween Blueberry Puff and Vanilla Dream, Les wanted more than the 2 seconds of Strawberry Swirl that were on offer.

Well, there's always next movie.

We're about to arrive at Kyoto station, so all in all this worked out very well for me. I'll try this again on the Shink back home and the one to Tokyo on Sunday. I hope you're enjoying your Golden Week, even if you're in a country that does not celebrate it

-Blake
Kyoto e ikanakereba narimasen!