TRAVELweek: Day 4::Miho Museum

Wednesday November 2, 2005

i remember watching this special on tv or something about the miho museum. it was built in the remote (and i'm talking seriously far away) hillside and only 20% of it is visible as to not interrupt the hillside and environment. the japanese people have a great respect for the environment that is truly admirable. i can only hope that i can incorporate this same respect in my work.

it was built by i.m. pei who also did the library tower in downtown la (it's the tallest tower in downtown la that has a crown on top, and if you still dont' know what building it is, it's the one that got blown up in independence day when the aliens were destroying la). anyways i'm not a real big fan of his work, it's a little bit too geometrical for me, but it remember me of one of my instructors at orange coast college. he is one of her favorite architects and she was telling the class how he is an example of an architect that has no ego. of course, i'm sure he does, but i think it's probably his great sense of humility and great intelligence that she admires. and i would agree with her, it's hard to find a lot of architects that are really humble, usually they're mouthing off about something (and usually it's about their work) b/c they want to hear themselves talk.

Interior shot of the museum. Despite the modernization of the traditional japanese pitched roof, the view was pretty good.

this is the bridge and tunnel that connects the reception area to the front of the museum.

anyways, if you have a chance to see it, make sure you've got a lot of money and time. from the dohokan, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the kyoto station, another 13 minutes on a local train, then you have to wait on a bus, that costs about $8 one way, for 50 minutes!!! it costs about $10 to get in and i was only there for about 2 hours b/c i finished it in about 1.5 hours and just loafed around to take a few pictures.



anyways i got back to the doho and spent the next couple of hours on the internet and in my room planning out my trip the next day to tokyo!!! i went downstairs to use the bathroom and one of my dorm mates came out of his room with a girl, and they were both extremely drunk. i think you can guess what they were doing in his room... PLAYING SCRABBLE of course! and then he asked me if i had gone to kino (this festival that the school throws on the school campus). i responded by saying that i had been there yesterday but didn't see anyone, so i just went to bed. but told him that i would go with them in a couple of minutes since they were heading down.

jimmy, dave and me...i'm not really drunk here, but just trying to hide the fact that the last shot made me want to hurl...

so you can guess what happened... we got F'ed UP!!! i'm sure i had a couple of shots of tequila and vodka and some other stuff. here are a couple of images of what transpired. we mostly hung out at this shot bar and then at this hip-hop club that was located just behind the architecture building. you should have seen when they did with the space. there was scaffolding everywhere, but with the appropriate mood lighting and music, the place that was probably an open quad by a ravine turned into a club. it was pretty awesome.

great ambience...

good music...

but this is what it really looked like... oh well good thing the light were low.

good lighting though

and some more ambience...

CONGRATULATIONS Carlos and Zuleyma! They just got engaged! and the ring was nice! tiffany's, round cut, platinum setting...

TRAVELweek: Day 3::Osaka

Tuesday November 1, 2005

here are a few images of osaka, i the second biggest city in japan after tokyo. i took a really short train trip there and visited the castle and a few other places. i think one of the most impressive things was the shopping. there were rows and rows of shopping and people. i really think it was the energy of the place that got me excited. i wanted to stay there longer, but i had to catch the train back to kyoto and also make the shuttle. i think i'm going to try to make it back there and see how good the shopping and nightlife is.

osaka castle...i'm kinda castled out...


view of osaka from the top of the castle

TRAVELweek: Day 2:: Miyajima

Monday October 31, 2005

view of miyajima from ferry

i only learned of miyajima a few days before my departure, but was thrilled to hear that this one of the views of japan that everyone sees. what makes it so amazing is the fact that there is this huge torii in front of the shrine that is in water. so as you approach it you see this giant floating torii and this floating shrine in the water. so being as it was only a train ride and ferry trip away, and all of it was free since i had my railpass, why wouldn't i go?

yay! more deer!!

after getting off of the ferry, i was surprised to see the deer roaming around just like at todaiji. how cool!! it just kind of reiterated the fact that everyone in japan is friendly and courteous, even the animals. anyways, so i started on my tour of this island and found that miyajima is known for their rice spoons. here are just a few examples of them.

it's HUGE!!!

i also started exploring the town with it various shops, all which sold these rice spoons, chopsticks and other touristy items. they also had these little cakes shaped like maple leaves filled with some sort of sweet center like red bean, green tea and my personal favorite, CHEESE!! it was really good. it was some sort of processed cheese, but dude, it was still good.


as i continued to explore the place and stopped by the main shrine, i could only imagine what it must be like here when it is high tide. the be surrounded by water as you pray must be a surreal experience. how calming must it be there? calming i guess. anyways. i kind left that shrine in a peaceful place, especially after seeing a wedding there. anyways so i was walking out to see the rest of the island and i see this deer at the end of the bridge that i'm standing at. it starts approaching me and immediately reach into my bag to grab my camera. it's one of these older male deer so i'm like, "i don't have a picture of one of these yet so how perfect!" so i'm standing there fumbling to turn my camera on it's getting closer and closer and then suddenly it totally rams it's head into my stomach. immediately i yell out (with hand up in the air) "WHATS UP BITCH!!" like he just punked me. so i'm standing there with like a dirt mark from his dirty ass head and people looking at me. i kinda wanted to kick that deer's ass b/c i know i could have taken him, but then i just said, "fuck it!" and then just started to explore the rest of the island.

autumn in miyajima

view of some of the shrines

i can tell you after that experience i won't be getting close to any deer. imagine if he had horns and he plowed into me. i probably wouldn't be here, i'd be in a hospital recovering from being impaled by deer antlers. but the funny thing is that it could have happened. as i was walking around some of the trails i see this other male deer in the distance and he's totally got horns and he's looking at me with these intense eyes and i'm like "forget this, i'm leaving this place. later bitch!" and then i head to some other part of the island.

i get it your protectin your young, but sheesh...

i got some really nice pictures of some of the shrines. it's such a beautiful time to be here. in the main hall i got a chance to get this couple while they rested and enjoyed the view. i walked by the to see what they looked like and honestly, i think she could do better, but good for the guy.




so after my trek across the sea, getting hit by a deer, seeing a dead deer with a glove on it's face (i have a picture, but it's on my other camera and i seriously thought it was alive until this german tourist checked it's breath and told me that since it had dust in it's eyes that it was dead) and almost getting attacked by another deer i was exhausted until i saw the torii.

damn deer messed up my shot...

this time the tide had gone down and there were a whole bunch of clam diggers, well, looking for clams. so i checked it out. the thing was totally huge! so i went back on the ferry, boarded the shinkansen and then back to the dohokan.

TRAVELweek: DAY 1::HIROSHIMA part 2

i was walking back to my ryokan and stumbled upon this buy playing guitar across the river.

TRAVELweek: DAY 1::HIROSHIMA

right after ise, i went back to the dohokan to get ready for my trip to hiroshima. as i layed in bed, i started going over my plans for the next day: i was goign to be staying over night at a ryokan in hiroshima and then heading over to miyajima the next day. it was weird, i had all of these reservations about traveling alone, like fearing for my safety, and stuff like that, but all of the excitiment about seeing stuff around japan just made those feelings dissappated. in a way i felt really empowered. i was totally taking charge of what i was going to do, what i was going to see and really without the help of anybody. i think this was one of the first times that i've done this travelwise. usually, i've been more layed back and just went with the flow of things. wow, i'm kinda amazed at myself right now. (alright i'll stop patting myself of the back.) i think if this was someplace else, it would totally be different. i'd seriously be that deer in the headlights.

anyways so i had bags packed and headed for kyoto station to catch the shinkansen to hiroshima the next morning. on my intinerary were to see these gardens, hiroshima castle and check-in at my ryokan before hitting the big things in town like the a-bomb park.

Hiroshima Castle. This tower was used to watch for approaching enemies.


This is what they had at the top of the castle, just like in the old days!


View from the top of the castle.

i really wanted to see how people who went through such a tragedy and turn it into something positive. as i passed the a-bomb dome on my way to my ryokan my heart sank alittle bit. i was mere meters away from when this blast had occured that not only killed people, but had such resonnating affect on future generations of people.

View of the Peace Memorial Musuem, the Cenotaph (where the names of Atomic Bomb victims are placed)

walking through the musuem i couldn't help but stand in disbelief at the before and after pictures of hiroshima. these feelings stemmed partly realizing what had been going at that time and from this sad violin music that was playing in the background that echoed through the first section of the museum. there were japanese school children that filled the area along with many americans who were holding handkerchiefs and wiping their tears as they passed relics of that fateful day.

the most touching part of the musuem were the personal accounts of victims and the lives of the people who lived through the bombing. i can honestly say that i was getting teary eyed walking through this part of the museum. one account that stands out was that of Sadako:

"Sadako was two years old when she was exposed to the A-bomb. She had no apparent injuries and grew into a strong and healthy girl. However, nine years later in the fall when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school (1954), she suddenly developed signs of an illness. In February the following year she was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Believing that folding paper cranes would help her recover, she kept folding them to the end, but on October 25, 1955, after an eight-month struggle with the disease, she passed away.

Sadako's death triggered a campaign to build a monument to pray for world peace and the peaceful repose of the many children killed by the atomic bomb. The Children's Peace Monument that stands in Peace Park was built with funds donated from all over Japan. Later, this story spread to the world, and now, approximately 10 million cranes are offered each year before the Children's Peace Monument."

(for more personal accounts: http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/shimin/heiwa/peaceenglish.html)

after finishing the musuem i headed towards the children peace memorial and finally to the a-bomb dome. it was definately a sight to see. the ruins help to serve as a reminder not only for the people, but for the world about the harsh realities for war.

The A-Bomb Dome in the early evening.

The dome lit up.

Ise

October 29, 2005

Alex, Terri, Dave, Greg, Jessica and Ben

Travel week was going to begin, but before that we took a small trip to Ise. It is part of the tradition here that every twenty years the temples get rebuilt. From what i understand this is done to allow for the renewal of the spirit, but also to help train future generations of monks of old traditions. pretty cool huh?

i think the best part of the trip was just seeing the temples in a different sort of atmosphere. it was cloudy and overcast which added a mystique to the place. it really felt like we were deep in the japanese countryside.

An example of one of the temples that gets rebuilt every 20 years.

Not the 1000 toriis again, but close.

Japanese countryside

the CUTEST thing...

there's always a certain type of energy in the air right before you go on a new traveling adventure. this coming up week is our travel week. there is a school festival happening so the whole school shuts down, and we "can't" have classes. dude when does something like that happen in la? yeah, things shut down, but for a week? and there's a festival too? that almost never happens in california, that i know of. it's really cool that the school and the surrounding community are really a "community."

anyways so the last thing that anybody wants to do before a big party or traveling is to head to school or work, but today we had a brief lecture from our instructor about the history of tokyo and some possible sights to see. he also talked about our trip to ise happening on saturday. after the lecture, he busted out all of his maps from japan and we just had a rap session about other places that we could go. I kinda psyched to see hiroshima and there is this other shrine too. it's supposed to be really cool. anyways so, i'm headed to the kyoto station and i meet up with two other classmates. to our surprise there are all of these little kids in their matching hats lining up in the station and they go on our subway train! obviously this was a great photo opportunity. my friend started taking pictures, and the fact that she was a girl made it less pedophilic. but my other friend who was a guy started taking pictures too. the troop leader was looking at us with the same curiousity as the kids so i figured, what the hell, i'll start taking pictures of them.


these kids were SOOO CUTE!!! what i thought would be cool pictures of kids playing unbeknownst to a camera, but once they saw the camera they would just ham it up and do the little "v" for victory symbol. some of them even pushed others out of the pictures so they could be in it. CUTE!! we had a couple of kids even go up to ask (in their best english accent) "nice to meet you" and then stick out their had for a handshake. and then they would laugh and run away!!! it was really funny to see them do that b/c in japanese culture there is no touching at all. you never see a pat on the back, a handshake, or hugs (well i've seen a couple of those, but not a lot). i thought it was me, but my hands weren't sweaty or anything, although it got really hot b/c they started surrounding us. but it was really cool to be like the center of their fascination. kinda creepy, but cool.



and even when i left, the whole crowd of them were waving "bye" and so was i. and even when i turned around they were all by the window waving and i could see them mouthing "BYE!!" too cute!!!

the rest of the day couldn't compare with this little event on the train.

NOT the cutest thing...

maybe it was the fact that i have dirty laundry just piling up in one of my closets, but i was going to do a load of laundry and guess who pops out to greet me!! MR. COCKAROACH!! so disgusting. so not cute. and just a couple of minutes before, my roommate found a roach on the plate and cup that was sitting on his table!!! i'm totally grossed out.

but a couple weeks earlier my friend next door had a little visitor (MR. COCKAROACHES relative) and she called me out to kill it. i squash him and see her head pop out of her door asking me "is he a bachelor?" i'm scratching my head thinking "WTF? a bachelor?" and she goes "does he have a family?" then lightbulb!! and then i totally laugh. in other words she was asking if there were any more around... that was too cute! ohh katherine...

torigimu o onegai shimas

(i'd like a trim...)

BEFORE

i can't believe that i went so long with out it and today, it happened... get your mind out of the gutter, i just got a haircut! but i sure could use some of that other stuff... yum...

anyways, so it's been about two months and that's a really long time for me to go with out a haircut. usually after about a month i'm so ready to get a haircut that i start pulling out my hair b/c it gets so big. but i waited. hmmmm... all of this maintaing my apparearance might all just be well, superficial... whatever. but i had a pretty good experience today. i went to the flux salon over by the kyoto station. and as usual, i got lost. i found the place one day while i was strolling the streets of downtown kyoto one night and after passing by like a million hair places between kokura and kyoto, i picked this one. it wasn't all franchised like all of the other modhair places, and it didn't look all cheap like how some of the barber shops are. it was cool, modern, clean.

anyways so after walking around for like thirty minutes trying to find it, i enter the salon and get greeted with a bow and the traditional "welcome" greeting. so for my consultation, my stylist gets a drawing pad and begins to draw what he invisions for my mad crazy birds nest of hair. with the help of the gq japan magazine and only a few words exchanged, we decided what would best be for my hair. i am then escourted to his station where he begins to analyze my hair. it was the oddest thing, but very cool. it's like he was seriously studying it so he would know how to cut it. after that, i was told to go in the back room b/c it was "shampoo time!" my head was slowly lowered into the sink and with a towel placed over my face (to protect my face from getting wet), he applied the shampoo and proceeded to massage my head. dude, it was so nice to my my hair shampooed. if there was one thing that i could get everyday, it would be to get a head massage and shampoo. they're the best.

so after the cut, my hair got washed again and before my hair got dried and styled, i got a pretty good massage. no dagger hands here. i think he could have worked on my shoulders for a bit more, but dude, it was pretty good.

i think i'll get another haircut here. it was pretty good...

anyways, but i think i got the owner angry. i was trying to be all stealth and cool about whether i shoudl leave a tip or gratuity, but apparently there was a language barrier and the owner came and asked what was going on. so i asked him if i should tip, but he totally gave me this weird look like i had totally offened him. man, i felt so bad....

anyways so i left and proceeded to shop the rest off the day away. so now i feel a little bit better... atleast my hair is cut...

(pictures to follow...)

so what do yout think? btw, that's osaka castle in the back...

kurama fire festival

October 22, 2005

I was debating whether i should go to the Kurama Fire Festival. then i started thinking, when am i ever going to be kyoto, or kurama? never! so i decided to wait on getting a haircut that day after class and went to the festival. these pictures show what transpired that evening...

This has to be one of the RIDICULOUS thing that i've ever seen. there's like over 100 people trying to fit onto this one train.

Katherine and I trying to take a picture in the train

kids + fire = CUTE!





HEYYYYY!!! check out that japanese ass...

fire

FIRE...

FIRE!!!

Kurama Fire Festival Crew: Carlos, Alex, Katherine, Steven, Santino, Yohannes, with Terri and Jessica kneeling.

this is the crowd that we had to wait in to get on the train. MADDNESS!!

i take that back, this is the most RIDICULOUS things that i've ever seen. it's one of the fire gods, (aka pinnochio)

clockwise from the left: katherine, tara (our friend from japanese class), her boyfriend jason, takao, and santino at nikki's bar. this place has become one of the sciarc hangouts in kyoto. the owner is this nepalese movie star, up in the ranks of bollywood, but better, so i've heard. let me just say that i threw up later that night. i don't know what it is about japan, but i keep on throwing up here...