Kyoto. This place is fast becoming my favorite.
I left early in the morning, and planned on seeing most of the temples on the east side of town. However, going to Kyoto with an agenda is a bit like going to willy wonka's chocolate factory and planning on getting the everlasting gobstopper. You have all these great intentions, but then you pass the lickable wallpaper. How do you not stop to see lickable wallpaper? You follow that down to the chocolate river, which of course you have gawk at, so you try the 7 course meal bubble gum next, and then the fizzy drink,, and next thing you know it's 7:00, the sun went down an hour ago, and the gobstopper shop closed at 5:00.
In any case, I'll most likely head back again- the leaves will peak soon, which will be nothing short of amazing.
I started out at Kennin-ji, one of a great many temples in the city. Apparently there were several university students there kind of hosting the place for the day. I met some students from the calligraphy club that were exhibiting their work. The one in the picture is titled "the flow of time"*
Next, I mean to head north, but I got well, distracted. The streets had some amazing shops, much better than the standard tourist fare. I mean the standard stuff was there, but with more flavor; for example, they didn't just have ceramic shops- they had the people right there in the store making the pottery.
When I finished looking around (and being sad that the geisha I saw were just tourists that had paid to dress up, not the real thing), I found myself in front of Kiyomizu-dera (another temple thing). Now the temple itself was fairly impressive, but what was much more noteworthy was the scenery surrounding it- the temple is nestled in a wooded hillside, and the grounds contain beautiful trails that go below and above the temple.
At this point I was pretty lost (I had never intended to go south in the first place), so I tried to backtrack a bit. I finally got somewhat re-oriented, but I kept getting distracted by miscellaneous cool stuff.
The next place I went was Kodaj-ji (another temple- I sense a trend), founded by Kita-no-Mandokoro in memory of her husband. The place was pretty amazing.
Next, I went to Maruyama park (it would be more accurate to say that I still didn't know where I was, and I kind of wandered into the park). The place was just beautiful (and had food, which was sounding really good at this point). There was a street performer there,, he juggled, performed a few magic tricks, and if the crowd was any indication, had alot of good jokes.
ThenI went to Chion-in (although I didn't realize where I was until I looked it up later). It was constructed in the memory of a buddhist monk who apparently fasted to death. That sounds a bit over the top, but the grounds themselves were very nice (including a ginormous front gate, and a bell that takes 17 monks to ring).
After this, I went to the museum of modern art. They had recently acquired a collection of Edo era paintings which was pretty amazing, which was good because the rest of the museum reminded me how much I dislike 'modern art'.
After this, I found a coffee shop that had a string quartet- three violins (or maybe a viola or two, not sure), and a cello. They were excellent- I stayed until they stopped playing. But the music of the evening wasn't over.
Meet Taiga. Taiga played last year in a club in New York. He's going to the philidelphia jazz festival next year. Taiga is 8 years old, and Taiga is pretty amazing (ok, so he wasn't the best percussionist I've ever heard, but he was solid. And he's 8.) This little jazz group was playing next to the subway station,, a pleasant ending to a wonderful day.
*or something like that. There were significant language barrier issues between us, but their patience and kindness made up for it.
I left early in the morning, and planned on seeing most of the temples on the east side of town. However, going to Kyoto with an agenda is a bit like going to willy wonka's chocolate factory and planning on getting the everlasting gobstopper. You have all these great intentions, but then you pass the lickable wallpaper. How do you not stop to see lickable wallpaper? You follow that down to the chocolate river, which of course you have gawk at, so you try the 7 course meal bubble gum next, and then the fizzy drink,, and next thing you know it's 7:00, the sun went down an hour ago, and the gobstopper shop closed at 5:00.
In any case, I'll most likely head back again- the leaves will peak soon, which will be nothing short of amazing.
I started out at Kennin-ji, one of a great many temples in the city. Apparently there were several university students there kind of hosting the place for the day. I met some students from the calligraphy club that were exhibiting their work. The one in the picture is titled "the flow of time"*
Next, I mean to head north, but I got well, distracted. The streets had some amazing shops, much better than the standard tourist fare. I mean the standard stuff was there, but with more flavor; for example, they didn't just have ceramic shops- they had the people right there in the store making the pottery.
When I finished looking around (and being sad that the geisha I saw were just tourists that had paid to dress up, not the real thing), I found myself in front of Kiyomizu-dera (another temple thing). Now the temple itself was fairly impressive, but what was much more noteworthy was the scenery surrounding it- the temple is nestled in a wooded hillside, and the grounds contain beautiful trails that go below and above the temple.
At this point I was pretty lost (I had never intended to go south in the first place), so I tried to backtrack a bit. I finally got somewhat re-oriented, but I kept getting distracted by miscellaneous cool stuff.
The next place I went was Kodaj-ji (another temple- I sense a trend), founded by Kita-no-Mandokoro in memory of her husband. The place was pretty amazing.
Next, I went to Maruyama park (it would be more accurate to say that I still didn't know where I was, and I kind of wandered into the park). The place was just beautiful (and had food, which was sounding really good at this point). There was a street performer there,, he juggled, performed a few magic tricks, and if the crowd was any indication, had alot of good jokes.
ThenI went to Chion-in (although I didn't realize where I was until I looked it up later). It was constructed in the memory of a buddhist monk who apparently fasted to death. That sounds a bit over the top, but the grounds themselves were very nice (including a ginormous front gate, and a bell that takes 17 monks to ring).
After this, I went to the museum of modern art. They had recently acquired a collection of Edo era paintings which was pretty amazing, which was good because the rest of the museum reminded me how much I dislike 'modern art'.
After this, I found a coffee shop that had a string quartet- three violins (or maybe a viola or two, not sure), and a cello. They were excellent- I stayed until they stopped playing. But the music of the evening wasn't over.
Meet Taiga. Taiga played last year in a club in New York. He's going to the philidelphia jazz festival next year. Taiga is 8 years old, and Taiga is pretty amazing (ok, so he wasn't the best percussionist I've ever heard, but he was solid. And he's 8.) This little jazz group was playing next to the subway station,, a pleasant ending to a wonderful day.
*or something like that. There were significant language barrier issues between us, but their patience and kindness made up for it.
posted by joey at 3:09 AM
1 Comments:
Joey, I really liked that third picture, where you're a chest, head, and shoulders above everyone else in the photo. ;-)
Take care, man
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