The weekend of fun, and rain. There were plans to go to the aquarium (apparently one of the best in Japan), but that fell through, and will have to happen another time. It does turn out, however, that I was supposed to meet with Kuboi Sensei briefly saturday. In the future I will put much more effort into knowing when I have such meetings,, but fortunatly I made it. If I`m lucky, I`ll finally start experimentation this week! woot!! Before that happens though, I give a presentation to the lab here on some of the work I`ve done in S. Carolina, and Moss`s lab in general.
But anyway,,, Saturday I went to the oriental ceramic museum (which, Ironically, has more korean/chinese pieces than japanese). I always get reflective when I look at stuff like that, reading the captions. `This one is from the 18th century,, someone made this when we were fighting for independence, with muskets`. This vase is from the 12th century, before the Europeans sailed across the atlantic. What was kept in you? What were the people like, the ones that used you and made you? This one of a chinese lady is from the 5th century,, when rome was old. I don`t even think the aztec empire was around yet. Over 10,000 years old. Over 10,000 years and here I stare at it, through lead free low reflection glass, in a chamber especialy made so that natural sunlight illuminates every piece. Boring to many, but facinating to me.
I also found the shopping street. Well, that`s not it`s name, but I know of no other way to descripe over a kilometer of resteraunts, gift stores, clothing shops, and row after row of miscelaneous goods and services. It`s fun, shopping for suvineirs. In a way, it`s like the friends I`m buying for are here with me.
I also milled about the department stores/malls, and discovered two things. 1- I am in a place where people wear, well, some crazy stuff. Like shirts that say `I like to sense heaven and look in the place that water falls beauty`. (They also wear knee high boots, that have a general name that I will not go into here. And they buy the jeans with the holes already put in them. And over 80% of all women wear high heels. And bike in them.) But anyway, these engrish shirts, they actually buy them in really expensive stores. Stores that, in my mind, could afford better translations.
2- The Japanese version of the video arcade is also,, different. I could go into details, but I`ll only post the most striking- the guy/girl ratio is nearly 50%. I didn`t want to be an annoying turist, so I didn`t take many pictures, but I have never seen such balance. There were even couples there- apparently this was a legitimate place to take a date. I hearby declare Americans socially backward, and think we could learn a gread deal from our Japanese friends*.
Sunday, I went out to see the international flower garden. You could also say I went out and got rained on. But I wanted to be outside in Osaka, and so there I was. I really didn`t know what to expect, but this place was really impressive. When they say international, they mean it- countries from every continent, every region and culture had come and carved out thier own small plot of land. It also had the tremendous advantage of being free.
Hopefully I`ll get the laptop back on-line this week, and finally have pictures of osaka castle, the origional medical university, and the welcome party. Untill then, I leave you with these **
*While the possibility is quite low that a girl I ask out would read this, I want to (just in case) heartily assure you that I would never take you to the arcade on a date. I promise.
**I`m not certain wether the signs in the ceramic museum meant no flash, or no pictures, but in any case, I have none. However, everything I saw can be found here. I think this one was my favorite, just because of it`s simplicity.
But anyway,,, Saturday I went to the oriental ceramic museum (which, Ironically, has more korean/chinese pieces than japanese). I always get reflective when I look at stuff like that, reading the captions. `This one is from the 18th century,, someone made this when we were fighting for independence, with muskets`. This vase is from the 12th century, before the Europeans sailed across the atlantic. What was kept in you? What were the people like, the ones that used you and made you? This one of a chinese lady is from the 5th century,, when rome was old. I don`t even think the aztec empire was around yet. Over 10,000 years old. Over 10,000 years and here I stare at it, through lead free low reflection glass, in a chamber especialy made so that natural sunlight illuminates every piece. Boring to many, but facinating to me.
I also found the shopping street. Well, that`s not it`s name, but I know of no other way to descripe over a kilometer of resteraunts, gift stores, clothing shops, and row after row of miscelaneous goods and services. It`s fun, shopping for suvineirs. In a way, it`s like the friends I`m buying for are here with me.
I also milled about the department stores/malls, and discovered two things. 1- I am in a place where people wear, well, some crazy stuff. Like shirts that say `I like to sense heaven and look in the place that water falls beauty`. (They also wear knee high boots, that have a general name that I will not go into here. And they buy the jeans with the holes already put in them. And over 80% of all women wear high heels. And bike in them.) But anyway, these engrish shirts, they actually buy them in really expensive stores. Stores that, in my mind, could afford better translations.
2- The Japanese version of the video arcade is also,, different. I could go into details, but I`ll only post the most striking- the guy/girl ratio is nearly 50%. I didn`t want to be an annoying turist, so I didn`t take many pictures, but I have never seen such balance. There were even couples there- apparently this was a legitimate place to take a date. I hearby declare Americans socially backward, and think we could learn a gread deal from our Japanese friends*.
Sunday, I went out to see the international flower garden. You could also say I went out and got rained on. But I wanted to be outside in Osaka, and so there I was. I really didn`t know what to expect, but this place was really impressive. When they say international, they mean it- countries from every continent, every region and culture had come and carved out thier own small plot of land. It also had the tremendous advantage of being free.
Hopefully I`ll get the laptop back on-line this week, and finally have pictures of osaka castle, the origional medical university, and the welcome party. Untill then, I leave you with these **
*While the possibility is quite low that a girl I ask out would read this, I want to (just in case) heartily assure you that I would never take you to the arcade on a date. I promise.
**I`m not certain wether the signs in the ceramic museum meant no flash, or no pictures, but in any case, I have none. However, everything I saw can be found here. I think this one was my favorite, just because of it`s simplicity.
posted by joey at 6:40 PM
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