Weekend of fun :)
Saturday, I milled around Nara (southern/central Osaka),, cool place. Row after row of shops, who's main method of self promotion involved flashing multicolored lights.
I was looking for the Wood block museum (basically, a collection of paintings/etchings on wood of characters from some of their traditional theatre). After about a half hour of looking around, I finally managed to find it (in my defense, this place, from the outside, is a total hole in the wall. I submit these two photos as evidence,, the second is the enterance to the museum,, the first is what every single alley in 8 surrounding blocks looks like).
The museum itself was pretty cool,, I'm not sure if I was supposed to take photographs, but upon a semi-thorough inspection I didn't find any signs that told me not to, so here's a few shots of their holdings. Most are from around 1860.
Sunday was a wildly interesting day. It began with a desire to go to Iga Ueno, where one of the two main ninja schools is located. However, a bit of reading seems to indicate that the place is more of a turist trap than an authentic representation of its history, so I decided to skip this (for now, at least), and head out to Kyoto. This decision happened around 9:10 a.m.
By 10:00, I was on the train heading out. It's actually not that far,, which is a good thing, seeing as how I apparently need 10 days to do the 'basic tour' of Kyoto (so said my nifty travel guide book I was reading on the way there). By the time the train was nearing the staytion, I'd made a loose plan for the day- to see Nijo castle (Kyoto residence for the Shogun), the kyoto museum for world peace (exhibits from WWII and later conflicts), and Kinkakuji.
I could have taken buses, but I dediced to walk for as much of the trip as I could,, makes me feel more like I'm exploring. And if I hadn't, I never would have got these photos of: micky mouse sold right next to tombstones, the herse (I think), and this random parade:
The castle was really cool. All the passegeways had something they called nightengale flooring, which creaks loudly no matter how you walked (it passed my thorough testing without fail). Apparently the shogun made it this way to prevent assassins and whatnot from entering undetected.
The grounds themselves were beautiful, too- a good example of a Japanese garden. Or I assume it's a good, authentic example. All I can really attest to is it's high quality asthetics.
Next I went to the Kyoto peace museum,, this was, shall we say, quite a walk. The highlight of the trip there was running into this trio of french people that were as lost as I was (although they were trying to get somewhere else, so we weren't much help to each other). Eventually though, I rather pitifully asked a Japanese couple for directions, and they not only told me how to get there, but walked me most of the way.
The museum itself was,, sobering. It mainly covered Japanese involvment in WWII (none of which really caught me off guard, as I know more about taht conflict than is healthy for any sane human being), but it also covered Korea, Vietnam, and a few more recent conflicts. I'm glad I went, and the exhibits were well done (with a few rather impressive artifacts), but it isn't a place I'd like to go back to again and again.
This is a rather complete contrast to my next stop- the golden pavilion. I'm really not sure how to describe it. Imagine a three story wooden building plated in gold. No description I can give here would really do it justice, except to say that not only was the building impressive (how could it not be?), the scenery and setting around it was something close to perfect. A very natural feel (which is difficult for something as alien as a gold building). I'm going to stop rambling and just let you see it for yourself.
After this, I was planning to grab a quick bite and head back, but very long story short, I got invited to dinner with about 15 other Japanese tourists,, most were from Kobe or Osaka, one was from Kyonshoe (badly misspelled, northern japan), and they were all rediculously friendly and kind. Unfortunatly, I had about 4 pictures left by dinner, so I didn't get many photos. Notwithstanding, these were some of the coolest people ever, and made for quite the memorable night.
Saturday, I milled around Nara (southern/central Osaka),, cool place. Row after row of shops, who's main method of self promotion involved flashing multicolored lights.
I was looking for the Wood block museum (basically, a collection of paintings/etchings on wood of characters from some of their traditional theatre). After about a half hour of looking around, I finally managed to find it (in my defense, this place, from the outside, is a total hole in the wall. I submit these two photos as evidence,, the second is the enterance to the museum,, the first is what every single alley in 8 surrounding blocks looks like).
The museum itself was pretty cool,, I'm not sure if I was supposed to take photographs, but upon a semi-thorough inspection I didn't find any signs that told me not to, so here's a few shots of their holdings. Most are from around 1860.
Sunday was a wildly interesting day. It began with a desire to go to Iga Ueno, where one of the two main ninja schools is located. However, a bit of reading seems to indicate that the place is more of a turist trap than an authentic representation of its history, so I decided to skip this (for now, at least), and head out to Kyoto. This decision happened around 9:10 a.m.
By 10:00, I was on the train heading out. It's actually not that far,, which is a good thing, seeing as how I apparently need 10 days to do the 'basic tour' of Kyoto (so said my nifty travel guide book I was reading on the way there). By the time the train was nearing the staytion, I'd made a loose plan for the day- to see Nijo castle (Kyoto residence for the Shogun), the kyoto museum for world peace (exhibits from WWII and later conflicts), and Kinkakuji.
I could have taken buses, but I dediced to walk for as much of the trip as I could,, makes me feel more like I'm exploring. And if I hadn't, I never would have got these photos of: micky mouse sold right next to tombstones, the herse (I think), and this random parade:
The castle was really cool. All the passegeways had something they called nightengale flooring, which creaks loudly no matter how you walked (it passed my thorough testing without fail). Apparently the shogun made it this way to prevent assassins and whatnot from entering undetected.
The grounds themselves were beautiful, too- a good example of a Japanese garden. Or I assume it's a good, authentic example. All I can really attest to is it's high quality asthetics.
Next I went to the Kyoto peace museum,, this was, shall we say, quite a walk. The highlight of the trip there was running into this trio of french people that were as lost as I was (although they were trying to get somewhere else, so we weren't much help to each other). Eventually though, I rather pitifully asked a Japanese couple for directions, and they not only told me how to get there, but walked me most of the way.
The museum itself was,, sobering. It mainly covered Japanese involvment in WWII (none of which really caught me off guard, as I know more about taht conflict than is healthy for any sane human being), but it also covered Korea, Vietnam, and a few more recent conflicts. I'm glad I went, and the exhibits were well done (with a few rather impressive artifacts), but it isn't a place I'd like to go back to again and again.
This is a rather complete contrast to my next stop- the golden pavilion. I'm really not sure how to describe it. Imagine a three story wooden building plated in gold. No description I can give here would really do it justice, except to say that not only was the building impressive (how could it not be?), the scenery and setting around it was something close to perfect. A very natural feel (which is difficult for something as alien as a gold building). I'm going to stop rambling and just let you see it for yourself.
After this, I was planning to grab a quick bite and head back, but very long story short, I got invited to dinner with about 15 other Japanese tourists,, most were from Kobe or Osaka, one was from Kyonshoe (badly misspelled, northern japan), and they were all rediculously friendly and kind. Unfortunatly, I had about 4 pictures left by dinner, so I didn't get many photos. Notwithstanding, these were some of the coolest people ever, and made for quite the memorable night.
posted by joey at 11:57 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, great blog, in fact, longest blog ever! Great pics too!
Tony
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