Living necessities & a job

Yesterday brought about the changing of the futons! This means we had to exchange all the futons in the dorm for winter weight ones. This meant an early rise for some (9am?!) and a flurry of activity.

We sleep on a western style bed, with a bottom futon on top of the bed (I suppose normally people either put this directly on the floor or on a futon-stand) and a top futon (kind of like a duvet) then there are the "pillows" like a small bag of beans... should be quite comfortable for some....

So we had to remove all the bedding we had to exchange it for the clean ones and winter weight top futons. The new top futons are THICK! very heavy but much more cozy than the light summer ones. Good timing as yesterday Autumn happened.

Very strange as suddenly Autumn just came. The day before it was sunny and warm during the day, a little chilly at night but in the day fine to wear a t-shirt... then yesterday not possible. Still bright and sunny but chilly! Sudden Autumn, instant Autumn. It is a shame about having to wear a jumper but a bonus is that the leaves are starting to change colour. This will be really beautiful and a great season to be here to see.

Example of traditional futon arrangement.... hmm comfy?

Other than getting on with class and so on, I got offered a one-off job. I had decided not to work here as I wanted to use the time to travel and study and have a break from having to work every week as I do when at home. However a one-off opportunity to do a narration for a tourist video was offered to me so, why not

They needed a female, British accented person to record a narration for a video about a craft centre. They had got in touch with the university who asked me because of my teaching and examining background. I did also have to edit the text a little as the translation was not so great (which I actually had help with from the university´s international officer) so it was all good practice.

It went fine and I didn´t make too many mistakes (!) and interestingly I also got to see inside a modern Japanese house (the recording was done in the house of the director of the company). The house was perhaps smaller than I had thought a typical Japanese house would be (even smaller, I think, than my flat) but seemed quite compact - kind of like a typical Ikea catalogue flat maybe.

But most interesting was the "pet" - the robot cleaner! It was chugging along chomping on the dust and dirt on the floor. People actually have these!

Looked a bit like this one from madeinchina.com......

I could be persuaded to get one....

Jidai Matsuri (Festival of Ages)

Sunday saw the rescheduled parade showing different traditional Japanese costumes from different historical periods. Interesting enough, to get an idea about old Japan.

Awesome hat

Throwing of mop-like thing and catching...



The parade must have gone on for a good few hours. I stayed for about an hour, which was enough to get a flavour. Then long cycle home via 100 yen shop... this one had an excellent array of Japanese snack foods. Yum.

Kurama no hi Matsuri - fire festival

Saturday night was a trip up to a small village, just a few kilometers from the house to Kurama. Every year there is a fire festival - description from Welcome to Kyoto website, http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/visitkyoto/en/

"This is one of the three most remarkable festivals in Kyoto. It is said to reenact the scene of the enshrined deity greeted after traveling from the Imperial Palace to Kurama-no-Sato village, at the end of the Heian Period. On the evening of the 22nd watch fires are lit at the entrances to the local houses, and at 6:00 in the evening the town is lit up with torches carried by children. Soon after that the local people, wearing straw warrior sandals, parade through the streets carrying a great torch and yelling along the way until they gather at the sacred precincts of the shrine. Two portable shrines amid the sparks from the torches present a grand sight. The return celebration is held on the 23rd."

Watch fires like this are all over.

These huge torches are carried by two or three men in traditional dress.

Torches carried through streets with lots of shouting - something like "hup, hup"...

Standing the torches up at the shrine, was a bit wild as they fell over a few times. Drums banging and bells ringing.

There was a lot of rain at some points, torrential downpours. This seemed to add to the experience, the raw energy of fire and rain and the ritual of the festival. Quite a dramatic spectacle, which although there were plenty of foreign people, a great number of locals and Japanese tourists were there too, which must mean it is not just a show but a participative event for all.

To-ji Temple Kobo-san Market

Friday was a trip to the market at the To-ji temple. This is held every month on the 21st.

Full of lots of small stalls of people selling second-hand kimonos, pottery, odds and ends, things others might consider as rubbish, etc etc.

Two of the girls got kimonos, really lovely. If you have the time and patience you can find one to your liking for even as little as 9 pounds...not of the best quality but lovely anyway. There are some really beautiful ones to be found for a bit more money too. Some of the patterns and textiles are just incredible.

There are plenty of food stalls too, which we had to take advantage of. Yummy sweet potato with sugar on... I also sampled a kind-of pancake sandwich thing with custard inside, tasty!

Although there were quite a lot of foreigners around, we were quite a highlight for the locals, these two ladies had to take pictures of us:

And were quite interested in me (no idea why, was quite odd!) and even followed us around taking snaps of us! A little creepy, definitely know I would not like to be famous... but they were quite sweet anyway.

Although I didn´t buy anything except food, I really liked some of the stuff they had, it is great to look at what people think might be worth to sell, and what people actually buy.

Japanese toys

There are other markets in Kyoto, so will definitely be going again, see if I can pick up a bargain.



Osaka

Yesterday was a trip to Osaka. It is, I think, the second largest city in Japan. Just 30 mins on express train away from Kyoto, it was a good day trip. First I had to work out the ticket buying and platform finding, but wasn´t too much of a hassle and got there without too much of a fuss. On arriving had a few difficulties finding the tourist information to get a map, but once that was done, I set off to explore.

I really wanted to see some contemporary art. Kyoto is great but quite a traditional place. Whilst there are places to see modern art, the Museum of Modern Art doesn´t seem to have much past 1920.

On the way to the gallery, I saw plenty of bento box stalls on the street. Bento box is a packed lunch variety box thing a lot of people buy for lunch. Looks like this:

The gallery was great, had a good discount for students and I spent a few hours there. And just when you think you have done something original..... you see it done by someone else (although in a different way...)





I then walked A LOT. I stopped to buy a picnic (I love how they give you chopsticks and a fork as you are western! sweet!) and sat in a great park in the sun... bliss (I even had a siesta).

Osaka is great - feels like a proper city. I know some people hate that but it is just my kind of place. I do like Kyoto but Osaka has more of a fast pace vibe to it.

Definitely will be visiting again to see more, one day was not enough.

Giraffe pile driver truck thing



Tutorial

It is easy to forget that the main reason or focus and purpose of being here is my university studies. Although mainly recently I have been preoccupied in getting used to living here, the everyday necessities of eating, shopping, washing clothes etc, a lot of other time has been spent seeing.

Most days have included a run in the neighbourhood or a cycle further afield, either to a specific destination or just to see what I find. These are beneficial activities of course but in some ways not directly related to my studies.

However, the whole experience of being here IS what it is about. I haven´t yet thought deeply about what exactly I want from this experience (something which I need to now focus on). I think by now I know how to take responsibility for my own learning and decide what to do and how to make it count.

So, today we had a tutorial for our tutor to see what we had been doing and what our plans for the semester were.

In my studio space there is nothing.

But this is not a problem, sometime ago I would have felt quite bad about that but right now, it is not important.

I have instead been out seeing, taking plenty of photographs, making this blog and slowly filling up my sketchbook. This is, for me, a much better use of my time here. I want to have a great deal of drawn work and images to take back in January to develop in my second semester. I want to see things and experience life here and just enjoy the moment, the opportunity.

Streetlight - sketchbook study

Kinkaku-Ji

Today I took a ride out to Kinkaku-Ji. This is known as the Golden Pavilion. It is gold coloured and looks like it is floating over the lake.

It was pretty stunning to see. But as the guide book had warned it was quite busy. I didn´t think a Monday morning could be so popular with temple-goers...

This is the opposite side of the lake:

It was crowded but quite regimented - the groups of children all wore hats and the guides had flags and marched them round! It was an interesting study of human behaviour.

I especially like the tickets for entry, which were on this lovely paper.

Karaoke!

Saturday night and it was time to experience a typical Japanese social activity....KARAOKE.

After a crepe fest (it was demanded that the French boys would make crepes...) we headed out to our local karaoke bar.

Odd experience where you have a room for your group with two microphones.

And you go for it! If you actually like singing it is fun!

http://www.worldhum.com/features/how-to/how_to_sing_karaoke_in_japan_20070731/

This is a link for understanding how to....
It is probably just as well that they close at some point, as the urge for more is great!

Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, in the rain I went to the botanical gardens. Not the wisest choice of day... however it is a really beautiful place with plenty to see.

Even here, you buy your entrance ticket from a vending machine, but a real-life person checks it and gives you a map.

Fancy tickets!

Plenty of floral activity to see - especially in the "useful plant garden".... I should imagine in the spring when the cherry blossom comes out, it would all look amazing.

Lovely flowers to use for detailed drawing for the class I am taking - Japanese painting - the tutor wants us to draw pretty natural things....

But I like stuff more like this:

And I also was curious about this:

I suppose the tree wrapping is for some sort of prevention or protection or maybe some disease treatment. But I liked the idea of caring for the plants and wrapping them up to look after them.

Downtown

Yesterday I went for a wander downtown.

I started at the main station. It is a modern building which is huge. Almost as tall as the Kyoto tower (which looks quite tall - it has one of those observation booths like a lollipop).

It has various shopping options attached. I saw this:

Although I don´t think it was for sale...I did see some similar sized ones in the market later and was expensive: about 30 pounds...

So then, I just walked and walked.
I saw this:

The owners really need to have some sort of clear-out.

The other highlight of the day was checking out a running store:

But annoying as I can´t find a race to enter when I am here...

Great Sunday

Since arriving here, these past two Sundays have been dedicated to exploring the city by bicycle. Such a pleasure to roam around in the sunshine, finding new places and different happenings all over. Today my main mission was to get to the Museum of Modern Art. Two of the other girls hadn´t been able to find it, so I was determined I would! I set off with my map and my GPS friend Garmin, which I usually use for running - to track distance and speed and so on - into the city.
First, I just had to make a pit-stop for cold coffee, and came across an arcade/shopping market thing. I then spent a long time in the best 100 yen shops I have found so far.

The best! I managed to spend only about 11 pounds worth of mainly necessary and useful stuff but was quite tempted by a great deal more....
Best bargain was a basket which I got and attached with cable ties to the back of my bicycle, to be able to carry more shopping and so on, when out on the bike. I felt like a genius.

Then on to finding the art gallery... actually it wasn´t that hard at all - a few glances at the map and I had it. Kyoto can be a bit tricky to find some things if you go in the smaller streets which don´t appear in the map, but it has quite a grid system, so you eventually find your way somehow.

When I arrived, there were great crowds of people (not for the gallery, luckily!).... there appeared to be some sort of dance competition going on, with all ages of youngsters participating. The first one I saw was a group of about 300 all dancing in formation in costume - awesome!

These different dancing efforts went on for some time - lots of different themes too, Spanish, Hawaiian, mini-cheerleaders (super-cute) and various other stuff too. Quite a spectacle indeed...

My favourite cute thing I saw today.


Then, I saw what I thought was the art gallery with a massive queue.... but tuned out it wasn´t the museum I wanted, it was opposite, with no queues! Free entry to the permanent collection too... although I am not sure about their idea of "modern art"... it seemed as if the majority of stuff was from the beginning of LAST century.... but a worthwhile trip never the less.

Then on the way back home, I came across some sort of ceremony or maybe hobby? Not so sure.... they were lifting these large poles up, vertical. They had bells on them and the bell was ringing as the person balanced the long pole. An appreciative crowd were gathered around watching.

And then, up the hill to home...

Big horse

No explanation about why this big horse is there, or if it is advertising something maybe. It is very handsome.

Temple visit

Today our tutor, Toshihiro Komatsu(http://www.toshihirokomatsu.com/index.html) took us to the Shoden-ji Temple.

Beautiful surroundings, walking up through a green wooded area up to the temple. The garden has small trees and white sand and borrows from the landscape behind it. It was in the process of having the roof replaced, and as it is a temple they have special scaffolding for this, made of wood rather than steel.

I liked the quirky stuff outside, small sculptures and things. Like this one:

Great class trip.

http://kyoto.asanoxn.com/places/nishikamo/shodenji.htm

First week...

It has been a busy first week after having arrived in Kyoto last Monday. The usual necessities of unpacking, buying food, registering as an alien, plus school things such as payment of rent, finding classes, teachers and actually starting the school year. The school seems to be quite organised so that it has seemed very easy to do all these things. I had help to do the official things and the other girls in the residence have showed me around so it has not been too taxing.
I don´t feel particularly accustomed to this quantity of assistance and sometimes it doesn´t seem natural and the urge to refuse the help comes, but for once I have not and it is good to see the pleasure some people get through helping others.

The´Culture Shock´ that is well documented that happens to some people on arrival to a country so so different to their own doesn´t seem to have hit me yet. I am just absorbing all that is here, meanwhile starting class and getting on with everyday living and the obligations still pending from home.

The university, which although is quite big on ´freedom´ has, at least in my faculty, quite a structured class system which requires us to be there for the register to be taken... or there are actual practical classes to attend. Although this feels quite strange after being very independent in terms of taking charge of my own studies, it is quite refreshing to have some taught classes, something which I know some students would benefit from at home....

Shopping and eating in general has been an adventure. I am an extremely fussy eater, but am trying my best best to be more open minded on this side of things, especially as you more or less have to be here (certainly if like me you are quite unable to read what things actually are and have to guess). There have not been too many disasters and I have tried a great number of things already and found some good stuff! The emphasis here is really to adopt the way of eating. Western food is expensive and really doesn´t exist in the same format (which of course, why should it?) so although I need tea with milk (!), on the other hand the rest is all changing. I find the choice of vegetables particularly interesting but as with fruit it seems quite a bit more expensive than in the UK. Favourite thing so far: a triangle of rice with a seaweed/soy sauce blob in the middle. Great snack.

The people in general and the students particularly are really friendly, and go out of their way to help you out (it is quite obvious when we are lost/foreign). It is really refreshing to be in a kind and thoughtful environment.
I am beginning to find my way around, without too much difficulty. I have been loaned a bicycle, which is great to get around and a good way to see things, except the concentration needed to keep eyes on the road...
I have been for a few runs, it´s a fine area for this, especially in the early morning. Although I expect I make a strange sight, tall foreign girl running around (at least it seems that way, I am getting some strange looks!).

I had to check out the shopping, which proved more amazing than I expected. I don´t know if I will be able not to spend everything before leaving. There are so so many amazing things that exist here. For a start the choice of tights and socks! Plastic things in general... things you didn´t know you needed. I could go on....

So only a week in it seems like a whole lot has been done but I know the time I have here is going to go very quickly....

Plastic food

Cycle-bike

The way to get around in Kyoto.