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.