Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Mandy's Journal

Kyoto!

*sigh* Well...I just had a huuuuuuuuge post about this, but the stupid internet ate it. So, this may not be as well written or as long. Sorry about that. I have some great pictures of Tsurumai Park that I took on Thursday, but I'm guessing everyone would be much more interested in hearing about my trip to Kyoto on Friday.

The day started, as days will, with getting up. This was several hours after being woken up by a group of drunken men singing on their balcony at 6 am. Anyway, we headed over to Nagoya Station and were amazed by the ease with which we got the right kind of Shinkansen tickets, only had to wait 8 minutes for the train, and then found seats to ourself in the right non-smoking, non-reserved car. Two ways was about a hundred dollars, give or take. And it did get us to Kyoto in thirty minutes. On the way there we passed the big Sanyo Solar Ark. It's a huuuuuuuge solar panel. I must confess that I'm not quite sure what it's there for. Aimee posits that it might be connected to the Expo. Hmm...Anyway, here is Kyoto Station.

When we got to Kyoto, the first order of business was to go to Tenshi no Sato. For those of you who are not interested in dolls, you should just skip this paragraph. It will be pure doll love. Tenshi no Sato is the headquarters of Volks, and where all the dolls are made. We had to take the local train out to it, but it proved rather easy to get there. Tenshi no Sato is in an old shrine, with beautiful gardens. The top floor is a cafe, that unfortunately we didn't eat at. The next two floors are display galleries, showing all the dolls that Volks has ever made, standards and limited editions on one floor, and then one floor of one offs. I was reminded how much I want and love Shirou Tachibana. What a gorgeous doll! Then the ground floor is the entrance and the angel doll mother statue, surrounded by the flying little pastel-haired angel dolls. This is where the naming ceremonies are. We saw one. It was so pretty with the candles and music and the veil over the doll (which was a sleeping Lucas head...*dies*). Except...at the end, the instrumental music changed to "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love for You." Which ruined the mood and I couldn't stop giggling. The basement is the shop, and I must admit that I was rather disappointed. They didn't have that many dolls in stock, and the clothes/wigs/eyes were just like the ones at my shop in Nagoya. I did buy a sterling silver doll necklace I've never seen (it matches one of my rings) and some metallic eyes that have been sold out at my Volks for a long time. But otherwise...not impressed. The gardens were beautiful, unfortunately you can only take pictures in a few spots if you are posing your dolls. Aimee and I didn't take our dolls, but we intend to next time we go. There were trees and moss and a little stream in the garden. And a little old gardener who knew a little bit of English and just loved talking to us. Reluctantly, we headed back to Kyoto Station. Kyoto is huge, and there was much more to see.

From the Station we walked up to a huge Shin Buddhism complex. This location is the memorial of the founder of Shin Buddhism, Shinran Shonin. It's called "Higashi Honganji" and it's huge and beautiful. There are tons of pigeons and students love to feed them. We went up to the central temple, taking our shoes off, of course. It's just such a wonderful feeling to have tatami mats under your stocking feet. Unfortunately the priests were closing up the shutters to the temple just as we got there. It seemed rather early, but I don't know the rules. The statue of the standing Buddha, surrounded in incense and flowers was amazing and we looked as long as we could. Until the priests bowed rather apologetically and closed off the view. I also fell in love with an adorable sick cat at the temple. I wanted to take him home so badly. I know, I know...but his fur was the color of my hair. *sigh*

After this we made a valiant attempt to head to the Imperial Palace. I love Shinsengumi stuff, and I thought I could find out lots up there. But it's a loooooong walk, and the sun sets very early here. So we took a detour toward the mountains to the east. We found a shop of streets where we found all sorts of fun things. Kyoto is rather well known for its sweets, and there are so many sweet shops attesting to this. All the boxes are so prettily wrapped up. My favorite snack from Kyoto is yatsuhashi, a rice dough with cinnamin in it. You can eat it soft, or baked. I like it both ways, so we stocked up. I also finally got myself a pretty Japanese hairstick, mwahahah! To protect myself, of course. :)

At the end of the street was a Shinto shrine complex. It was all built uphill, and although the light was fading, the colors of the off white and orange paint were just great. I feel bad, not knowing the significance of the color orange here, but I intend to research it. There were many large and small buildings, including a center stage (?) surrounded in lanterns, and many smaller shrines. Each shrine has a bell to ring so the supplicant can rouse the spirits to make sure they hear their prayers. Since there were still many cherry blossoms clinging to the branches, hanami parties were still in full swing. We got some food from vendors as we went further up the hill. Aimee got some candied strawberries that were divine. While we were up there, the sun set. It was really beautiful. I loved the trees, quiet, animals, and greenness of Kyoto. I didn't realize how much I missed that sort of thing until I was out in it.

Anyway, cities look different in the dark. I must confess to getting a little confused on our walk back, which included passing a little walled in forest that looked like it was something out of 'Crouch Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' But thanks to Aimee's inate sense of direction above ground and in non-elevator situations, we got back, again had no trouble with tickets and within...two minutes we were on the train back to Nagoya. Once back, we rounded out the day with dinner at an izakaya we like that's near our apartment. Mm...gyoza, a Fuzzy Navel, and my first taste of tebasaki. Tebasaki is a food that Nagoya is known for, and it's basically chicken wings. They're good, but definitely not Buffalo wings. They have a saltier flavor, not a spicy/hot flavor. And Buffalo wings are sweeter. And no blue cheese dip, heh. But they were still very very good! Which does not change the fact that I'm fiending for Duff's. :)

This last one is a little more random. Booooooooooooog. This was a poster outside a pachinko parlor. For an Eva pachinko game. :) Will wonders never cease?

Hanami!

Well, its cherry blossom time in Nagoya, finally. The weather has been clearer and warmer (though I think a storm is coming, as I have a splitting headache). The cherry trees are blooming beautifully, though not right near our apartment. Those poor truncated trees have no buds, no leaves, nada. I don't think they will before we leave. But where I work there is a river (read: stream) called the Tempaku running right alongside where I work, and the banks are just covered in cherry trees. I keep forgetting my camera, but I'm determined to remember tomorrow.

In Japan, the cherry blossoms are enjoyed with hanami, parties where people drink alcohol and have a picnic and look at the beautiful flowers. The flowers are very short lived, so the quality of them is so precious and ephemeral. One of my coworkers, Leon, went home on Sunday. *weeps* Saturday night he sort of melded a farewell party with a hanami party in Tsurumai Park. Aimee and I headed over at about 9 pm, and the party was in full swing.

It was nothing like I'd imagined.

Somehow, when students talked about the flowers and picnics, I had a sort of Japonisme-like Victorian picnic vision. But this was more like a carnival in Riverside, with all the food vendors and travelling games, drunk people cavorting. (One student told me that she had seen a drunken university student up in one of the trees, completely naked). The flowers really spread over the park, and there are many tarps on the ground. You have to take your shoes off to go onto the tarps, and there is karaoke and people playing guitars and violins. It's really crazy. My pictures didn't come out very well, as I didn't want to use flash and my camera doesn't take good nighttime pictures. (I want a new camera...come to me, Canon Ixy in Vibrant Red...) But I did get a few.

And yes, Boog, I had major Subaru moments...I'm a little worried about heading to Kyoto this weekend...*guards hands*

I'll post daytime pictures when I get them. Ah...feel the glory of pink!

new month, new news

Well, let's start out by saying that today I found myself wearing pink Pokemon ears and eating Turkish food. All at the same time.

April Fools!

Oh, wait...no. That was true.

I've been pretty busy this week, having guests here and all. This weekend was not a regular relaxing weekend. Yesterday we went mad shopping, to all the fun places around here. Nothing picture worthy, though I did finally get that artbook from "Howl's Moving Castle." It's got storyboards and sketches. Very very cool!

But today was the exciting today. It was a little rough going for me at times, because I felt really sick all day. Which was so unfair. But we headed up to Nagoya Castle after we ate a bit at Nagoya Station. It was a beautiful sunny day, and although the sakura isn't quite in bloom yet, it's getting there and there is grass and greenery and leaves. The price had doubled since January because now they have all this stuff set up. And for the Expo, they've taken the Golden Dolphins down from the top of the castle and put them in this specially built exhibit. We waited in line for ten minutes so we could have our special ten seconds with each dolphin. We couldn't take any pictures, which sucked, but we did get to touch them for luck. I've never felt that much gold before. However, no pictures. However, the castle was beautiful. It was so nice to be someplace a little quieter and greener than the rest of Nagoya.

They also had an exhibit up of some bonsai. Some of it was really beautiful, and I thought that Dad would appreciate these.

After Nagoya Castle, we headed to a legendary place of amusement, the place that every Japanese spoiled, disobedient child dreams of. Pokepark! A special ten-minute walk amusement park delight full of Pokemon! Yes, that's right. It's free to go in, but expensive for everything else. The rides and stuff are absolutely adorable, though. We all bought character hats, and here are Amber and Aimee posing.

I'm sure Aimee will post pics of me with my little pink ears. :) I don't even know the name of the Pokemon whose ears I wore so charmingly. Here are some pics of the rides.

While there, we were a bit hungry. I was dying to have an ice cream sundae in a pokeball, but instead we had some Turkish kebab sandwiches instead. Pretty tasty. The guys at the booth were from Turkey, so they spoke to us in an odd blend of Turkish, Japanese, and English. All in all, a successful day. Stay tuned. More craziness will follow. It always does. :)