14.11.12

It feels like we’ve been back from Kyoto for ages.  A few quick words about the trip:  expensive, worth it, glimpse into Japan’s past.  The trip cost us 140,000 yen ($1600CDN) for 3 days, but we rode the “shinkansen” (bullet train), stayed in a “ryokan” (Japanese Inn) and ate enormous plates of traditional fare served to us on our tatami floor.  We stayed in the Higashiyama district in Gion, the old “pleasure quarters”, home of the Geisha.  We saw a few apprentice “maiko” and some fake Shibuya chicks dressed up in kimono without the elegance, for the sake of  “kawaii shashin” (cute pics of them in geisha gear).

But like all foolish people and places, Kyoto is heading towards super-industrialized status.  The ugly ‘centre’ of the city is encroaching on the temples of the mountains that surround the “downtown” core.  In recent years, 40,000 traditional buildings have been demolished to make way for, I presume, more Lawson’s and KFC chain stores with the odd condo development thrown in for good measure.  The Kyoto conservation group is doing what it can to delay the inevitable.  It stuns me that a history of such magnitude and value to Japan should be so threatened.  For a night club and a pack of smokes.  I suppose so.  Whatever turns a buck.

Still, the temples we did see were well-maintained with a steady stream of visitors.  Check out our pics for details.

Since coming back from Kyoto, we’ve been buckling down with the creative production.  Rod’s prepping up for his show at Designfesta on November 23rd, and I’ve been taking a writing course at Temple University.  Our next trip will be to the Mother Land (for Rod) in December.  Two weeks of family, Christmas and personal history.  Very nice.  It’s Rod’s first trip to his parents’ country of origin, so he’ll likely have a word or two for us when he gets back.  The fam (including Sis and Alex) will be crashing at ours in Soka for a couple weeks before we all head to the Philippines.

The weather… it always seems to come back to that…  pretty ideal these days, except for the fact that it gets dark at 3:30pm.  We’ve loaded up on kerosene for those chilly winter nights.  I don’t know which fumes are worse: our heater, or the scooter/mini-auto highway that drones just outside our door.  My bike ride to work is a rattling race (due to 8:06am departure time) along mottled cement that sometimes drops off along the edges (I swerve to avoid this).  Nothing can be done for the fumes, though.  There is a more scenic route, along the “gaikan” (covered super-highway feeding thousands of vehicles into Tokyo every day), but twice I have spotted a man “interfering” with himself by the side of the road.  Don’t show a dude a tree in this city ;)  You know you’re having a bad day when:  the first thing you do upon arriving at work is to check up the Japanese word for “masturbate” in the dictionary for your next carefully-crafted speech.

Hate to end any entry on that depraved note, but the hour is getting late and I have some assignment-editing to do.

À bientôt  xoxo

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