Barakiyama Myoukouji

So this is a local temple - the name being that of the title.

I took an awful lot of pictures but only a few came out worth the time to view.  Obviously I took them in colour, but for some reason I can't stop making them black and white.  I think they look infinitely better.

This first one is absolutely my favourite.  It's one of my favourite pictures full stop; although the few people that have seen it are only lukewarm towards it.

Both of these pictures are of the same statue, the drinking/cleansing fountain at the entrance to all Japanese temples tend to have an interesting ornament, often somehow including the water itself (a fountain head, for example).

I've been to this place a couple of times and there are always fresh flowers at the entrance.  The one downside of black and white is that you can't see colour; amazingly enough.  Not so great with flowers.

As a side-note, it snowed the other day so I made a little video.

Toji, the Day of Many Problems.

I've added another post, below this one, describing my visit to Toji before this event.  Click here.

So on the day of the flea market I was supposed to meet Pascal, and we were supposed to go around the flea market together.

This plan was scuppered however, as we waited for each other at different gates.  So eventually we both gave up and went into the market alone.

The market itself was extremely crowded.  The kind of crowded where you you can't move for a minute because of the throng surrounding you in every direction.  It's the kind of full where the old people rule, because they don't care about pushing everyone else out of the way in order to get where they're going.  They're like tankers in this situation, and cannot, or will not, stop for anyone or anything.  They're best avoided in these situations.

However there's a snag in this situation.  The market begins at 7AM and finishes at 3PM (roughly), so only those out of work can visit.  This leaves the elderly, students, and house mums.

Japan has a massive aging problem, similar to England.  There are fewer children born every year, and the population is tending towards seniors rather than children.

Never is this more evident than at market time.

Ninety percent senior participation at this event meant I became extremely annoyed at their rudeness.  The standards bred into Japanese for a lifetime are forgotten after a certain age, and it's extremely frustrating.

Thinking about it, I have another genetic problem, in not being Japanese.  I am not Japanese.  That's a problem for the extremely old here.  It's my belief that the society is divided into five layers in terms of age.  The children don't care about gaijin, and will often run up to me (in the small towns and villaged) and throw their English at me in an attempt at communication.  It's all very cute.  Young adults are somewhat perturbed by my presence, but most are friendly.  Middle aged people loathe my existence.  Elderly people are extremely friendly, and will help to the best of their ability one hundred percent of the time.  The extremely old once again loathe my existence on their shores, and would sooner stand on my feet than ask me to move; presumably because I'm a stupid foreigner who wouldn't understand even if I were asked.

All in all it's very interesting, but frustrating at times for sure.

Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, and ended up taking very few pictures in the end; primarily because I was too busy nosing around everywhere.

Tako is octopus.  Yaki is cooking, cooked, fried or grilled.  (I've no idea which).  The food above is takoyaki.  (Spelling is probably wrong.)  It's delicious!  The only problem is that it's round, which means the outside can be cold, but due to the efficient nature of the shape, the inside is kept at a constant lava melting, five hundred degrees.  I always burn my mouth.

This is how crowded it is.  The only reason there's space in front of the camera in this shot, is because I have a gaijin barrier, as all foreigners do.  This quite often proves to be extremely handy, especially on crowded trains.

The trick is to not take offence, and to occasionally (and discreetly) check to make sure you don't stink.

This artist was fantastic.  He mainly drew on pieces of driftwood, and I was dying to bring something home.  However, the legendary malaise of baggage handlers worldwide means it would inevitably break.

I did buy something from him however, and I will bring it home.

This is a picture of his wooden wares.  They're extremely expensive as you might imagine, but they're superb.  He has a unique style, and a unique medium.









Like I said, not many pictures from this day.

A Day of Temples and Eating.

So the day after we had arranged to meet with a monk and sort his garden out; we arranged to go sightseeing with the same monk and uparupa.  We were chauffered around by another man this time.  Thank you driver-san!

So anyway; this day was really good, the large number of people meant everyone was always smiling and being silly which is the recipe for a good day in my books.

We visited a large shrine area, the name of which eludes me at this point; but I was finally shown how to pray properly.  Of course James monk was the one to show me how, so by havnig a monk show me I think I'm safe to practice in front of others.  If a monk can't show me the right way to pray, then who can?

After the walking around and photography we walked around a small shopping square and someone bought some tea; I bought some ice cream and snacks and then we headed off to dinner.

Pictures of which are below.

Needless to say, I ate a lot that day... An awful lot...

I've not read a single newspaper, or watched a single English language news report since I've been here.

I had a little spare time before we headed out, and the first headline I read is one that makes me want to cry.

No, don't reform the diet to include English style campaign financing laws...  *sigh*

There seem to be a lot of small roads following the major river that runs through Kyoto, (the name of which escapes me at the moment, maybe the Kamogawa, I'm not sure.) and none of them seemed to have any safety barriers.  They're all single track too, which means the whole sensation of driving along these types of roads is extremely free.  I doubt anyone who's sober goes off the edge, and the roads here seem pretty safe overall.  I've only seen one accident, and both cars seemed fine.  I.e, The crash occurred at some traffic lights at four miles per hour.

This is just after the entrance to the temple grounds.

It transpires that the difference between a shrine and a temple is down to which religion the grounds belong to.  If it's Buddhist, it's a temple.  If it's Shinto, it's a shrine.  When you're at a shrine the process for worshipping is slightly different as well.

For the first time in my life, I'm interested in religious goings on.  However, I'm still only really interested in the processes, results of monk based labour and the architecture.  (How to pray properly and looking at the amazing gold statues thinking, 'bloody hell that must have taken a lot of money and time to make.')  I've never been much interested in religion; but a good temple, monastery or cathedral is always worth a look!

This building looked good from every single angle.  We tried, and failed, to find a single position that was ugly or strange.  It sits perfectly in the landscape and blends perfectly with the water.

The lake surrounding the temple also provides a fantastic reflection.  It's a little difficult to see in this photo, but when the sun peeks out from behind a cloud the whole scene is reflected by the water, creating the illusion of there being another world hidden somewhere inside this temple.

It's wabi-sabi!

Yeah; try and explain that to a belgian while walking around a temple...

I couldn't!

Beauty in unrefined things?  Maybe?

Fallen leaves on a path?  That kind of thing?

I have no idea how to explain it, primarily because I've only got my own interpretation of what it means; I've never been taught its' meaning.

The same temple from a different angle.  We were too late to see inside, which is a bit of a shame because this seems like a building that would be as interesting on the inside as the outside.

It also has a cool little bridge running over the water, in the classical Japanese style.  Well, classical as we think of it in the West I suppose.  They do have a large number of them here though, so maybe it's not a misguided preconception for a change.

It's a little dark, but in this picture you can see the reflection I mentioned earlier.

The sky was a really fantastic colour on this day, and the clouds looked as if they had been painted with a thick calligraphy brush; so the whole image was pretty much perfect.

My camera kept struggling with the contrast between light and dark places though, so some pictures are horrifically over-exposed, and some are under-exposed.

I really like this picture, despite it being too dark.  You can see the type of clouds I was talking about earlier; and the surrounding trees reflections' are really nice.

This is one of the mental image of Japan I held before coming here, and I'm glad to be able to say I managed to capture that view.

Still water is everywhere here, so I've seen this picture in a number of places - I've just not been able to capture it!

This is taken from the same place, but looking at the temple building.

With a greater emphasis on the sky this time!

From right to  left:  Uparupa-chan, James Monk, Driver-san.

The rest are just random tourists, but I liked how everyone was in a semi-circle and could therefore be seen by the camera.

Driver-san had an awesome camera; but it's a few models below the one I want.

(But don't tell him I said that!)

A final picture of that amazing temple.

Sorry about the large number taken of a single building!

Ok so one more picture of that building...

So I took about fifteen photographs trying to get the sun setting on this bell, but none of them were any good.  So you'll have to settle for this picture of the roof of the belltower (it's only a few mtres high) and a tree...

The sunset over one of the minor temple buldings.

Some of the skies here are fantastic colours, but often not very different to those we have in England.

I can definitely see why this is the land of the rising sun, with their 5AM sunrise and 5PM sunset every day, that does not seem to change.  But I don't think they have any more impressive sunsets than we do.  Maybe if I wake up at 5AM I'll see some really amazing sunrises.  But let's face it, something extremely special would have to happen in order for that to happen.

It's the J-CREW.  Here to fight crime and save the world.  Or something...

I honestly don't know how, but I told them to strike a pose and they all did it without even having to think.

There are some serious pose striking skills in Japan.  It's a skills base that I think is horribly underutilised within society.  I mean come on now, how awesome is this picture!  No planning!

A picture of a picture of a picture.

Being taken.

This took about five times longer to orchestrate than the strike-a-pose as seen above!

Modern art in action, folks!

The sign said, don't go down these stairs, and definitely don't go near the water.

He who dares wins.  And in this case, I won a good photograph of the river at dusk.

It's amazingly calm in this area, despite being relatively close to railway lines and roads.

He who dares, wins.  And maybe this man won a fish.  Who knows.

I wasn't going to wait around long enough to find out, my feet were wet and getting cold!

The sky at night.  Or dusk to be more precise.  But we can clearly see the vast space dedicated to this park; a rarity in the cities of Japan.

We can also just about see the three muskateers without whom, this journey would have been rendered impossible.

あろがとうおざいます！

After my ice-cream, chocolate bun and chocolate ice-cream snack, came this wonderful (if a little expensive) dinner.

It's a bit of a shame, but a family were eating opposite us, and thy had a small kid who kept waving and pulling faces at the big stupid looking foreigners.  To which I pulled faces back and whatnot; but the dad kept telling her off.  Just let the stupid idiot kid be stupid, he'll be crushed by society soon enough, and will no longer have the inclination to have any fun; it happens to everyone after all.

Itadakimasu!  Said before every meal.  Something akin to, thank you for the food.  It probably has a religious significance, but I'm not sure.














And that was the fun temple trip!

Thanks to everyone involved!  It was a really great day.

Kyoto Shrine Travels

So the first day in Kyoto was a travelling day.  Travelling by shinkansen meant that I really could have gone to at least one temple that day, but I didn't realise I'd be so relaxed by the time I got here.  So I did nothing bar more relaxing, which incidentally seems to be a strong theme in Kyoto.  Japans' relaxed capital.

So the next day I went with Pascal to visit temples and shrines around the Kyoto area.  I took about 200 photographs; far too many for here, so I'll try and pare them down a little.

Here goes...

So of course blogger is being stupid again, so uploading the pictures is proving rather difficult.  I just have to write with no paragraphing I think.  Anyway, here goes for a second time.  This is the entrance to the first temple grounds we entered.  It's quite big, and is every bit as impressive in person, as it is in this picture.  It has a number of temples inside, unlike a lot of places that have simply one entrance and one temple.

I should probably use my space more wisely, rather than posting a non-descript picture such as this; however I like it, primarily because of the generic nature of it.  Most of the places look like this.

So yet another pond with a bridge over it.  As stereotypical as it may seem, there are lots of these in Japan.  This day was actually really bright, so the challenge was reducing glare, more than trying to find a nicer position.  In this spot it looks cloudy or dark even.  I assure you it wasn't.  The hundreds of steps in Kyoto definitely wore us out.

And here we see an example of those many, many steps.  Above this point were another two sets of steps  like these; even the native Japanese were resting when they reached the top.  Then again they may have been travelling from Tokyo, where every incline has an escalator.

This is the view from halfway up the stairs.  I was too tired to take any pictures once I reached the top!

Here is another shrine peeking over the top of some stairs.  It's difficult to distinguish the differences between them, other than their size and colour.  That is until you go inside, where they all have a different arrangement of religious paraphernalia, along with varying amounts of gold.

You can just about see the leaves starting to change colour for autumn in this picture.  The Japanese are very proud of their seasons, and the distinctive weather and foods they bring.  Kyoto is also especially beautiful in Spring, with the cherry blossoms (a national obsession over here) and in autumn, with the orange and red leaves.  Unfortunately I've come to early for the leaves, and months too late/early for the cherry blossoms.

So this is the view from another of the sets of stairs we climbed.  It was even better in person, but I think it gives you a good idea of the size and scope of the mountain we were climbing.  And just how many people live in such a small area, Kyoto only has a population of 1 million or so!

So I'm also including this one for no real reasoon.  It's not a spectacular photograph, I just like it.  Erm...  That's about all the description I can give really.

So lots of women wear the traditional dress in Kyoto; getting them to pose for a photo is somewhat difficult though.  At least I thought so, until we met a Japanese girl who was extremely forceful in asking for photographs.

So this little tea room marked the beginning of a fantastic walk along a street that sold traditional crafts and clothes; coupled with a bizarrely out of place boutique fashion place selling lime green items of, presumably, fashion.  Who would buy such things is beyond me though.

This is the street.  It extends for a long way and takes a number of gravity defying climbs and claustrophobia inducing streets to reach the end.  It's full of shops and restaurants, and quite a few people.  It screams asia to me.  You could transplant this into any far eastern country, maybe add a little fish gutting in the mainland areas, and it could be in a movie.

I was so proud of myself for managing to get a good quality photo of some girls wearing traditional dress.  How easy it would later prove to be...

Look at how many people there are!  Tons of loud kids too.  Despite the large volume of people it was still a great site.  This is the second temple/shrine area we visited, and contained a number of brilliant things.  These included a couple of fellow tourists who we later explored a shopping area of Kyoto with.  Unwillingly on my part, it must be said!

I'm not sure what this building does, or did, but it was recently painted by the look of it, and deserves an honourable mention for the brightness of the paint standing in contrast with the dark woods of the rest of the area.

The mid afternoon sun peeking out from behind the building above.

So this is overlooking the city.  It was a really great view, I just hope some of it can be translated in this picture.

A view of the pagoda that's one of the main features of this area.  You can see it from a fairly long way away, despite it only being a few storeys high.

So everyone knows mountains are a real pain to build on; yet they insist on doing it here.  Why why why...  The result is that basically the views are fantastic both from the platforms, and looking back at them.  Good job, monks!

So this is another shot of the temple.  Inside is  a shrine to (something), but despite not knowing what, I do know it matches the splendour of the outside by being loaded with gold.  Everything is gold; gold as far as the eye can see.  Inside at least.

I include this picture for comedic value only.  This girl was having photographs of her taken by a professional photographer, so she's either a model, or she's some kind of model.  Therefore I figured I'd go and ask for a photograph and try to make her laugh; which I succeeded in doing, but only  after the photo  was taken.  Damn her professional attitude!  But yeah that kind of getup takes an extremely long time to put on.

The leaning tower of Kyoto!

There was a shirt shop...  I really badly wanted to get a shirt here, but they were 20 pounds for a single stupid slogan, and 30 for one printed front and back!  To expensive for my tastes unfortunately.  I took a photo of all the different options available, and corrected the guys English in the hopes of buttering him up enough for a discount.  No dice.

I should probably have spent more time putting in pictures of Kyoto, rather than these stupid shirts; but come on now, who doesn't love the bottom left one?

Five great big gold stars for effort, but only two for execution.  Still, this will be the last t-shirt one I promise.

Ok this is the last one.   It's a shame this one is so blurred, but you can still make out the writing.

And that was a couple of days ago.

I'm super expert!