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Gion Matsuri

2005-08-13T00:51:00.000+09:00

This is the second time Joules and I have been in Kyoto for this festival, which is probably the city’s most famous.

It is held in July each year and dates back to Heian times, about a 1000 years ago. The main part of the festival involves the building, displaying and parade of 32 floats. The big hoko floats are enormous wooden constructions which can weigh up to 10 tons .

They are made without and nails, instead relying on sturdy rope. It’s amazing that they don’t fall apart as 50 men to pull them around on parade day. There is a special kind of music, called Gion-bayashi, is perfomed by men sitting on top of these floats. It can also be heard around town in shops and malls in run up to the parade. Kon kon chiki kon kon, yep it can get quite annoying after a while.

On the three nights preceding parade day the floats are decorated with lanterns and the whole city comes out to see them. This is a Japanese festival so of course most people are more interested in the food and drink stalls, or winning a fish, rather than the ancient floats. Many of the teenagers get dressed up in yukata - a type of summer kimono, which adds to the festive atmosphere.

This year Joules’ host at the university was walking with the praying mantis yama float, which was first in the parade behind the head hoko float. The parade order is drawn by ballot and getting first place is a prestigious spot.

My favourite part of the festival is Hanagasa, which takes place a week after the big float parade. Hana means flower and gasa (kasa) means umbrella. It is centred on the Yasaka shrine in Gion. A parade of umbrellas is taken around the surrounding streets then there are different musical and dance performances back at the shrine, including some by the Gion geisha. Maybe that’s why I like it?

Osaka Aquarium

2005-08-13T00:39:00.000+09:00

Is a fantastic place. I’ve been 3 times now, once each visit to Japan. It has the largest aquarium tank in the world, which contains a massive whale shark, as well as some big graceful rays, smaller sharks and other fish, but quite frankly who’s looking at them when you can look at a whale shark.

The main tank is in the centre of a huge modern building and starting at the top you wind your way round and down to the exit at ground level. As well as seeing the main tank at different heights it allows you to see the exhibits that surround the outer edge of the circuit at different levels too. So you can see emperor penguins standing under the snow shower above ground, you can see dolphins jumping in the air, seals taking a nap on a rock, as well as watching what they all get up to underwater in their different tanks.

And they leave 2 of the best exhibits for last – the massive, scary looking Japanese spider crabs and the glorious jellyfish.

Koyasan

2005-08-13T00:11:00.000+09:00

Joules and I took a break from the heat and humidity of Kyoto to spend a few cooler July days in the picturesque town of Koyasan, south of Kyoto and Osaka. ItÂs a small town full of temples built on a plateau high up in the forested hills.

Being a temple town most of the accommodation is in temples. We stayed the first night at Rengejoin described in our guidebook as elegant, which it certainly was and the second night at the nice youth hostel. We arrived just in time for dinner, which had been prepared and laid out in one of the front rooms, overlooking the dry, white raked gravel garden. Temple food is called shojin ryori, a special cuisine prepared by monks. As well as an absence of meat and fish there is no use of garlic or onion. Visually it is stunning, though even for a vegetarian some of the tastes took a bit of getting used to.

Our accommodation for the night was in a tatami room overlooking a second garden, full of trees and shrubs and a few koi carp swimming in the pond. At 6am a loud gong was sounded and which was the cue to attend the morning temple service. I managed to arrive before the head priest, which I was quite proud of, considering my dislike of early starts. The head priest and 4 other monks chanted for about 45mins and it was relaxing sitting listening to them in the incense filled morning air.

In the days we wandered round the sites of the town, including the interesting head temple of the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, which had some gorgeous painted screens and a massive rock garden. Another area called the Garan had a huge stupa, Daito, a very impressive building. We also visited the cemetery Okunoin, a massive place. It wais a strange experience to walk along the paths towards the Lantern Hall, as the rays of sunlight filtered through the trees and the stone and wooden grave markers and statutes became almost ghost like in the haze.

The oddest place we found in the town was a small temple by the side of the road. Behind the altar was a mini museum of Buddhist artefacts from around the world, the best of all being the Buddhas backlit by multicoloured flashing LED screens. Fab!

Lucky Yebisu

2005-08-11T00:00:00.000+09:00

This is the story of the lucky Yebisu beer bottles.
Yebisu or Ebisu is one of the 7 gods of fortune, who is normally depicted with a fishing rod and a red fish he’s. It is also a make of very tasty beer, and the picture on the label is of this god.
Yamamoto told us about the lucky Yebisu bottles, apparently one in every 100,000, that has a picture of Yebisu with a second red fish. In 2003 we ended up with 2 of these lucky bottles, both ordered at 844. The owner couldn’t believe how lucky that was, nor could our Japanese friends that had never seen even one. Just to point out, we didn’t have to drink 200,000 beers to get them!

Kyoto Eateries – Part 1

2005-08-10T23:27:00.000+09:00

Being a vegetarian in Kyoto is easy-ish. Luckily, there are quite a few completely veggie/vegan places and a few more that have a large part of their menu dedicated to us lot. The mix of places is good too, in terms of cuisine, style and price. This is a good site for mainly veggie Kyoto restaurants and cafes.

Here are the first few of my favourite places:

Café Peace, near the university. Mainly vegan it has a good set lunch of Japanese dishes for under ¥1000/£5 and in the evening has tasty gyoza, mabo dofu and Thai green curry among its Asian inspired dishes. It has a small library of travel books, and a great loyalty card that allows you to receive a free drink and a free Café Peace bag and a free lunch or t-shirt, all for 40 points. We’re on our second card now and I use the big sturdy bag to carry about my woodblock printing materials.

Obanzai, just northwest of Oike/Karasuma. A buffet delight of Kansai dishes. The week day lunch time deal is great, eat as much as you like/can for just over ¥800. There are tofu dishes, gluten nuggets, potato croquettes, lots of vegetable dishes, salad, miso soup and rice. There is normally one fish dish to be avoided. The décor reminds me of a sauna, the walls are made from light wood logs and the seating and tables are made of the same wood. It is nicely air-conditioned though, so not like a sauna in that respect! The staff in the kitchen all thank you for eating there in a cheerful chorus when you leave.

Mikoan on Kawabata, south of Reisen dori. Run by a lady priest who loves cats, this is a small counter seating vegan place. The evening set menu for ¥950 is fantastic. On a tray you receive a bowl of rice, miso soup, 3 different vegetable dishes, normally including a mushroom dish and a green veg dish. There is also a fried dish, made from gluten or soy. Currently a kitten that was rescued by the owner shares the countertop and a beautiful huge tabby cat is normally found curled up in its cardboard box on a shelf by the window. The walls are covered with pictures of cats, and there are little figures of cats on any free space of the counter or bar. It is quite easy to miss the small shrine nestled in between the bottles of sake and spirits, a reminder of the owner’s background.

And though no longer with us a special mention is deserved for The 844 Store Café. Run by an artist - Yamamoto Shinya, it was a crazy kind of place that served great gyoza and veggie gratins. The owner’s art decorated the walls and he encouraged his customers to write on the walls and tabletops. Joules and I would often sit by the doodle done Agent Smith from The Matrix. A big blue giraffe also added to the offbeat feel of the place. The owner remembered us from our 2003 visits, maybe because we were the people that ended up with not one, but two lucky bottles of Yebisu beer, and it was great to be able to return a couple of times before it closed at the end of May this year.

Kurama

2005-08-10T22:41:00.000+09:00

Joules and I like visiting Kurama, up in the hills to the north of Kyoto. It's a bit cooler than in town and there is a good walk across the hills from Kibune to Kurama, which we did in 2003, ending up at a fab onsen, which has outdoor baths. Japan is a country of festivals and they come in all shapes and sizes. We went to 2 festivals slightly unusual ones in May and June this year at Kurama temple.

Each year on the night of the May full moon they hold the Uesaku festival. It is a Himalayan style festival, the only one like it in Japan and Joules, Yoko and I went along. It's a nighttime festival so the path up to the temple was lit with lanterns and at the top most people held small candles.

There were just a few clouds in the sky and the full moon was shining brightly down on the fir tree covered hills and valleys. The first part of the evening involved walking through the underground caverns at the back of the temple, which contained a small Buddha.

Along the way we were blessed by chanting priests. The second part was a 90 minute meditation session. Unfortunately sitting down on the gravely ground in complete silence in the now chilly night were not the ideal conditions to attempt meditation for the first time! After 30 minutes we made as quiet an exit as possible to catch the last train home. There was a third part that apparently ran into the small hours – I guess you’d need to go yourself to find out about that.

In late June Joules and I went to a rather more accessible daytime festival – the Takekirie bamboo cutting ritual. This is apparently performed to prevent disaster and to honour the sacred waters flowing around the mountains of Kurama, however we mainly went along to watch men in funny costumes hacking up big bamboo with shiny swords. There are two sections of bamboo cutting: in the first section one team at a time cut the bamboo, counting how many strikes are needed and in the second half all the teams complete against each other in a race. A lady dressed in a scary orange costume performed a dance in the interval. At the end of the rituals there was a mad scramble by the audience to collect shards of bamboo to take home for good luck. This looked fun so I joined in the clean up operation.

Kamogawa Odori

2005-08-10T22:13:00.000+09:00

I’ve got a few books about geisha and I’ve become a bit of a fan, but not of the hand held kind. One of these books Geisha by Liza Dalby mentions the Kamogawa Odori, the spring public dances by the geisha of Pontocho, and I was really excited to get the chance to go.

There are several groups of geisha in Kyoto, including those from Gion and Pontocho and I’ve sometimes managed to catch a glimpse of them in the early evening in the streets of these areas of town. In the spring and autumn special performances are held which allow the general public a chance to see the geisha perform in music and dance.

From the 1st to the 24th May the geisha of Pontocho held their 168th annual spring dance in the Pontocho Kaburenjo Theatre. They hold 3 performances a day, as well as carrying on with their regular evening work, so they must be pretty exhausted by the end of it. Kamogawa is the river that runs through the city, right outside the theatre and Odori means dance.

The first part of the performance was a comic play – Monogusa Soshi – The Story of Lazy Taro about a lazy village poet who is sent to work at a lord’s house in Kyoto. He is discovered to be the grandson of the late emperor and marries the lord’s daughter. The geisha performed all the roles and it seemed to be received well, there was lots of laughter and clapping.

The second part was a series of 5 dances – Passing of Spring in Kyoto. To the left of the stage were the geisha musicians, whilst on stage, geisha, and sometimes maiko, performed the dances themed around flowers, forest animals and rain. The end dance involved everyone and it was breathtaking to see that many geisha and maiko, all in their beautiful kimono and make-up.

Aoi Matsuri - probably the oldest festival in the world

2005-06-08T13:45:00.000+09:00

The big festival in Kyoto in May is Aoi Masturi. Aoi means hollyhock, and matsuri is the word for festival. The aoi leaves are meant to protect against earthquakes and lightning. The festival dates back to Heien times, about 1000 years ago. There are a variety of events that span 13 days, culminating in a big parade that starts at the Imperial Palace and ends at a northern shrine - Kamigamo. Joules and I went to 2 events, the horse racing and the final parade day.

The horse racing was held at Kamigamo shrine. It involved pairs of racers from opposite teams race against each other along a straight track. Like most festivals the blessings and rituals last much longer than the actual event. It was a hot day and by the time the horses got to race they were raring to go. Some dismounted their riders, some took off before they were meant to and some would have quite liked to have leapt into the midst of the spectators, all the while the riders tried to remain dignified in their elaborate costumes.

The final day parade was a flurry of beautiful, colourful costumes. The centre of attention was the saio-dai, who in olden times would have been an Imperial Princess, but nowadays is a young lady from a good Kyoto family and represents the princess. Arriving at Kamigamo shrine she walked along with her multilayered kimono being carried by little girls whilst the older female attendants followed with their long silk trains flowing out behind them in a rainbow of colours.

Kyoto/HdB - where we're staying

2005-06-02T17:56:00.000+09:00

Joules and I will be staying in Kyoto until the end of September. We're staying at Haus der Begegnung, Kyoto International Student House. The main house is for students and there is an annex for visiting researchers and lecturers. Our room is a self contained studio flat and once we unpacked and I bought some bits and bobs it looked quite homely.

The main house has a computer room, where I'm sitting now. There is also a pool table, where we play 9 ball, a ping pong table which sees some serious matches - which I sometimes manage to win, and the obligatory vending machine - fave drink Mitsuya Cider (applely lemonade). There is a lounge area with TV, DVD player and stereo, though we can't watch our DVD's - PAL/NTSC issues!

Outside there are 2 garden areas, one is a Japanese style garden which is lovely for sitting out in reading, the other garden is for sport and drying laundry, which is itself a bit of a sport on rainy days.

The location is really good. It only takes Joules 5 minutes to cycle to his office and it's a 10 min cycle into town for the cinema and karaoke etc (but you're probably never more than 10 minutes from karaoke in Japan).

Restaurants in Tokyo

2005-05-27T17:00:00.000+09:00

We had some really good food at:

Good Honest Grub - we went to the branch in Harajuku. Their veggie burger was the best. There wasn't a pattie in it, just grilled veg. You get to pick 2 toppings for it, I chose tofo pumpkin spread and babaganoosh. Be warned, it's very hard to not have desert, they bring over the pudding platter so you can see close up all the delicious options. I wasn't strong enough to resist the chocolate peanut butter tofu cheesecake, which was divine.

Kabul Shokudou - an Afghan restaurant in Ochanomizu. The dishes were good, lots of veggie choice and great breads. I'd not eaten at an Afghan place before, the food was somewhere between Lebanese and Indian food but closer to Lebanese I'd say.

Naka Naka - in Shinjuku. It's an izakaya, which means it's somewhere in between a pub and a restaurant. This one was quite fancy in it's decor - it had a forest like feel, lots of wood, carvings of flower and hanging lanterns and each table was in it's own little area. The food was good quality, modern Japanese style and beautifully presented - of course. The waiter very kindly pointed out all the veggie choices. We ended up with some unusual stuff but that's part of the fun of eating out. Sandy and I drank cocktails, Joules kept to the beer, though one time he made a shandy gaff, I mean he ordered one - it's beer and ginger beer, a good combo.

Shopping in Tokyo

2005-05-25T22:42:00.000+09:00

I had a great day's shopping in Tokyo during our first week here. Well I needed to spend that last pay cheque somehow!

At Akihabara (Joules and I fondly refer to this part of town as Abracadabra), which is electronic central, I bought a camera. It's a Canon Kiss Digital N (EOS 350 D in the UK) and came with 2 lenses - a 18-55mm and a 55-200mm - ultrasonic. It's a digital SLR. The body is silver and lightweight. It's great and I love using it. If you're wondering what it looks like you can see my camera here.

Junie Moon in Daikan'yama is a shop dedicated to Blythe and is now my favourite shop in the world (sorry Nasty Nip). It was like a dream come true to go there, I'd been waiting for 2 years to visit it. This is the Junie Moon website. I bought a Blythe Lounging Lovely, Flower Power Dress Set, a book 'Blythe Style' by Gina Garan, and some postcards etc.

Greetings!

2005-05-22T21:15:00.000+09:00

Hi there.

It's a bit scary writing my first post to my blog. At the moment I'm not really sure how the blog's going to turn out, I guess I'll just see what happens.

I've been in Japan 6 weeks now, and loads has happened so the first so many posts will be catch up.

I also have a photo website, they aren't really holiday snaps however, so they may not be that interesting unless you like flowers. Here are my photos

Here goes...