Setsubun, Fushimi Inari, Yoshida, Daitoku-ji
07/02/07 17:16 Filed in: Focus on the
Locus
Last weekend marked a
week as a single guy, so I threw myself into socializing in order
to avoid the emptiness of my apartment. That Saturday was a
national holiday - Setsubun, the traditional beginning of the new
year - I succeeded to an exhausting level. Friday night I went out
for dinner with a colleague and got the lowdown on another shitty
relationship in my environs. I got home at 2:30 and crawled into
bed, sleeping a scant few hours before I woke to teach two private
classes. I mistook the starting time for the second class, and
without checking my pda, I dashed off through traffic to arrive on
time, nearly getting hit by a car I didn't see on the way.
That started a theme that has continued throughout this week - danger. Last night I was nearly pinched by a car that was backing into a parking spot because I thought it was pulling out instead of pulling in. This morning I was startled by a car pulling up to an intersection suddenly and I nearly fell into the river when I collided with another cyclist whom I was attempting to pass and who didn't see me. After that a pigeon made for my face in kamikaze style. I've decided to spend the rest of the week moving slowly.
Anyway, grateful that I was still alive, I took advantage of the good lighting and visited Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the shrine with a whole ton of red gates in order to take some pictures. It was interesting to return with a different camera. I shot better pictures by and large, but I felt a bit hindered by the length of the lens and really craved something wide to capture the scene better. Here are some photos from last year and this visit, check out the difference in the photos.
After that shrine I headed home for lunch and started watching Great Teacher Onizuka. This ridiculous anime is basically about an ex-gang leader and major slacker (yet somehow a third rate college graduate) who figures he'd like to be a teacher and make school fun again. Through some trials in actually getting a teaching position, he ends up at a school and is put in charge of a class that is legendary for its bad students. So far it is totally funny, but it does have a large does of horny adolescent humor involving highschool girl panties and other such sexual innuendo, so I don't think it is really for everyone.
I watched a few episodes and then headed off to meet Jenny and Stacy. We had a couple of drinks and then headed to Yoshida-jinga, one of the big shrines in Kyoto, because it was host to a large festival and bonfire. We ate and spilled a variety of food and then ended up standing around the fire until after 2am. I had a chance to talk to some more long term residents and become more confident that they are all varying shades of bonkers.
The next day, Jenny, Stacy and I met again to check out some temples. I shot a bunch of pictures, but I really only took one good photo, the one you are looking at right now. After that we went out for dinner (and a bottle of wine) and then hit a cafe for absinthe. I don't quite understand the mystique around this drink. The popculture understanding of it is that it is hallucinogenic. I am not sure about my experience. We had one, but it wasn't lit on fire or mixed with sugar (which you are supposed to do?) and it tasted like sambuca mixed with toothpaste. Stacy said that her only reaction in the past was brighter vision. Since she told me that, I am treating the following experience with a bit of skepticism. The next bar we visited (in order to drink sangria) was a Spanish joint with walls painted in red and blue stripes. Either those colours shouldn't be put together or the absinthe was doing something, because the border between them was hurting my eyes.
So that was Sunday. Monday was another private class, Aeon, and then an evening out for coffee with a really sweet student. A relatively early night, home at 11:30. Check out the photo galleries for images of what I am talking about.
Edit: I just found out that my camera raw isn't supported by my version of Photoshop, so the galleries will have to wait a little. Go bittorrent go!
That started a theme that has continued throughout this week - danger. Last night I was nearly pinched by a car that was backing into a parking spot because I thought it was pulling out instead of pulling in. This morning I was startled by a car pulling up to an intersection suddenly and I nearly fell into the river when I collided with another cyclist whom I was attempting to pass and who didn't see me. After that a pigeon made for my face in kamikaze style. I've decided to spend the rest of the week moving slowly.
Anyway, grateful that I was still alive, I took advantage of the good lighting and visited Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the shrine with a whole ton of red gates in order to take some pictures. It was interesting to return with a different camera. I shot better pictures by and large, but I felt a bit hindered by the length of the lens and really craved something wide to capture the scene better. Here are some photos from last year and this visit, check out the difference in the photos.
After that shrine I headed home for lunch and started watching Great Teacher Onizuka. This ridiculous anime is basically about an ex-gang leader and major slacker (yet somehow a third rate college graduate) who figures he'd like to be a teacher and make school fun again. Through some trials in actually getting a teaching position, he ends up at a school and is put in charge of a class that is legendary for its bad students. So far it is totally funny, but it does have a large does of horny adolescent humor involving highschool girl panties and other such sexual innuendo, so I don't think it is really for everyone.
I watched a few episodes and then headed off to meet Jenny and Stacy. We had a couple of drinks and then headed to Yoshida-jinga, one of the big shrines in Kyoto, because it was host to a large festival and bonfire. We ate and spilled a variety of food and then ended up standing around the fire until after 2am. I had a chance to talk to some more long term residents and become more confident that they are all varying shades of bonkers.
The next day, Jenny, Stacy and I met again to check out some temples. I shot a bunch of pictures, but I really only took one good photo, the one you are looking at right now. After that we went out for dinner (and a bottle of wine) and then hit a cafe for absinthe. I don't quite understand the mystique around this drink. The popculture understanding of it is that it is hallucinogenic. I am not sure about my experience. We had one, but it wasn't lit on fire or mixed with sugar (which you are supposed to do?) and it tasted like sambuca mixed with toothpaste. Stacy said that her only reaction in the past was brighter vision. Since she told me that, I am treating the following experience with a bit of skepticism. The next bar we visited (in order to drink sangria) was a Spanish joint with walls painted in red and blue stripes. Either those colours shouldn't be put together or the absinthe was doing something, because the border between them was hurting my eyes.
So that was Sunday. Monday was another private class, Aeon, and then an evening out for coffee with a really sweet student. A relatively early night, home at 11:30. Check out the photo galleries for images of what I am talking about.
Edit: I just found out that my camera raw isn't supported by my version of Photoshop, so the galleries will have to wait a little. Go bittorrent go!