Nara and Kyoto in size XS
The first weekend here, i went to Nara.
Although NAIST is called the Nara Institute of Science and Technology - Nara itself is actually some 30 mins away. It really is, as most ppl that have been there will tell you, just friggin loaded with history. I took a walk with Akemi and Aki (she single-handedly keeps up the whole database for the lab - very funny lady, but she hates english - that's another story). So we took a short walk from the train station to the Great Buddha temple and the 5 story pagoda (you can see it in the background of that picture of me with the crappy red umbrella)and some other temple I forgot it's name already (got my fortune there) . The Great Buddha really is a friggin monster - there is a picture I will upload sometime soon of this huge pillar with a whole about a foot and a half tall and a foot wide that if you can fit through it to the other side then you will have a healthy year. This would soooo not work in the US - it makes sense though, if you're a friggin HUGE lard ass then you are not gonna fit in there and chances are you are already an unhealthy motha. Also, you have to take into account that most Japanese ppl have a slim and (for women) petite build - so again, children are more apt to go through the hole and those lil monsters are usu pretty healthy anyways.. resilient little monkeys.
Oh, and it was also friggin wet as all hell allllllll day oh and we went to a cute cafe that cost bout $10 for coffee and cake.
Kyoto... well this could actually be much more detailed b/c this might have been more of a omg omg experience than anything else so far - so maybe i'll put in details in other posts. (yes this long post IS abbreviated miss bina)
It's by sheer luck that natsuko (grad student that oversees me) was going to go to kyoto anyways for a conference - so I was able to go with her for my first and second times on the train to kyoto - b/c otherwise I think I might have gone to Tokyo by accident somehow (tokyo is waaay the fuck on the upper side of japan). Trains on japan - well it's bad manners to talk on your cellphone, esp loudly in public - and ppl don't look at anyone at all - so that's kind of odd (thank buddha for mp3 players). But even though it could've been horribly tense, the ride was a lot of fun b/c natsuko is the shit, seriously. We laughed our asses off so hard at our own difficulty at understanding each other that we missed the station change twice!! (on the subway and on the train). Seriously, without her my side of the lab office would be empty.. oh that's right it is anyways.. hah! (that's something else tho)
The kyoto station is the size of a friggin airport, all with a subterranean mall (i have no idea how big that mofo is.. there are friggin mirrors at the ends of some halls, there's no way to tell where it ends) - i ate dinner there and accidentally ordered a bowl of noodles big enough to feed the population of Andorra la Bella (look it up)
The first time around, it took me so long to figure out the trains and that the guide map was deceivingly disproportionate that I only got to see one place - Sanjusan gendo. Which literally translated is the 33 shrine... err.. which is confusing b/c there are 50 replicas of the buddhishivita (so bad at remembering that spelling) and one huge buddha man and 28 guards still intact from like the 700s a.d. (none of those numbers look like 33) But it's sooooo awe inspiring - really.. it was amazing. All of those are perfectly intact and are the exact same number there were all those years ago. The details were amazing and every single sculpture was a friggin embodiment of art and humanity all in one (well the 50 replicas.. were the exact same thing, but each one of the guards was kickin). oh.. the shit of it is that no pictures were allowed (i donno if frenchy took em or what.. but there's one of the guard/gods and the amazing amount of replicas)
The second time around i planned better. i went to the kyoto museum of art (not that great of a monetary investment on my behalf, it was very small and had only a handful of pieces on the permanent collection although still quite pretty). i went to the Nijon palace - gorgeous amazing.. totally cool, and incredibly huge. I found out later that the main bldg of nijon palace does not exist anymore but they had the original place where the shogun had quarters and received visitors and it was awesome.. they had mannequins in full guise to help imagine how it would've been back then. even though you could barely see the patterning on the walls, it used to have super ornate ceilings and beams with colors so bright that it's written that ppl said going into the building of this guy was like seeing the colors of heaven. all the walls had amazing patings on it.. tigers, lions, falcons, flowers, birds. Oh and I absolutely loved the sliding doors with these huge 2ft red tassles (sp?) behind which were the shogun's body guards (one in each room of where the shogun would stay for long periods of time). And the floor outside of the shogun's more personal quarters is actually 'engineered' to squeak so everyone can hear everyone - and if you got invited to where it didn't squeak it was like omg the shogun trusts me.. lol
and I went to kyomizu temple... i don't know much about it's history as of yet b/c it was a spur of the moment visit ... but the pictures will speak for themselves.. once they can speak on my website..
The second day at kyoto, natsuko took me to this awesomely gorgeous place (which i didn't take any pictures of the inside!! i know bad!!) but it's called "Ask a Giraffe" How the shit is that??? that is so friggin cool and funny.. tis supposed to be an American-Japanese place.. we had fried chicken there lol.. but not like your KFC stuff.. but with this odd sauce/spices on it.. and it was too salty (which is very american).. the food was alright.. but the ambience is just amazing.. i felt like kicking myself for not bringing my sketchbook - but that's ok.. each day i have less and less time to feel bored.
Although NAIST is called the Nara Institute of Science and Technology - Nara itself is actually some 30 mins away. It really is, as most ppl that have been there will tell you, just friggin loaded with history. I took a walk with Akemi and Aki (she single-handedly keeps up the whole database for the lab - very funny lady, but she hates english - that's another story). So we took a short walk from the train station to the Great Buddha temple and the 5 story pagoda (you can see it in the background of that picture of me with the crappy red umbrella)and some other temple I forgot it's name already (got my fortune there) . The Great Buddha really is a friggin monster - there is a picture I will upload sometime soon of this huge pillar with a whole about a foot and a half tall and a foot wide that if you can fit through it to the other side then you will have a healthy year. This would soooo not work in the US - it makes sense though, if you're a friggin HUGE lard ass then you are not gonna fit in there and chances are you are already an unhealthy motha. Also, you have to take into account that most Japanese ppl have a slim and (for women) petite build - so again, children are more apt to go through the hole and those lil monsters are usu pretty healthy anyways.. resilient little monkeys.
Oh, and it was also friggin wet as all hell allllllll day oh and we went to a cute cafe that cost bout $10 for coffee and cake.
Kyoto... well this could actually be much more detailed b/c this might have been more of a omg omg experience than anything else so far - so maybe i'll put in details in other posts. (yes this long post IS abbreviated miss bina)
It's by sheer luck that natsuko (grad student that oversees me) was going to go to kyoto anyways for a conference - so I was able to go with her for my first and second times on the train to kyoto - b/c otherwise I think I might have gone to Tokyo by accident somehow (tokyo is waaay the fuck on the upper side of japan). Trains on japan - well it's bad manners to talk on your cellphone, esp loudly in public - and ppl don't look at anyone at all - so that's kind of odd (thank buddha for mp3 players). But even though it could've been horribly tense, the ride was a lot of fun b/c natsuko is the shit, seriously. We laughed our asses off so hard at our own difficulty at understanding each other that we missed the station change twice!! (on the subway and on the train). Seriously, without her my side of the lab office would be empty.. oh that's right it is anyways.. hah! (that's something else tho)
The kyoto station is the size of a friggin airport, all with a subterranean mall (i have no idea how big that mofo is.. there are friggin mirrors at the ends of some halls, there's no way to tell where it ends) - i ate dinner there and accidentally ordered a bowl of noodles big enough to feed the population of Andorra la Bella (look it up)
The first time around, it took me so long to figure out the trains and that the guide map was deceivingly disproportionate that I only got to see one place - Sanjusan gendo. Which literally translated is the 33 shrine... err.. which is confusing b/c there are 50 replicas of the buddhishivita (so bad at remembering that spelling) and one huge buddha man and 28 guards still intact from like the 700s a.d. (none of those numbers look like 33) But it's sooooo awe inspiring - really.. it was amazing. All of those are perfectly intact and are the exact same number there were all those years ago. The details were amazing and every single sculpture was a friggin embodiment of art and humanity all in one (well the 50 replicas.. were the exact same thing, but each one of the guards was kickin). oh.. the shit of it is that no pictures were allowed (i donno if frenchy took em or what.. but there's one of the guard/gods and the amazing amount of replicas)
The second time around i planned better. i went to the kyoto museum of art (not that great of a monetary investment on my behalf, it was very small and had only a handful of pieces on the permanent collection although still quite pretty). i went to the Nijon palace - gorgeous amazing.. totally cool, and incredibly huge. I found out later that the main bldg of nijon palace does not exist anymore but they had the original place where the shogun had quarters and received visitors and it was awesome.. they had mannequins in full guise to help imagine how it would've been back then. even though you could barely see the patterning on the walls, it used to have super ornate ceilings and beams with colors so bright that it's written that ppl said going into the building of this guy was like seeing the colors of heaven. all the walls had amazing patings on it.. tigers, lions, falcons, flowers, birds. Oh and I absolutely loved the sliding doors with these huge 2ft red tassles (sp?) behind which were the shogun's body guards (one in each room of where the shogun would stay for long periods of time). And the floor outside of the shogun's more personal quarters is actually 'engineered' to squeak so everyone can hear everyone - and if you got invited to where it didn't squeak it was like omg the shogun trusts me.. lol
and I went to kyomizu temple... i don't know much about it's history as of yet b/c it was a spur of the moment visit ... but the pictures will speak for themselves.. once they can speak on my website..
The second day at kyoto, natsuko took me to this awesomely gorgeous place (which i didn't take any pictures of the inside!! i know bad!!) but it's called "Ask a Giraffe" How the shit is that??? that is so friggin cool and funny.. tis supposed to be an American-Japanese place.. we had fried chicken there lol.. but not like your KFC stuff.. but with this odd sauce/spices on it.. and it was too salty (which is very american).. the food was alright.. but the ambience is just amazing.. i felt like kicking myself for not bringing my sketchbook - but that's ok.. each day i have less and less time to feel bored.
posted by acidbytez at 8:30 AM
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