pira

Something about when it rains, it pours....

I have finally worked my way down from the heights of a self-righteous snit I'd wound myself up into ~ but am still ignoring drawing because I want to be totally grounded before I redo anything...and so I am playing with the dollies (you'll see why later) when the doorbell rings.

It's my pavers ~ today is the day.

This is good...and this is bad....because I will need to park on the street for a week (now I'm trying to get a hold of city hall to register our vehicles for overnight parking...)...and I would have prefered to do this when the other half was out of town and we didn't have the hassle of jockeying for two spaces out there...but I digress....this also means I HAVE to get going on the garden retaining wall...less than a week before I leave for the farm.

BUT WHATEVs....so I'm moving my car and the Post Lady drives up and jumps out of her truck to stop me ~ I have a package to sign for.

OF COURSE I do.

It's the last box from Kyoto (and oddly enough the first one I mailed)....with a Big fat sticker on it saying it's over 50lbs.....

*0__o what exactly did I put in there???

( contents below )

SO ....went to the post office (with my handy-dandy collapsable cart) and picked-up Kyoto boxes #2 & #3.

I had thought, at the very least, one box would be the first I'd shipped from a separate location, instead of these two ~ which were shipped from the same location but 4 days apart.

*shrugs* ~ Who am I to begin to understand the dark and mysterious backroom ways of international mail sorting? I will though, tell you this ~ package #3 was a total last minute, after thought, which happened when I was packing my bags and decided I really didn't want to hump it all through the airport(s).




























So there I sat in our room, with luggage and box on each side of me sorting things into one or the other (scrutinize briefly, toss, repeat) before I got down the task of properly packing them up. Of course I didn't pay much mind to what went into this last box and was frustrated by the postie who was in charge of taking my parcel, demanding an itemized list as long as my arm.

*0__o!!?? Of all the packages I've EVER sent from Japan...why is it that the ONLY one I do on the fly, at the last minute, when I am short on TIME....and I have NO F**KING clue exactly what it contains... is the one where I get the greenhorn newbie flashing Official Post office regulations in my face and trying to impress her superiors?!

I B.S'd that list and kept my fingers crossed that the Canada customs boys n girls would ignore it entirely and just wave it through.

....althought it was entirely possible that the box would encounter and equally anal post office worker at this end too (o__(o

ANYway...here there are:


( Loot Boxes 2 & 3 )

I am easily sick to death of my Japan photos as of right now. =__=

I have picked over & shop n cropped 200 +images for the photo-disc to send to the ladies. I will include these smaller jpgs that I have posted here so they can see the *other* things I took images of, but beyond that I am done. Toast. Kaput.

My hand is cramped, my back aches from 8 hours in this chair and my eyes are not sure what I mean when I demand they focus....gah....but it is DONE. All I have to do now is burn the discs, address the envelopes and mail them.

I hope they do something similar in return.


When looking at this last batch of artsy images I thought that another theme for photos in Japan might be Red/white/black....you'll understand when you get to the tailend of them....

And that my friends is the end of the Kyoto picspam. I just can't stand to sift through them any more so please forgive.

At some point I will talk about impressions and/or experiences, but for the moment I can't think of anything to say....good, bad or otherwise. We'll just have to wait for some boxes to arrive and the flood of memories that I will unpack from them..... :)



( Finale )

This is probably my 2nd to last photo post about my trip. I will then sift through the images of the co-travellers to shop n crop them a bit, before burning them discs and mailing them off. I had considered just burning them all, but a few factors came into play, the first being that there is the monsterous size of that photo file...over 7 Gigs of data. @__@

Aside from the fact that they don't need nor want, every blurry image I couldn't stand still enough to capture adequately ~ there is a point where a persons attention span just cries 'Uncle!', and surrenders to the onslaught by turning off. While I've compressed these photos to share here, the personal ones I'll reduce enough to be managable but will deliver a good print quality if they so choose do so.

Meanwhile I am left to ponder what the photos would have been like if I'd been more patient, visited places earlier or later in the day, composed the shot more carefully, used a different settings etc.

Practice practice practice I guess....

( More visual musings )

Well the jetlag is fully conquered but this overcast, humid, totally icky weather is sucking the life out of me. =__=

On the weekend Teh Bob was pushing a button he knows is sure to get me wound-up, and I was... and he seemed to be having a good time with it ~ while Teh Middling Child, totally exasperated with the complete random nature the shouting match would lurch in, told us all we were A.D.D. challenged.

I corrected her ~ there was nothing challenged about us ~ were certifiably off our heads, thank-you very much. She concured.

I think Teh Bob had needed a shouting match to reset his mental balance of the household. It's not normal for a married couple approaching their 20th anniversary to be happy in each others company ~ so he had to mix it up a bit. I could have done without checking to see if my blood pressure levels could be elevated from normal to gasketblowing in 30 seconds flat, but whatevah....it all worked out in the end and he was happy.

Problem though, was that A.D.D. comment ~ I feel as though I resemble it. My attention span is bouncing around like a bunch of ping pong balls on lottery-draw-night. Since I finished the Murasaki book I seem to be ratchetting between various volumes ~ actually outright READ Tamora Pierce's; Wild Magic... yesterday ~ and have continued to graze on House Lust and am working my way through the GN omnibus, STARMAN....chewing through 2 dailys, re-reading Jaryu Dokuros'Sugar Milk for some reason, and of course jamming another kanji into my head and reading up on making soy milk. All the while breaking up the reading mid-sentence to dash off and fold laundry, tear off to the post office or wash the front hall floor again... W.T.F.?!

ANYway ~ state of my cerebral blender mind aside ~ I have a few more arsty images to share with you....

( Mostly touchy feely )

Air Canada (and many other carriers with newer planes) have seats with small screens in the back of the head rest, so that each passenger can choose what they want to watch instead of waiting around for an inflight movie. This has been a tremendous boon for long distance travellers since you can nap or read when you feel like it, or choose between dozens of television shows, documentaries and films.

Most of the time I read because I manage to kill the screen within half an hour after take-off (such as when on the flight TO Japan this time) but much to my surprise it worked all the way home so that I watched two feature films and 4 CSI NY episodes ~ meaning I set aside my book and just stared numbly at the screen in exhaustion.

HOWEVER I do pack books for trips because...well... I need to fill downtime with more than my own inane thoughts and one of the two volumes I packed was Liza Dalby's; Tale of Murasaki,

....I read it on the way out, every evening before I turned out the light and just finished it last night ~ savoring the last pages because knowing that when I reached the conclusion I was literally finishing my trip.

This story is about the woman who wrote The Tale of Genji (that 1000 year old novel they are celebrating in Kyoto this year) and this book was a delightful read and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto. Nothing like finding yourself at temples or in towns mentioned in story to just round out a trip. I also want to direct you to her site, which is dedicated to the story and the cultural aspects surrounding it, found HERE, as she is first and foremost an anthropologist who is obsessed with things Japanese :)

I'm sadly off track with my New Years Resolution of reading, but whatevah ~ the point is to finish what I start. I have now to go poink around the bookshelf and think I will tackle Gerard Jones Killing Monsters....seeing as I am living with a young boy who's every waking moment is about building death machines out of plastic and pitting them against one another >D

Okay ~ you have come to understand that my brain works a little differently when it comes to *travel photos*, so the following pic-posts will involve what caught *my-little-eye* as my squirrel-like attention span rocketed around the scenery during walkies in & around Kyoto.

It reminds me of an early morning stroll through The Palace Gardens (park) on the first day.

Walking along the wide expanse of gravel road, I was engaged in a conversation with Kathy when suddenly I had to pause, excuse myself, back-track a few steps and bend down and search for whatever it was that caught my attention.

It was a nickle-sized rock in the shape of a heart.

....That is how my brain works. It's as though the thing is partitioned and while one half deals with the general grunt work of making sure I don't walk into walls, trip over my own feet and reminding me to eat....the other half of it is unconciously distracted by flickers of shadows, patterns and combinations of colour that surround me. My eyes ratchette up, down and side to side ~ eye level is a relative concept.

When it sees something of interest the hyperactive portion of my mind slaps the opposing half of the brain and yanks it mid-sentance in another direction, like a child rushing up to a parent and grabbing their arm to tug them *over here*.

Anyway....welcome to my Kyoto;

( More *artsy* photos )

AND now we start to wind down the 2008 pic-tour of Kyoto with the first round of artsy photos. You know what I'm talking about ~ Pira is let loose on the city with a camera and chooses to see the individual trees for the forest, or in the case of an urban setting ~ the bricks for the buildings.

I'm the first to admit ~ I love the sheer diversity, if not madness of Japanese architecture ~ from their traffic barriers to windowpanes it's all about the little something extra that the people of this country do to make their environment, no matter how utilitarian an aesthetically pleasing experience.

Of course this is also the country that gives the world Boy Band fashion and Love Motel Stylings...not to mention has an over-the-top obcession with anything Disney ~ but then no culture is perfect. Let's ignore for a moment the neon & plastic and concentrate on the little wabisabi details that get lost in the noise.

(  Street-MOMA Kyoto-style )

The mailman just dropped off the first of the 4 boxes I posted from Kyoto ~ and the only one not travelling by SEA.

I KNEW my family was not going to be thrilled if I sent their junkfood by the slow boat from Asia, so the 2nd part of my gift to them arrived today.

Behold....the LOOT!!!

( candy candy candy )

Taking a pause here, from pic-spamming (between cultural and artsy), to ruminate about some other elements of the trip...

...in particular considering that during the planning of this trip, what I'd talk about was the textile classes, the temple markets and the various things on my *search* list...and my anxieties of traveling alone and then hanging with a group of unknown personalities for the bulk of the trip ~ I haven't really commented on the success(es) of the trip beyond taking great gobs of photographs.

What everyone wants to know is basically this: 1) Did you have a good time? 2) What did you do?

Well the answer to the first was an enthusiastic, full-body 2 thumbs-WAY-UP ~ YES!

I had a fantastic time. I was able to travel to another country on my own and not spontantiously combust of a nervous breakdown.

I was able to put myself *out there* alone, and meet up with a group of total strangers, make friends and adapt without breaking my brain or lose what little patience motherhood has left me.

I stood up for myself when I really didn't want to do things (no I will not eat another meal consisting of noodles ~ I'm skipping this part of the tour because I really want to see the historical hair-style museum etc. ~ the windows stay open at night and I'll move my futon to sleep under them allowing so you can sleep in the A/C zone but they stay OPEN ) ~ and considering my *pleaser* personality that was no small step.

I wandered at will for a goodly portion of the trip. I handed myself over to the tour operators whims and chose to accept it because that is the way to learn things ~ but I also spent almost every waking free-moment on the move, marching to the beat of my own drummer.

I shopped. I admit it ~ poking about and accumulating needful things for myself and others makes me happy. Obviously I'm not going be make a very good Buddhist any time soon...but I had fun and was as thrilled to find packages of the newest flavour of Kitkat bars (mango) to share with my family as I was to find a folding screen for my dolls' diorama. I had missions ~ and I get as much joy from the hunt as I do from the kill find.

I returned refreshed, recharged, and my inner muse is dancing around in my head like a dirvish.


( More thoughts.... )

We are told that the Japanese are born Shinto and die Buddhist....and from what I could see, they straddle the line between both for the better part of their lives.

Generally you can't turn a corner in Japan without coming across a temple (Buddhism) or shrine (Shinto) and often you will enter a compound that seems to contain both and/or numerous shrines to a variety of deities. Whether tucked out of the way down alleys or inhabiting promiment real estate in the middle of urban or rural areas ~ it is possible to feel overwhelmed ~ in particular when in the Kyoto area they number in the thousands. There are temples and shrines dedicated to every imaginable trade, time of life and desire. Gotta give the Japanese credit for covering their bases. *^__^*

For those who are compelled to photograph each and every one they visit or stumble across, I can only tip my hat in respect, because while I was never *templed-out* as tour guides/translators are wont to joke ~ I finally just gave up trying to document our passing through them, and concentrated on the details that caught my eye ~ giving myself over to the arty side... (the following photographs are not those ones, but rather the *been there seen that* pics expected by family)...or just the experience.

There was also a part of me, that once again surfaced, that wasn't sure if I actually should be taking photos ...in particular of the shrines that I felt a strong pull toward and made an offering to. I felt extreme unease taking images within temples and I downright would not take pictures of a select number of shrines in particular, because it felt utterly distrespectful to do so and courting disaster. I've never felt that in a Western house of worship *hmmm*

As mentioned, I did go native in a few shrines and for those who want to know how it's done HERE is video illustrating the following steps;

"1. Put your monetary offering in the box.
2. Ring the bell once.
3. Bow twice.
4. Clap twice in prayer while thinking about your wish.
5. Bow once."

There is something about Shinto that plucks a string very deep within me...and there must be a reason why I am drawn to or seek out particular shrines, so I have finally ordered the book, Shinto The Kami Way ... I can't return to Japan without a better understanding of Shinto cosmology and my reaction to it.

My middling child would just snort and tell me 'it's because I'm Japanese.'

I laugh and dismiss her comments, but a number of friends who have a deep passion for the place and have travelled to Japan talk of the oddest feeling of coming home....one that I can't entirely dismiss. It's the only place I've ever burst spontaniously into tears when the plane pulls away from the loading ramp and prepares for take-off....*face palm*....what the heck is THAT about?

Kyoto is obscenely rich in World Heritage Sites and I lost track of the number I visited....here are a few of images of what I saw;

( Their eyes were watching God(s) )

Yay! I slept in until almost 4 a.m.! The body is slowly moving back into the EST-zone. By the time I manage a 5 a.m. wake-up, I will have finally returned to normal! :) Teh Bob still thinks I'm insane though....*snort*

Getting up early gave me time to sort through some of the photos involving traditional clothing I took on the trip.

One of my problems is that I am too shy (or respectful of other's privacy) to take pictures of people on the street, and I was really torn in Kyoto ~ since so many people actually dress in Kimono there. Seriously...you couldn't swing a cat without coming up against someone either in a hired kimono doing a nice little tour with her gaggle of like clad girl friends or average citizens going about their day in more traditional wear.

The attitude seemed to be in Kyoto one of acceptance, that you can get away with wearing the old fashioned clothing, even if it's just for socializing because you are in the ancient capital. Whatever the reason it was pure pleasure to see young people wearing old-style clothing ~ and it was equally a pleasure to watch older women wearing wonderfully style outfits that are based on the Japanese aesthetic rather than Western designer ideals (as you'd see in Tokyo).

I decided then and there that I want to be a middle-aged Kyoto woman when I grow-up, because their style, choice of colours, texture of fabrics and cut of jackets, skirts and smocks just made me purr with appreciation.

That aside...the following are images of our night at Peter Macintosh's tea house, where fellow traveller Kathy generously hosted an evening with apprentice geisha (maiko)...followed by a few images from a kimono fashion show at the Nishijin Textile Centre that the two of us managed to see before bolting off to a weaving class.



( Splendid in Kimono..... )

When one is looking over their photos from a trip it becomes fairly obvious that they can be lumped into catagories such at *scenic* or *picture to show I've been there/done that*.

I can understand the need to document ones passing through an area...sort of wave to the folks at home from an exotic local and to look back on fondly (or with embarassment) of a moment in ones life.

The former though ~ well I've always held that without the right equipment and/or time of day it's a futile exercise and you might aswell just buy the book which will be filled with perfect shots. That's why you won't see me flogging many of those kind...because really, my little camera will never do it justice, in particular when one is fighting the glare of the noonday sun.

However, I am all for documenting the little things one walks by ~ even if it's a vista that catches ones eye ~ because those ARE the moments you will take home, and when you show friends and family the pictures they trigger a cascade of memories based on your reactions to that particular item or place.

The only thread of thought stringing this series of photos together is the act of random clicking of the camera, when I looked up and went...*Oh!*

Rather like this fiberglass geisha advertising a service inside where tourists can get dressed up and walk about town like the butterflies of the night. :) It struck me as very animelike, but then what is more appropriate? In no way does a faux geisha resemble the real thing, in particular their mannerisms. A person dressed up as Geisha is as much a charactiture of the real thing as this gal....*so says the fake Heian Lady*

( Randomness.... )

Yesterday I was talking to a neighbour (a fellow GN enthusiast) about his recent trip to Belgium, where he was attending an academic literature conference. He told me about a Japanese attendee and how they spoke at length of the Japanese concept of time & how the culture doesn't neccessarily discard the past but rather the present wraps the old within continuous layers of new.

My brain was floundering about in a jetlagged haze and we didn't have a chance to pursue the topic at that time, but it did strike me as making a lot of sense if one takes into consideration the native aesthetic of wabisabi ...and then a little voice in the back of my head reminded me I really do need to read that book which argues that much of *japanese tradition* is a relatively new construct and a reaction to westernization. Was this Japanese academic he spoke to talking about reality or was it coloured by wishful thinking and a national nostalgia for what it means to be Japanese? Ouch. Brain hurts. Need sleep...oh gods just too much to think about when my IQ is less than that of a Chia Pet. No can think. >__<

On my trip, many of the craftsmen we spoke to (through our interpreter) told us that without tourism (foreign or Japanese) their traditional skills would die ~ because of the labour intensive nature of their craft(s) makes the resulting products prohibitively expensive. So while they will still make the high end products on a small scale, they keep their businesses afloat by creatively finding ways to use their skills in areas that are hip ~ like making ipod cases from material traditionally reserved for kimono (picked up some of those for my girls).

Oddly enough the Japanese while they can't justify the money for a new obi ($10,000) think nothing about buying the latest electronic gadget or must have item from a Parisian haute couteure house in the same price range.

*shrugs*...

Still ~ there is a point to what the academic said ~ and casting my eye over the photographs I took, it is easy to see how old and new exist in the same space, and time is a relative subject in the Japanese context.

Sure their trains run like clockwork, but business practices are slower than those in West, concensus is more important that expediating the process by making snap decisions. Relationships between individuals, on a personal or business level are cultivated like gardens ~ you don't just drop a seed into the soil and walk away expecting it to grow, you nurture it....and that takes time.

And that is I guess the point ~ It's hard coming from such a new culture as found in N.A., to even conceptualize how old the Japanese one is...especially when one is constantly bumping up against examples of how ultra modern it can be. When people think about Japan one of the first things that comes to mind is robots and miniturized digital gadgets ~ yet these things exist side by each with items that are hundreds of years old or based on concepts or designs from centuries past.

Consider perhaps this... how different is that historical romance game you play on your PS2 from the first novel (a romance) penned in an Edo era court one thousand years ago? How much of a leap from the past into the future is the bowl of salt outside the bar on the sidewalk or the slippers inside the restaurant toilet? When the ground crew on the tarmac bow deeply to the 767 as it pulls away from it's dock, you know that the past is alive and well in the minutia of daily life in Japan.

( Old and New )

Okay...you know that I don't just walk around Japan with my attention focused at eye or ground level. I am just as likely to be looking upward and am happy to point my camera in that general direction aswell~ in particular when it comes to those atomic-squirrel nests seemingly insane snarls of hydro wires that connect the rooftops of Japanese cities together.

It's a bugaboo for anyone trying to take a photo in Japan (and probably anywhere else in Asia)....no matter how much you contort yourself and plan the shot, inevitably you are going to have electric lines slashing across the skyline.

Fortunately for me...I find the darned things utterly fascinating and am convinced that they are stuff of a North American Line-workers' nightmare. I don't doubt they work just fine ~ in particular in such densely populated, earth quake prone areas. It has to be easier to repair or hook up electricity this way, in neighbourhoods where the buildings are bordering on ancient and were hardly designed with such modern conveniences in mind.

SO without further adieu; here we go with my latest batch of skywire madness! :)

( Electrifying.... )

Naturally where there is fauna there is also flora ~ even if it's pot-bound and on a stoop. I will grant you this ~ the Japanese prove the old adage of *if there is a will, there is a way* ~ and in the case of Kyoto, there WILL be greenery growing somewhere about the home.

Most private gardens are behind walls, but others don't have the luxury of that space so they indulge their green thumb via containers that skirt the outside walls of homes, branches neatly trained to avoid flopping onto pedestrian walkways. When that isn't an option there is always the temples and shrines for refuge from the concrete and there you will find older individuals walking their dogs in the cool of the early morning....or idiot gaijin unable to sleep and taking photos of every blade of grass covered with dew >D

We were for the most part past the intensely beautiful flower-viewing season of April and Early May. As the trip progressed the days became increasingly warm and the delicate blossoms that were still in season wilted in the heat. We missed the full show of irises at one shrine by a single day (we should have been there in the morning instead of late afternoon), the deep purple petals were shrivelling before our eyes.:(

I was frustrated with the flora picture taking because of several reasons ~ first and foremost was the fact that we were always out and about as a group at the wrong time of day to take good photographs. You just can not capture their lushness when the colour is bleached out of the very surrounding air by the blazing sun.

Another problem I encounted was movement. To get the deep colours of vegetation I had to avoid the flash and use a slower shutter speed ~ which meant that without a tripod I was going to have trouble ...and the light breeze that always seemed to spring up the moment I trained my camera on a particular leaf didn't help much either.

Also ~ when a particular bit of flora grabbed my attention during group-walkies...I was always in danger of being left behind.

Combined the above with my ignorance of this new camera's functions I was less successful than I'd hoped in capturing flowers. The only thing that pleased me in the end was the compositions ~ but casting about for the silver-lining I've decided to look at it as a series of lessons learned on the fly, and admit I took away from the experience more than just a few photos. Hopefully I will continue to grow in this area....

( flora )

Kept myself up till midnight last night. I am going to overcome this jetlag sooner than later ~ that is my mission.

But...I still woke-up at 4 a.m.

=__=....weeeeell...at least it's a normalish time for me to get up, rather than dragging my sorry aspidestras out of bed at 2. (I know ~ I know....that's the name of a plant, but my father always uses the word as a euphanism for ones butt... and I love saying it)

ANYway ~ since I was up, I thought I'd tackle another catagory I discovered amidst the jpgs on my camera and some of which were not entirely blurry...which is saying something because these images are of things that tend to be in a hurry to be anywhere but in the lens of my camera.

( Fauna )

Well I am back....at least physically. All fingers and toes accounted for. Sanity is still A.W.O.L but it's bound to show up when my brain stops acting like a bowl full of cold oatmeal...or my family comes to understand that I know where the front door is and know how to use it. *0__o.

I was warmly received back into the buxom of chaos, tight hugs, sloppy kisses and then whimpers for something that resembles a cooked meal that doesn't come out of a box or take-out bag.

They wisely held off informing me about the dishwasher barfing on my hardwood kitchen floor...causing the boards to warp before anyone noticed it... until they realized I was too tired to have the energy to spaz. =___=...

ANYhoo ~ I is back and spent the day trying to sort through the photos while the laundry machine churned, the chicken roasted and I waited for the Gas-company guy, the courier, the eavestrough peoples and the airport-dude who was to deliver my luggage ....that had taken a detour in Vancouver. I had to assure Teh Sprog the previous night, that it hadn't fallen out of the plane ~ and the Pokemon cards were merely on an extended vacation. *rolls eyes*

Silver-lining? This happened at the end of the trip and not when I arrived in Osaka, bleary-eyed and having to catch a train for Kyoto ~ *nods to self that this was indeed very good timing*

So how to begin the picspam?

Howzabout a photo of my first canned coffee (always Boss Black) of the trip?

( Reflections..... )

I'm baaaaack.

I'm braindeaaad.

Will tell aaaaall.

...but I need to get myself, the house and family sorted out first.

I only took 1400+ photos >D

I am hopeful more than a few are remotely in focus.

Gird your loins girls. It's gonna be a pic-spama-rama-ding-dang-dong round here in a few days. :)

Luggage was packed by 4 pm yesterday. THAT is a great thing because it left the rest of the evening for me to deal with domestic things like the plasticine that went through a load of laundry and make meatballs and hard-boiled eggs etc. for them to have a hit of *food* in the fridge for a day or so for snacking purposes.

Suitcase containing a travel duffle bag, that foldable cart, gifts & clothing, 2 pairs of shoes and ...well stuff. According to my scale weighs in under 50lb.s

My carry on is 17 lb.s WITH the home made, rice filled, neck rest.

I'm hopeful that my scale is correct and that I managed to actually pack within my set guidelines.

I have been living off of chai lattes it seems, during the days. Funny thing that ~ I've lost weight. It's a good place to be to start of a trip I guess....gives me wiggle room, so to speak when it comes to stuffing my face over the next 2 weeks. :)

....although I'll probably be walking most of that off >D

OH well. Teh Bob called again (so cute) so I am out of time. My airport transit will be here in a few minutes to which I say *sayonara* all. Thanks for the well wishes and advice and I'll be back to spam the snot out of this place with piccies and stories to be sure!

Take care and play nice!!

xoxox