Dead Computer

For anyone who wants to know, I am back to the US of A. So give me a ring or email me if you know how. I have not posted in a while because I could not. After coming back, my hard drive crashed and therefore I cannot post my new pictures until I fix this (its rather complicated, I have a laptop and I will fix it myself). When I have all this sorted out I will post Kyoto part 2. I will also sift throught the rest of my pictures (a couple hundred of so) and find the best ones for future posts.

Kyoto Part 1

It has been awhile but I bring for you today some very beautiful pictures of Kyoto. Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan until it was switched over to Tokyo. Kyoto as a city is very different from Nagoya. It is incredibly old and therefore has a long history with many traditions. It does not have high rise skyscrapers like Nagoya and Tokyo, but if you want to see traditional Japanese culture, Kyoto is king.

We decided to take the Shinkansen to Kyoto. From Nagoya to Kyoto, riding one of these puppies takes roughly 35 minutes! These trains run at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph)! And let me tell you, the ride was like butter. It literally felt as though I was flying in clear skies in a plane. Apparently, these trains on average arrive within 6 seconds of the scheduled arrive time! The Amtrak network in America is truly a joke compared to this.

Here we are enjoying the ride on the beautiful Shinkansen bullet train.

Here are our now traditional travel buddies, Robert and Spring. As you can see in the picture,
It looks like we are flying in an airplane. When Amtrak says they are "The only way to fly", do not listen, it is a lie I tell you, a lie!

As you know, I am pretty late on posting this, (we went last December), that is why there is snow on the ground. But look at that mountain whizzing by!
We then arrived to find ourselves looking at a very modern train station. For more proof of how late this post is, look at that Christmas tree! And yes, there are tons of Christmas trees in Japan even though it has few Christians.





It was cloudy that morning and very cold. However we came prepared with layers upon layers of clothes.
Immediately after arriving we went sight seeing. We wanted to go see an old temple called Ginkakuji (Silver Gate Temple or sometimes called Silver pavilion). We took the bus and arrived...at some temple. I do not know its name, but we found this red temple. We were a little discouraged going the wrong way but, how could I miss a photo opportunity! See how small Jessica is compared to the mightiness of this Shinto tori.

The cop cars here in Japan are so shiny. Since, unlike America, its hard to see a cop car on the streets, I had to take a picture.

It was desolate and cold. I felt as though I was in china here because of the red-green color combination.



Me and Jessica were absolutely shocked and provoked here in this picture. What were we shocked about? The audacity of absolutely nothing. I think though that our expressions are well worth the effort.
Jessica and I were cold but excited to be there. Oh, and Jessica also made the cool hat I am wearing just in time for the trip.

We eventually found our way back on the path to what is considered by many to be the most beautiful temple in Japan. It is highly, highly regarded by Japanese people as the most mighty in Japanese aesthetic.

I thought I would take a picture of a typical house here in Kyoto. If there is anything I did not enjoy in Japan was the way they heat their homes. Most people here in Japan have a heater in each worthy room. There is no luxury of central heating, no there isn't. You wake up in the morning cold because the heater turns off automatically at night and mozy your way down to the cold living area to the cold bathroom. And of course this means that when you are done taking a shower, stepping out is the step of death. I might as well step outside. Fortunately Jessica bought me slippers as a Christmas present last year so I was saved from the bitter cold of the floor. Sorry, I was reminded of it all because the picture has a heater.



All this walking made us tired so we decided to take a rickshaw to Ginkakuji. How could I resist being dragged around like some foreign king with the hate of the people behind me. These rickshaw people were very nice and during the trip explained many historical aspects of Kyoto with nice broken English.
Yes, the fun we had. The nice thing about the rickshaw is that they provided us some of those warm sacks. You know, the kind where you shake it and it gets very hot. This made the trip even nicer!

The rickshaw guys decided to take a group shot. See them and all their comedy.

For some reason the rickshaw pullers wanted a picture of us looking quizzically at the camera. We were all "charmingly befuddled"

Eventually the nice rickshaw pullers brought us to the gates of Ginkakuji where we found the air ripe with beautiful natural wonderment.
Already you can see the care taken in trimming the tree. Bonsai... Also I believe this is the Chinese gate. Past it we bought our tickets to enter.


Entering the area you will find yourself walking along a sand covered path lined with many beaufitful trees and a bamboo fence. Once you enter the grounds of the temple, you are taken back to a different age.


I was amazed with what this man was doing. They had taken sand and constructed many structures with it. That's some cone this man is making.
Boy, I thought the cone was amazing. But then this marvel was found. What you see here is sand, not concrete. When I first saw how crisp this looked I thought it was concrete. There are not footprints or any other marks on it. Making it must have been quite a feat...no pun intended. I was told that this is best viewed at night with a full moon shining on it. It is said it looks like a beautiful silver sea.


Its amazing that these things still exist and are preserved so well.
There are few words...





There was a grand path up the side of a small mountain. I was able to take this shot of Kyoto. Notice that the buildings are many but not too tall. The city lies among the mountains in the crests.

Here is a nice shot of Jessica by a small waterfall. I hope Jessica's mother enjoys this one.

The green is not given any justice by the camera, oh well. But further down you will see the power of green!

On the high path I was able to take this bad shot of the temple. The sun was coming down and I did not have anything to block its light.

There is something about Japanese aesthetics which refresh the soul. They are not shy of letting natural beauty be expressed.


I sincerely recommend coming to this temple. There is much to see, and much to appreciate.

The shot below is my favorite one of the temple grounds. Jessica took this shot. Notice that there is a small path there. The shortest path between to points is a straight line they say. I also say that same short straight path is the ugliest. This path does not move any mountains. The nature around it shapes its course. I have found very few straight streets and paths in Japan (except new planned city centers). Those who live in American suburbia know the gridwork around them. Even the new American neighborhoods with curvy streets seem artificially curvy. They did not grow to be that way but were planned. Luckily America is very large and it is easy to escape the predictability found there by doing some traveling. There is a lot of untouched nature there. Oh and if you go out to touch this nature, also please, let it touch you. (I know that was corny, but I believe it is good advice).


I will post part two soon. I hope you enjoyed some pictures of Japan and Kyoto. That night we slept in a traditional Japanese hotel elipses.

Trip to Shirakawa

Our school here in Japan is nice enough to provide a school funded trip to a remote part of Japan so that the students can get an authentic Japanese experience...and what an experience it was. An experience including scenic bus routes, authentic Japanese cuisine, mountain hiking, and of course someone falling off a ledge breaking his heels. Our school provided a very cushiony bus for the three hour trip.


We started early in the morning to get a head start on the day. The trip was breath-taking because of all the beautiful nature around us. We were heading north to a place called Shirakawa.

We had a brief bathroom break which included funny Japanese robot dancing.

I decided to take the break as an opportunity to take a picture of a mountain scene. Friends demand mountains...so I provide them. As you may notice, the trees were turning color and it was very cold. It only got colder as we went north.

We had another bathroom break at a dam (the kind that blocks a river) site. Here is a picture of Jessica and I in front of changing trees.
Essentially our school booked a traditional Japanese hotel (Usually cost around $200 per person). Before arriving to the hotel we were given a nice lunch at some nature school along the way. Here is another mountain picture.

The nature school had these very nice traditional houses with thatch roofs.

Inside they had a gift shop and I decided to buy a little critter....can you find him?



After our nice lunch we were treated to a mountain hike! It was very beautiful and the mountain was not too small. The picture below is the mountain we climbed.


Along the way our tour guide explained in Japanese various forest facts. Since I had only taken one year of Japanese prior to coming to Japan, I could not understand everything. However, it helped that he used fuzzy props to help illustrate the various facts.
The tour guide did not hesitate to leap out of the path after small but quick frogs. The frog looked hungry, and so did I looking at him. I never had frogs legs before, but I am certainly willing to try them.


After the long hike we went back on the bus to get back on our trip. We eventually arrived to be greeted by frigid air in Shirakawa. The town itself was very old and very small having many many thatch roofed houses. Our hotel would be such a house.
Here are two very happy students in front of the doorway to were I stayed. Notice their perfect choreography. Scared me a little....

Unfortunately for one of our students, the trip would turn out a disaster. Jessica and I were walking around town until one Korean student came running asking for the professors help. Jessica, the Korean girl, and I would find our fellow classmate Charlie mangled at the bottom of a three story cliff! A couple more people came to help. It turned out he was trying to take a photo of the mountains on top when he slipped, grabbing on to the small rope fence which flipped him over the cliff. He hit his head on the way down and landed on his heels which essentially shattered on impact. We tried to lift him to take him up but decided that it would be too dangerous. He hit his head and who knew if his back was broken in any way. It was best not to move him and call an ambulance. One of the professors eventually called and the paramedics arrived.

I was one of the people to carry Charlie to the ambulance. There is a picture of Charlie doing a Richard Nixon...at least he didn't break his neck.


After the fiasco, I headed back with Jessica. The girls and boys were in separate hotels so we had to part. That is why there are not as many pictures of Jessica. I was a camera hog! I came back just in time for dinner. I explained to everyone what happened and then ate dinner. Here is a picture of me in front of the fire in the eating room.
We had a very traditional Japanese cuisine involving many vegetables in small portions and a small fish. It was very good, but it is very easy to see why the Japanese do not have the weight problem the Americans have had in the past 15 years.
After dinner we had the opportunity to go to the local bath house. It was my first time going to one but it was a very relaxing and rejuvenating experience. Only about four of us men went while most of the women went. Unfortunately and obviously it was separated by sex. There is nothing like soaking in some hot water for a couple of hours.
When we got back, Jessica and I joined our fellow class mates for some sitting and fortunate telling. If the candles blew out during your telling, it is supposed to be some sort of sign. Mine blew out every 30 seconds or so. Strangely, it was always the same candle.
Here is a group shot of some of the people I know. I am doing a cool thumbs up, no?
I slept very well that night and woke up around 7:00am for some breakfast. The breakfast was very similar to dinner...very very similar. However, it was very good. That morning I decided I wanted to find poor Charlie's digital camera which he lost when he fell. I gathered a search party of three other people to go look. Here is a picture of morning fog rolling off of the mountains. The air was crisp, and good for a hunt.

Close to the bottom of the cliff where Charlie fell was a river.

We looked and saw the camera in the water. However, it was not accessible from where we were and we had to get to the other side.

Because it was dark when he fell, I was unable to take a picture of the ledge he fell from. In the morning I had a Japanese friend stand close to where Charlie fell to get a good idea of the height. He fell where that house is on top all the way down...not a bad fall indeed.
We were able get the camera out of the water! Here is a picture of camera and the accompanied SD card where the pictures are stored. The SD card had some water in it but after a good drying, it worked! The camera however was beyond repair. The story goes that Charlie tried to get a better shot of the mountains by slowly walking backwards when he slipped. If the camera company only provided a better panorama mode!
I was happy when we found the camera. The morning was beautiful with the sun hitting the trees just right.


It was a fine trip with many interesting experiences.

Another mountain picture to close off the day for those that demand them!
During the ride back we were all tired. Since there was not many pictures of Jessica, I decided to sneak one in while she was sleeping. She's not pleased....

Notice the sneaky finger in the picture...that is how you know I took it sneakily.

I hope you all enjoyed this entry. Please leave a comment and make sure to watch out for my next one.