Kyoto in the rain.

With umbrella  in hand I went out to explore Kyoto. I headed west through the Gion area to maruyama park to wonder through some shrines. The gardens and temple buildings are just beautiful. The rain just meant that it was even nicer to take cover from the rain in the overhang of a temple roof. I didn't go into any as I just feel rude, as Im not sure what I am meant to do. 

I spent the hole day walking around gardens, temples, parks and back streets. When ever the fancy took me I would stop and sit either just listening to the rain and the birds or taking out my water colours and painting. 

I was meant to walk over to the silver pavilion but I got side tracked when I come across the Murinun gardens. The sign said they were a place of exceptional beauty which I scoffed at but when I went inside the walled garden I was pleasantly surprised as it is wonderfully well designed garden. I spent over an hour just wondering through the garden watching the two herons stalk dish. After talking to the lady at the entrance I found out that that it was designed by Aritomo Yamagata in 1894-1896. Aritomo was not only a kick ass minister of the military but was twice    Prime Minister of Japan, oh and in his spare time he dabbled in garden design- as you do. 

I also got to sit in the tea house and have green tea served to me. Absolute wonderful with the rain at this  point poring down outside. 

As it was four in the afternoon by this time I decided to abandon my trip to the silver pavilion to another day as most places close by five. I write this to you while sitting in a cafe  watching people rush about trying to get out of the rain. 

I hope you are all doing well!

With love, Acushla. 

Tuesday

Today! Few this is a lot of writing. To set the scene I am now in Kyoto an am waiting to eat an early dinner of Okonomiyaki ( I think I ordered a vegetarian one! Fingers crossed!). After crusing over ....km in just under three hours and arriving at Kyoto station ( I will have to take some photos to show you, it is a big complex and exciting modern building with lots and lots of escalators! I arrived at my hostel and I have to send out a big thank you to Cathy for recommending the hostel that I am staying at it is lovely. After lounging around drinking tea and updating my google map I went for a walk - which I am still on at the moment. The walk so far has taken me through the undercover food market, into a shop that only sells things that have cats on them ( that's right Stephi and shop were everything has a cat image in it!) to a cafe to drink iced coffee and I ended up having a long conversation with a very very well traveled Japanese gentleman who said he was in his sixties but I would have guessed late forties or fifties at the most! ( I want to be the Female equivalent of this guy when I older, well traveled and looking fifteen years younger then he is.)  lastly my walk has take me down a flight of very small stairs to the restaurant that I am in  now, and in perfect timing my food has arrived on the hot plate in front of me. Time to dig in!

P.s. to the best of my ability I believe it was vegetarian.  

I hope you are all well! 

          With love, 

                        Acushla 

Monday

yesterday sore me off on a train to the Studio Ghibli museum. I will have to add a note hear about the tokyo train system.... It is wonderful- confusing yes very, but brilliant! There are at least three different train operators that I know of so far. Each with its own platforms and ticketing systems. It is very confusing at first because you may need to change providers and walk up to 600 meters to change trains, but it is amaingly efficient and neat once you get you head around it. You also don't have to worry if you miss your train as within Tokyo there is a train every four minuets, I will be  very un happy when I get back to Melbourne and have to wait 30 minutes for a train to ringwood! 

Anyway back to the story: So after tackling two train stations and wondering if maybe I jumped on the train heading in the wrong direction ( dont worry i managed to get the right one by luck). I was on my way to Mitaka and the world of Ghibli. After walking along a stream for a kilometre and through a park you arive at the building. A strange  Stiner-like building with the most extraordinary stain glass windows you have ever seen. It was such a wonderful building, with corridors and little passages that end up in odd places. I spent most of the day wondering around, looking at water colour sketches of Ghibli characters - which prompted me to sit down and try to draw some as well. It was a wonderful day. 

Heading back home I piked up some veggies from the convenient store and went home to cook an early dinner and in the hope to have an early night to try and get over my cold that I haven't been able to shift. I have to note that in Japan convenient stores live up to their name! They have most things that you could want and then some. All sorts of food, alcohol, laundry detergent the list goes on... 

Sunday

Sunday

I road Keir's bike out to Shibuya. I walked up the ..... The big fashion bulivard of Tokyo with all its Prada, lui vason ect... There were a couple of building that i wanted to see one w as the Prada store by H and D ( there are some photos on fliker). The other was the Dior store ( i d didn't put a photo  up because i couldn't get a good one). The H and D one is lovely they are such a talented architecture firm. The next was to see my second Tando Ando building the ......, un-fortunetly i although the lay out was very clever - the floor constantly spiraled upwards so you could walk all the levels of the building without going up any stairs and it s difficult to say what floor you were on as one would flow into the other. it was also clever as there were any different exits to the street and because of the slope of the sight the entrances would be on different floors on the shopping center  unfortunately apart from the layout the finished product was disappointing. i them walk d across to Harajuku and saw some amazingly dressed girls and guys, in very interesting costumes and found a grovie second hand store. I wish i was a size tiny like the Japanese women so i could wear some of the wonderful fashion they have over hear! But every time  I go into a cloths store the shop assistant looks and me and we both know that trying anything on would be  futile. I then walked to Yoyogi park and walked around the Yoyogi national gymnasium, a beautiful building designed by Kenzo Tungi. It is just lovely. I then road back to Azubujuban to meet Keir and his friends for a movey night but on my way there i got lost. It was getting dark and the rain was making a think mist, luckily  for me my lack of direction landed me in the middle of a cemetery.  Which is just the place to be when the mist is thick as the atmosphere was just perfect for a walk in the cemetery.  After my detour I met Keir and his friends and we sat around watching movies for the rest of  the evening. We all took it in turns to cook something in his friends oven as ovens are not common in rented flats and had a lovely time. 

Saturday

[ Note I have decided to break this entry into a number posts so it is hopefully easier to read.] 


Saturday

I had a very lazy morning organising accommodation and my itinerary for the next little while -  you will be exited to know that islands full of art galleries, a overnight stay in temple and a bike ride between islands is all to come. When I did leave I walked to Rippongi hills and visited the Mori art gallery. The exhibition at the moment is called the Arab express and consists entirely of artwork by artists in the Arab country. as you can images highly political stuff. Ill tell you about my two favorite pieces: one was two photos by 　Ahmed Mater depicting the kaaba as a big square magnet with the iron filings the  people drawn to the Kaaba during the once in a life time pilgrimage to Mecca. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriartmuseum/7534491070/in/photostream 

The other was a video by Sharif Waked that went for 40 minutes and shows what looks like martyrdom video  – the recording of a suicide bomber’s last testimony prior to carrying out an operation, Instead of reading out a suicide statement he is reading  the Tale of Shaherizard. There  is something about the tail of  Shaherizard that has always interested me and I was intreged by this man telling a fairy tail. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriartmuseum/7534489030/in/photostream

The building is on the 53rd floor of the Mori building and you are able to look out over Tokyo. I was there just after sunset and go to watch all the thousands of lights turn on. It was amazing there were suburbs as far as the horizon, I have never seen so much urban sprawl. I made my first Japanese friend at the lookout. Taishi and I were admiring the view together and ended up talking for the next two hours. He is a librarian in Osaka, and very interested in art. We talked about all sorts of things and it was lovely to  ask questions and share opinions. We went back int to the art gallery and showed one another our favourite works and laughed at the not-so-good ones. Keir and i went out and had wood fired pizza followed by a cream caramel pudding form the convenient store across the road. 

A post for Friday

First off I would like to apologies for the use of the font for my last post. Some of you may have noticed that the font has now been charged from "noteworthy" - the font for the iPad notes app - to something somewhat lest awful.  I am surprised by my lack of an update over the past four days but my days have been so full and I have keir to chat to in the evenings that I have not found the time to write. 
I am writing to you now as I sit on a Japanese built train. It will take me to Kyoto from Tokyo in two and a half hours - I believe this is a slow service. Because I believe that you can get from Hiroshima to Tokyo in four hours. 
 Ill run you through some of the highlights of the last four days:


Friday


I had to go to Tokyo station to pick exchange my Japanese Rail pass and book my first journey. on my way to the station I walked passed the Hibiya park which had a flower show in it. There was a competition for growing flowers in interesting arrangements. Tokyo station is a big clasical buildingm as you approach the main entrance to the station you get slowed down as so many people have stopped to take a photo. There were at least eighty people all standing around and taking photos. 
After getting my JR pass I walked over to Ginza as I had not had lunch yet I decided to have a very late lunch/ early dinner - is was 5pm at this point. I found a little eatery which was tucked into the curve of a bridge underpass. It meant that the tables at the back you couldn't stand and could only sit because the roof was so low. The plans was full of business men that were having a drink and something to eat with a friend after work  All the food was served on skewers and  was eaten with a beer or a glass of soda and spirit. It was lovely to sit a eat, when I'm back in Tokyo ill invite Keir to come and we can eat, drink and chat together.  That night I made a late dinner for Keir and I ( keir didn't get back from work until  9:30 pm) and we eat diner and watch anime and the IT crowd.

First impressions

Yesterday a hade a lovely first day in Japan. It is so great to be able to experience another country with its different food, architecture, consumes, language. I am I jogging myself very much. 
Here is a run down of way I got up to yesterday: Keir-The friend that I'm staying with - lives is Minato so yesterday I went for a walk to eat breakfast/lunch so went for a wander to see what I could find. As I walked all that was going through my head was that I was in a movie set and that at some point I would turn a corner as see the supports holding up the cardboard facades and a directors chair. The streets here are narrow and walking and bike riding seam to be the main form of transport in the quiet suburban streets. The area I am staying in is lovely although Keir says this is a particularly beautiful suburb. I found a vegetarian cafe to have breakfast in - I know not traditional at all but I really didn't  feel like eating meat  or trying to explain that I don't eat meat. The people were lovely and let me just sit there and people watch. I then wandered up the road and found my way to Riponi hills a big complex including a shopping centre with the standard restaurants, shops, cinema ect but also a garden, a museum of art, office buildings and the grand Hyatt. It is some what of a maze with dead ends and shoppes tucked away waiting to be stumbled apon ( although the shoppes are very expensive so people that shops there probably know where they are). I then took a walk to the National Art CenterTokyo the building is designed by Kiurokawa Kisho ( there are some photos on Flikr). The exhibition I sore was called Given Forms and showed art work by a painter- Tatsuno Toeko and photographer - Shibata Toshio. Toshio liked taking photos of dams and bridges for their geometric patterns. As the sun set its light played on the glass facard of the art centre casting a soft light through the building it was a stunning sight. As I waited for keir to take his dinner break I went back to Rippongi hills and found a toy shop to pay in and also the Lego store. i was able to while away a casual 45 minute by building Lego and playing with other toys. ( Stirling there was a second world war biplane, and for Elizabeth there was a red Volkswagen kombi van.)  At the toy shop they had a section for sand pit exsesories and they had a Archimedes screw which I though was particularly cool. 

Keir and I went out for dinner and had the most yummy crispy noodles. In a tiny restaurant that was below street level in a cellar. They only served one dish but you got to choose what type of noodles it was on. After dinner we went and got drinks from the convenience store and went for a walk ( In Tokyo you are allowed to consume alcohol on the streets ). Even though it was ten at night Keir had to go back to work and I wondered back to his flat to read and sleep.