just as a warning, i don't think there's any way i can maintain any sort of consistency writing journal entries. maybe one a week. we'll see.
last weekend, october 7-9, i took the shink down to the kinki region of japan and hung out with an friend who lives in wakayama named jeff. he was really cool, and graciously played host to me, showing me nara and koya-san. a fun and interesting weekend.
that saturday, i got up around 5 am and grabbed a shower before biking to the furukawa station. the ride to tokyo was rather surreal, as i kept falling asleep and waking up suddenly. for the ride to and from tokyo, i should have brought radiohead's _airbag/how am i driving_ ep with me, as "palo alto" would been the perfect song for the various cities within the City. after changing trains at tokyo and disembarking in kyoto, i grabbed a ticket on the limited express train to nara. once on the train, i got off at the first stop, mistakenly beleiving it to be nara. it wasn't, and i arrived at nara about an hour plus late. fortunately, jeff found me by the fountain, and, after declining the overtures of a particularly masochistic rickshaw driver (i would think they would avoid a gaijin of my size like the plague), we walked through a park featuring several tame deer to the first temple, which, besides a entrance fee and a closing time of 5:00, offers the tourist a view of a massive statue of buddha and two other statues of a japanese warlord. i took pictures, but they weren't good, due to the dim light. walking on the next, more casual temple, we were treated to an excellent view of nara, as well as drinkable water used for ritual cleansing. on the way to jeff's apartment, we got off the train in tennoji station, giving me a chance to see a bit of osaka. jeff took me to a subway for dinner, which kicked ass! i really miss subway, and the japanese version is almost a mirror image of the american version. heading back, we passed several pathetic street bands competing for passerbys' attention along an overhead walkway. i burst out laughing at their sheer ineptitude before jeff shushed me. back at jeff's place, after watching some south park, i pretty much collapsed from the long day.
the next day we headed to koya-san, the holiest of mountains according to japanese buddhism. it was amazing. there's a massive graveyard with various shrines to both families, company employees, and victims of various wars. there's also a couple of extremely sacred temples, one of which houses the grave of koubou dubei (sp?), one of the most prominent figures in japanese history. he invented the japanese kana in order to allow women and children to be able to read and write japanese. we defiled the temple by taking pictures, which was apparently forbidden. nonetheless we got away with it, and i will probably incur the wrath of the kuukai in the next life. in the second temple, the second holiest on koya-san, in which pictures were allowed. several treasures of japanese art were housed therein, including some massive gold leaf paintings. very interesting. heading back, we ate at a royal host in wakayama, and wondered why japanese women cut their bangs short instead of growing them long. the problem with fashion trends here is that virtually all fashionable japanese women follow them. perhaps herd mentality is a rather harsh term to describe the phenomenom, but there seems to be an awful lot of conformity to cultural standards in this country. that might explain why rock, the very language of rebellion against such norms, sounds so different here. again i collapsed from the rigorous journey. i think i slept the best i've ever slept since arriving in japan that night. more later.
been listening to - dark tranquillity, celldweller, collective soul, and downset.
