What is This? 14

Spotted: A chimera along the Teramachi shopping arcade in downtown Kyoto. Standing outside a pet shop, this fiery beast opens an closes its mouth while its tongue darts in and out of its pelican-esque beak. Adorned with All-American red-white-and-blue stars and stripes, yet offset with "kawaii" flowery pale pink petals and rabbit ears along side dangerous horns, could this to be a perfect specimen of cross national breeding?



Answer: I'm not entirely sure what this is at all. I saw it and was unable to answer my own question beyond the simple response that it is meant to draw your attention to this pet store. It is possible that it was only to draw your attention here, but I would hope for a better association with the pet shop. They sell none of the animals whose subservient parts have come together to form this beast (i.e. no lions, ducks, dragons, rabbits, kangaroos, nor goats). In any case, it is a very animated and enigmatic character with whom none of the Japanese were taking any pictures with.

What is This? 13

Spotted: An explosion of lights in the center of downtown Kobe. This brilliantly illuminated and transient city would seem to be the native country of Disney's Electric Light Parade, but embellished floats were nowhere in sight, only a steady stream of people all flowing toward the center of the lights. Is this a revival of 1850s Industrial English architecture with a post-modern twist in Kobe's attempt to out-shine Time's Square? Or perhaps it's the best way for the electric company to increase its profits during the holiday season? What is This?

Answer: This is Kobe's annual Luminaria festival where they erect this huge display of lights around the city's central district. It began as a memorial to the victims of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake and has now become a huge tourist attraction for the city during its winter months. There didn't seem to be much memorializing going on at the festival, although I think much of the money raised from it was going to go towards some related cause. Much of the festival seemed to be centered around walking through the city past a lot of shops (who were all vying for sightseers' attention) to this central area where there were a lot of lights and many many more street stalls with delicious foods.


Lights along the main road to the memorial park in downtown Kobe


In front of the main illuminated structure at the center of the park

Maiko Show

Last Friday my landlord took my roommates and I to see a Maiko performance at a hotel in Kyoto. It was a very brief, yet entertaining show that probably catered to the hotel guests as it was free. Before the show we had a photo op to take pictures while the Maiko sat in front of a little tea table. It was kind of awkward taking pictures with the Maiko because nobody really talked to her, they kind of just sat next to her and she made a very small smile and then they left because the line was so long to take a picture with her. She also had a funny smile and very white makeup which made her look over-exposed in a lot of the pictures I took.

My housemates and I with the Maiko-san

I should probably explain what a Maiko is first. According to my landlord, Mr. Kajiwara, Maiko are only found in Kyoto and they are young girls usually from age 17 who are basically geisha in training. When they grow older and more skilled and find a supporting patron, the Maiko become geisha. As many of my readers hopefully already know, geisha and Maiko are NOT prostitutes.

A Maiko dance

After the photos, we all went outside to sit next to a pond with a stage in it. Thankfully there were some space heaters nearby because it was pretty chilly outside. While we were waiting for the Maiko show to start, I watched two sleeping swans float around the pond. After a few moments the Maiko came out and started dancing on the stage with some fans. I'm not sure what the song was about, but it looked like the Maiko was sometimes using her fans as a kind of umbrella and she sometimes tossed them up in the air. The next song was apparently a pretty popular old Kyoto song because some of the old Japanese women watching started to sing along. I couldn't understand a word of it, but the Maiko's dance was pretty nice. At the end of the show she took a basket from off-stage and knelt down to feed the swans who were stirred from their slumber by the sound of the Maiko's dancing. It made for a classic photo op.

Maiko-san feeding the swans

One Bite at a Time: BANANA BREAD! and Student Festival

Doshisha Student Festival (gakusai)

So last week was the student festival at Doshisha University (the school where my Japanese program is at) and it was pretty fun, running from Wednesday to Friday. The Doshisha students had the whole week off to set up booths on campus and transform classrooms into workshops or exhibit spaces or tea rooms. There were throngs of people filling the campus and student performances all throughout the day so my classes were moved to another campus nearby, about a 7 minute walk away. Most of the booths outside had some kind of Japanese festival food, the usual takoyaki (octopus ball), fried potatoes, hot dogs, tacos, and just generally things that are really easy for college students to make. There were two stages outside where student bands performed rock, jazz, techno, and dancing. Here's a picture of the Tahitian dance group and I saw a few hula dancers walking around barefoot. It was odd, but comforting to see a bit of island culture so far away. I can definitely say that there is nothing like the student festival at any American college I've been to and for all the differences between the American college system and the Japanese one, I'd say that this is something I wish we had in America. A couple of weeks ago I went to the student festival at Kyoto University, which was also really fun and full of things like second hand clothing stands, more food booths, and dancers and bands spread all around the campus.


Tahitian dancers at Doshisha Student Festival

Yesterday I spent the afternoon downtown going to the Manga museum with my friend. The manga museum was alright. It was mostly just hallways filled with shelves of manga from all around the world, but mostly Japan. There was a little interesting history exhibit, but other than that, not much really Educational about the museum. I wish they had a bit more explaining the significant authors and different types of Manga, but I think the place is really geared towards those specialist people who are searching for old and rare manga. My favorite part was that the museum is built in an old public school, so from an architectural standpoint it was interesting to see how the old space was rehabilitated to a different program. I think it was done pretty successfully, but it is definitely not the first school made into a museum.


Two partially eaten halves of our banana loaf

As we were biking down the streets of Kyoto after the Manga museum, we smelled a delicious scent on the air. I thought it smelled like banana bread, but I was surely mistaken because I have never ever seen real banana bread anywhere in Japan. They have lots of banana cakes and banana creams and banana cakes filled with banana cream in banana shapes, but never a real loaf of banana bread like I used to make back home. So when I stopped by this table on the side of the road in front of what may have been an old car garage and saw freshly baked banana bread (and ovens baking banana bread) I was astounded to find what I had long been looking for in Japan. My friend and I bought a loaf of real banana bread fresh out of the oven for ¥800 (about $9.24) and after the woman running the stand put it in a nice paper bag, we walked across the street to a little park and each ate half a loaf. It was DELICIOUS! I hadn't eaten banana bread since my old roommate's girlfriend used to bake some and bring it when she came to visit. To say the least, it really hit the spot and I will definitely go back there again. If you're looking for banana bread in Kyoto, ask me and I can show you where to get it :D

What is this? 12

Spotted: Outside of a busy construction site near the train station in Nara I found this interesting sculpture. Half-frog, half-machine, what is this RoboFrog and, more importantly, why is it holding a soccer ball?


Answer: This is a recycling bin for empty bottles. I assume it is an attempt to get kids to throw away their bottles, because frankly I don't think any adults would be enticed to throw anything away in a slightly battered up frog-shaped bin. It says very clearly not to put cigarette buts into its mouth because it is not an ash tray.

A Journey to the Past: Horyu-ji and Nara

I went to Horyu-ji and Nara yesterday with some of my friends to see some old temples. Here are a couple of pictures of what we saw there:


The Five-storey pagoda at Horyu-ji, which belongs to the group of buildings at Horyu-ji that are the oldest wooden buildings in the world.


A temple nearby Horyu-ji on pillars surrounded by a turtle pond. Inside are two national treasures, a tapestry and statue of Avalokitesvara in a contemplative pose.


Making new friends with the Deer in Nara at the Daibutsu park. Notice my new deer-hat.


Watching the sunset with friends from a hillside temple with the Daibutsu-den in the background

One Bite at a Time: Tea

I went for a walk down Teramachi Street from Doshisha University down to Shi-jo on Friday afternoon and ran into this classy tea shop. They served many different types of tea and let you pour it yourself. I ordered the seasonal special of the day, a kind of genmaicha or rice tea. It came with a thermos full of hot water and the woman there explained that I was to pour in the hot water and wait at least 20 seconds after the water first touches the tea before I drank it. Each set came with a little pot of tea, a clock (I suspect from Muji), a teacup, thermos, and seasonal sweet. The sweet I ate had some kind of bean paste at the bottom and is supposed to evoke a mountainside covered with the changing leaves of autumn. The tea was good and it was relaxing to have a nice cup of warmth after a long walk outside.

If you haven't noticed from some of my last posts, the seasonal changes are a huge deal here in Japan. Here are a few more pictures from Friday when I walked through the Kyoto Gyoen (Imperial Palace Park), which is right across the street from Doshisha University. This is one of the gates into the Imperial Compound framed by some changing Momiji (maple leaves).

One Bite at a Time: Wagashi

I made some wagashi, Japanese Confectionary, at the cultural activities session last week. After class a group of us went to a confectionary shop near the Kyoto Museum and made these tasty snacks (plus one more). The one on the left is supposed to look like a Persimmon and the right one is a changing Maple Leaf. The persimmon has white bean paste on the inside and mochi on the outside. The maple leaf has black bean paste on the inside and I'm not quite sure what the exterior is made out of, but it was really tasty. I also made the little, thinner maple leaves with a cookie cutter, but they were pretty much pure sugar (still tasty though!). I also learned how to make one more that looked like a ball of spaghetti with bean paste on the inside, but everyone ate that right when we were done making them. Everything was made by hand and the ridges in the leaves were made with a triangular piece of wood. Everything is edible and I enjoyed it all with a nice cup of tea the other night after a satisfying home-cooked meal of chicken breasts and spaghetti with Mascarpone sauce ^_^

What is This? 11

Spotted: An unidentifiable animal statue on the Eastern Temple of the Enryaku-ji complex. Enryaku-ji was an important center for Buddhism until it was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga because of its political power. It looks to me like it was also home to a mythical squirrel-lizard-turtle-dog?


Answer: I'm not sure exactly what it is supposed to be, perhaps an ancient Chinese interpretation of a turtle? In any case, I found it interesting looking. It has a sign on its back that I think might mark a tomb or something, but again, I'm not entirely sure about it.


View from Mt. Hiei with a bit of Kyoto in the distance and surrounding mountains

I went up to Mt. Hie last weekend to see some of the Koyo (changing leaves) season. The view from up there was beautiful as you could see all across Kyoto and to the surrounding mountains that were peppered with the reds and oranges of autumn. There were a lot of temples up there as well and I spent a good amount of time walking around and getting some nice photos. It was really really cold up there though, perhaps a good 4 degree difference from downtown Kyoto where I rode my bike in a T-shirt to get to Melissa's house. Her host family drove us to the base of the mountain where we boarded the ropeway going to the top. There was also a really big bell at the temple that people could ring, so I gave it a good whack and listened as the sound echoed through the temple and down the mountainside.


Autumn leaves with the main hall of the Eastern Complex of Enryaku-ji

Monday, Monday...

It's Sunday here in Kyoto and a new week is about to begin. I thought I'd just write up a little blurb about my weekly schedule so any readers can get an idea of what I'm doing while I'm here.

Monday
9-12: Japanese Class
2-5(or 6): Volunteer translation at Eastern Design Inc.

Tuesday
9-12: Japanese Class
1:15-4:30: Global Interchange class
4:30-6:30: Dinner with Japanese classmates
6:30-9:00: Teaching English at English Workshop for Doshisha college students

Wednesday
9-12: Japanese class
3:00-4:30: Kyoto Houses class

Thursday
9-12: Japanese class
4:30-7:00: Teaching English to school children and housewives

Friday
9-12: Japanese class
1:15-2:45: Kyoto Houses class

Saturday/Sunday
Free!

That's the basic framework of all the places I have to be and at what time. I also spend a lot lot of time and money commuting and, most importantly, finding food. I often enjoy cooking dinner, but it takes a lot of time to go to the grocery store/¥100 store to get stuff and then cook it and then eat it and then clean it all up. I didn't realize that eating was so time-intensive. Sometimes I go out to eat, but then it can also be difficult (and more expensive) to decide/find a suitable place to eat. Homework consumes the rest of my time, but I am always sure to set aside at least an hour or so to go to a temple on the way home or nearby. Time is going by so quickly here and I still feel like I haven't completed any of my goals here.

Anyways, I have to get ready for a presentation I'm giving in Japanese class tomorrow on the city planning of Kyoto from past to present. Here's to another packed week!

What is This? 10

Spotted: At one of, if not, Japan's most significant works of architecture, the Katsura Detached Palace, I found this stone. Carefully tied with a black rope and placed in the center of the pathway leading up to the entrance of the main building. A belated Easter Egg? A modern art installation, perhaps? What is this?


Answer: This is the traditional Japanese symbol for "no entry". I'm quite sure this marker wouldn't work at all in America because it doesn't really prevent one from physically entering an area. Anyone could just walk past this rock with a string, however the bound rock creates a psychological barrier that prevents one from passing it. I've noticed that everyone in Japan is quite conscious of the rules and my being here has made me more aware of what actions are okay and what are not. We are bound by the rules and shouldn't pass this rock, which is itself a reminder of ourselves, bound with a rope and restricted in movement. It works quite effectively because it makes one conscious that the decision to walk past this rock will also be a decision to break the rules.

View of the pond on the grounds of Katsura Villa

My visit to the Katsura Detached Palace was quite pleasant. As you can see from my pictures, the Momiji season has started in Kyoto. "Momiji" refers to the time when the maple leaves begin to change color to a fiery red. To go to Katsura it is necessary to make a reservation quite far in advance and you can only enter the grounds on a guided tour. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't go into the palace itself, but I understand their concern about preserving this national treasure. I certainly admire Katsura for its Sukiya (rustic and restrained) style of architecture as well as the profound beauty present in the well-integrated composition of buildings and landscape. Many of the design patterns on the sliding doors and screens of the complex are quite abstract and still appeal to the contemporary eye. There are many books written about Katsura that describe its interior in great depth, but it would have been nice to see the interior for myself and to experience it with my own haptic senses.

What is This? 9

Spotted: Japanese tombs decorated with 2-D black and white cats with glass marble eyes. New lawn decorations, or perhaps an extension of the Japanese obsession with cuteness into the afterlife? Egyptian guardians of the afterlife? What is this??


Answer: I'm actually still not quite sure what these flat cats are for, but I imagine it's to keep other cats away from these tombs, which happen to be the tombs of the Nobunaga clan. That's right, the Oda Nobunaga clan that unified much of Japan during the Warring States Period. I found it amusing that the Japanese would find it less offensive to have these flat cats than a real cat on the tomb of one of Japan's most significant historical figures. I happened upon Nobunaga's tomb when I was exploring grounds of Daitokuji, the 700 year old Zen temple next door to my apartment. There was a cemetery attached to one of the sub-temples and on its grounds was the humble tomb of Oda Nobunaga. I was also surprised at its simplicity when compared with Ieyasu Tokugawa's (the final unifier of Japan) tomb in Nikko. The cemetery was largely devoid of greenery, but the plots had unusual colored gravel or sand surrounding the tombstones. A patchwork of arid colors graced the grounds of this cemetery to create a beautiful scene unknown in America's largely grassy graveyards.


Sand and gravel in cemetery plots

A sidetrip to Korea

Here are just a few pics from my venture to Korea this past week. It was our fall break here at KCJS and my roommate, Andrew, and I took a week-long trip to South Korea. Here's a quick rundown of our itinerary: First we arrived in Seoul and spent the night with one of my friends from high school, Matt Hecker. He's over there teaching english and living in a pretty spacious (by Japanese standards) apartment and enjoying 7,000 Won all you can eat yakiniku buffets. In fact, he took us to his favorite spot the first night I got there and the food was delicious and one of the best bargains I had on the whole trip.

The next day I explored some of the old palaces in Seoul and walked around some of the Lonely-Planet recommended parts of the city. They have a great riverwalk area that they're trying to develop and that was really fun to hang around. My first impressions of Seoul were not that great because it seemed like any other city with not much character, but after walking around and learning a bit more about the different neighborhoods of the city, my opinion changed and I think that overall it's a pretty nice city. Not necessarily somewhere that I really want to go out of my way to get back to again, but someplace that I wouldn't mind visiting another time. That night I stayed in a hostel in Hongkik, the university district of Seoul, where there are a bunch of young people and hip shops. Andrew and I tried to eat in a delicious looking restaurant, but we couldn't speak any Korean and didn't know how to order anything. It was from that point on that we decided to stick with LP-recommended digs.


With a guard in front of the palace in Seoul

The next day we woke up early and headed down to the historic city of Gyeongju by bus. It was a long ride, but well worth the visit to Gyeongju. I saw the old tombs and a really famous "Flying Horse" tapestry that is a big symbol of the city. There is also a big park and a pond with beautiful pavilions that reflect in the light of the pond at evening time.
The next day was a full day of historic temples and sites outside of Gyeongju. To Bulguksa and umm another cool temple in a hill. The problem with Korean names for me is that I'm not used to the language and can't really pronounce any of the words correctly, so I can't remember the proper names of places >.< Andrew and I hiked from Bulguksa to the other Grotto temple on a beautiful mountain trail. The leaves are all changing color here, so the forest was aflame with bright red, orange, and yellow leaves making for a great 1-hour, 2.2 Km long hike.


Colorful leaves on the way to Haeinsa

From Gyeongju, it was another bus ride to the city of Daegu (3rd largest in South Korea) where I stayed overnight before heading to Haeinsa temple. Haeinsa is sited in a national park (also full of color-changing leaves) and it is the repository for the Tripitaka, a woodblock set for printing copies of the Buddhist original scriptures. It's really old and took a long long time to make. It was destroyed once, but then they worked again to remake it. The approach to the temple was very beautiful through a forest of changing leaves, but once I actually arrived on the temple grounds I was slightly disappointed because of all the reconstruction work they were doing on the surrounding temples. Overall though, the walk through the grounds in the beautiful scenery was well worth the trip.


Just how corny the DMZ has become

That night we caught a bullet train back to Seoul and went to bed early to get up for our tour of the demilitarized zone the next morning. The DMZ tour was fun and really showcased how the drama with north korea has turned into a huge tourist attraction. The bus took us to the "freedom bridge", which wasn't that exciting and you couldn't see much because it was blocked off anyway. Then I went to the 3rd tunnel where the North Koreans tried to dig their way to attack Seoul. It was interesting to see, but not terribly exciting. We also stopped by the observation post to see the world's tallest flagpole (in North Korea, of course) and then went to eat a delicious Bulgogi lunch.

Now i'm back in the kitchen in Kyoto with a bunch of homework, laundry, and in dire need of a good shower and sleep back in my own bed.

What is This? 8

Spotted: Kyoto Cowboys putting on a Hoedown. What is this?


Answer: A normal Saturday night at Kenny's Bar, a Western-themed cowboy bar complete with cowboy hats and vintage records of classical old Western country music. They even had a Johnny Cash-signed record addressed to the owner's band (the Tennessee 5). Many of the people who come here are normal Japanese people with day jobs like dentists, tax-accountants, and book publishers, but they get their kicks on the weekends at Kenny's. I spoke with some of them and they said that they got in to country music when they listened to it in their youth in post-war Japan when American G.I.s brought it to Japan. Kenny (a.k.a. Kenji Nagatomi) started the country music group, the Tennessee Five, and organizes the annual Country Dream music festival in Kyoto. It was last weekend, but I didn't get a chance to visit it. The music was fun and the people were nice and interesting to talk to. The singers were great, singing with just a hint of a Japanese accent, most of the words were in English. Everything felt pretty normal except when the singers busted out in fluent Japanese.

A Visit to the Moss Temple

So I went to Saiho-ji yesterday, a.k.a. Kokedera or the Moss Temple. It was a pretty fun experience despite the initial stressfulness of trying to get everyone there on time. The thing about visiting Saiho-ji is that because of the sensitivity of the moss, you need to make a reservation with the temple's office by sending in a postcard with prepaid postage and a return postcard with your name and the number of people coming with you and the day you are coming. So I did this for myself and 5 of my friends after figuring out a convenient day for all of us to go.

Yesterday I rode my bike to Saiho-ji with my friend, Melissa, which was like 1:30 away from downtown Kyoto. My other friends said they were going to meet us there so Melissa and I got there at 12:45 for our 1:00 reservation. We tried to enter the temple, but they gate guard wouldn't let us go in until everyone was there. So we waited and Patrick arrived there on time, but the rest of my friends were late. I was a bit impatient and upset because my friends were late and I could hear the sutra chanting and stuff going on from outside the gates. The thing about Saiho-ji is that you have to listen to sutras and copy them before you can enter the really famous garden. So once everyone finally arrived like 20 min late, we rushed in and sat down to copy sutras. I have to say that while concentrating on writing this sutra with calligraphy brush and ink it was very calming and my initial frustration and hurriedness subsided with each character I copied. After you finish copying the sutra, you can go into the garden, which is where the real good stuff is.


The garden is famous for its moss, which covers a large part of the grounds and has many different species of moss in it. It also has a pond with some islands that are supposed to form the character for kokoro (心), but I couldn't see it while walking in the garden. I strolled around in the garden with my friends stopping to take many pictures and briefly sitting by the pond for a while to watch the single orange carp swim lazily through the shallow water. We also went in to one of the 3 tea houses they have in the garden as well, which was nice to see some post-Rikyu tea architecture.

The place was also super-photogenic and the lighting was great, so I took a bunch of nice pictures.


Tree Bark on a Sacred (Shimenawa-bound) Tree


Close-up of Mossy hills

Eastern Design Office, Inc.! & CIP Journal 1

So great news! I had an interview on Monday with the principals of Eastern Design Office, Inc. at their office in Suizome in Kyoto and I will be starting work for them next Monday :) It will be volunteer work mostly consisting of translating some of their essays and written works. Here is a link to their website in case you are interested in checking out their designs: http://www.eastern.e-arc.jp/top_E.html

I have also included in this post my first entry for my CIP (Community Involvement Project) requirement which this volunteer work will fulfill.

CIP Journal #1

Facts
Activity Date: October 5, 2009
Who was there?: Myself, Ms. Anna Nakamura, and Mr. Taiyo Jinno.
What did you do there?: I had an interview with Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura regarding my volunteer work there. They showed me samples of their work and we discussed their recent projects as well as what they would like me to help them with. I also showed them a bit of my portfolio with my architecture work in it from Yale.

What Happened There?
I discussed my opinions of the work that Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura showed me and they explained their current design philosophies that are currently centered around designing with the landscape. They showed me an interesting project of theirs for a house in Takarazuka and I gained a better sense of the type of architecture they are trying to create. I think their current pursuits about landscape are much more interesting than their previous fascination with the “slit”. See their Slit House and previous works that center on using slits and pattern to let light enter a building.
I think they had a good reaction to me and could understand my Japanese for the most part. I had difficulty explaining my architecture projects from my portfolio to them because I did not know the right Japanese vocabulary and grammar patterns to eloquently express my ideas. I think they were interested in my views of architecture and hopefully they were impressed that I have views on architecture that might be insightful to their work and ideas.

Reflections
I was intimidated by the interview setting at first and used very polite Japanese, but I had a little trouble using very polite keigo when I was concentrating on finding the right way to express my architectural thoughts. I think this happened because I do not know the right vocabulary to capture what I really want to say. My level of Japanese is somewhat similar to that of an elementary school student, so I was imagining an elementary school student trying to explain complex architectural concepts to me and I was very self-conscious that what I was saying sounded stupid (not only from content, which I am normally worried about whenever I present my work in front of educated critics) because I lack sophisticated language skills.
Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura’s willingness to work with me to understand each other’s architectural thoughts was encouraging to me because it showed that they were patient and understood that I am still trying to study Japanese. I am very hopeful that I will learn a lot by doing this volunteer work that will help build a foundation for employment in Japan after KCJS is over.
I also discussed my working hours and what I am expected to do for the office at the meeting. I am a little apprehensive about the amount of responsibilities that I might end up undertaking if I do this volunteer work for them. I don’t want it to become overwhelming and take away from my time to study Japanese. I also hope that I can be helpful with my limited knowledge of Japanese in providing adequate translations or confirmations of translations of their works. They explained to me that they tried to submit a writing to an English architecture magazine, but it was rejected because they could not understand the translation. Hopefully such a failure will not occur as the result of my work.

How would you apply what you have learned in the future?
I don’t know how much I learned from this, but I definitely will try to focus on the Japanese words and expressions necessary for me to explain my architectural ideas when showing Japanese people my portfolio. The portfolio is of utmost importance to the hiring process and it is critical that I can express my ideas convincingly in Japanese and this has been added to my list of goals for this program.

What is This? 7

Spotted: At Nishiki Food Market, Kyoto's ancient heaven for gourmet foodies and restauranteurs. What could thin, translucent sheets hanging in a messy room filled with creamy puddles of mysterious liquid be doing in a place that became famous for selling the food used to feed the emperor?


Answer: I took this picture in the back room of a 200 year old "yuba" shop in Nishiki Food Market. Yuba is a type of soy product made from very thin sheets of congealed soy water/tofu that is skimmed off the top. The process starts with raw soybeans that are soaked in water overnight and then put in a machine to grind them into a paste. The paste then goes in to another machine and is made in to very soft tofu that is taken out and put on top of those copper basins to be heated. Under the surface of each copper basin flows boiling water and steam that heats the tofu so as not to burn it. When the tofu boils down, it starts to congeal again after a while (kind of like the grease on the surface of Campbell's chicken noodle soup). The workers then take the thin sheet of yuba off the heat and hang it to dry it out. It takes less time to dry it out during the summer than in the winter, but most people eat yuba in the winter when the dried pieces are thrown into boiling "nabe" pots and become soft again.


Women rolling up the dried yuba into attractive and easily transportable bundles


The wonderful staff at Yubakichi Kyoto, est. 1790

What is This? 6

Spotted: This weekend I did a little traveling on our three-day vacation and went to Osaka, Kobe, and Himeiji Castle. On the streets of America Village or "Ame-Mura" in Osaka I saw several of these tall, slender objets d'art lining the streets at various intervals. Seemingly ubiquitous and anthropomorphic in form, could this be Japan's next step in robotics technology?


Answer: These are the streetlights in Ame-Mura, which I thought looked pretty cool. They come in various positions and add a lot of character to the seeming "placelessness" of Osaka.

What is This? 5

Spotted: Masked women wielding wands and pots of potions in orange robes. A Hogwarts graduation ceremony? Perhaps not...


Answer: Part of the ritual procession at Kiyomizu Temple (my favorite temple in all of Japan!) involved in the annual 3-day Seiryu-e Festival. Today was the first day of the festival and I biked over there from Doshisha to check it out. Right as I arrived with my two friends at the ticket gate, the sound of conch shell horns wavered through the air. This was not my first visit to Kiyomizu temple, but the first time I saw any sort of ceremony there. The procession began with conch blowers parading through the temple grounds followed by these women donning masks porting bowls of sacred water and flicking it about the temple and into the crowds with these long wands. Monks with wooden clappers followed behind them with spear-bearing soldiers interspersed between them. The rhythm of the clapping wooden block, sounding of the conch horns, and chinking of the soldiers' spears on the ground almost created the effect of a choral procession traversing through the temples' gates and halls. Finally, the festival culminated with the emergence and passage of a large very frighteningly realistically rendered dragon! Definitely a traditional Chinese dragon and judging from all the water rituals probably associated with the sea in some way. It was pretty cool and needless to say well worth the 45 minute beautiful bike ride along the Kamogawa River.


The Dragon going up the stairs at the entrance to Kiyomizu Temple

What is This? 4

Spotted: A fusion of east and west found at the 7-11 convenience store.



Answer: The improbable combination of South Asian Naan and an American Hot Dog! Also fused with "Spicy Chili Sauce" to excite your day. I tried this culinary concoction the other day and it was pretty tasty. I can't say that I would have thought of this combination myself, but I really do appreciate gourmet Japanese innovation :)

What is This? 3

Spotted: Green monster doing yoga at Matsuo-taisha Shrine.



Answer: Part of the annual Hassaku festival at Matsuo-taisha Shrine, which was founded in 701 and is one of Japan's oldest shrines. It's dedicated to the god of water and has copious turtle statues and fountains. The rare form of dance is obviously related to Chinese lion dancing, but with a greater emphasis on acrobatics and with only two people in the costume. There was also a cool part at the end when a man dressed in a gold costume kind of like some kind of spider came out and battled with the lion, even shooting out jets of white streamers like webs to entangle its green foe.

What is This? 2

Spotted: During my first few days of orientation at Doshisha University (the home university where I'm doing my language study and taking classes), I noticed several of these signs posted in various parts of campus. At first I was not quite sure what this sign was supposed to be telling me. Lightning bolts + computer = ? Having freshly arrived from Cambodia where lightning bolts come from computers all the time, I thought it was a warning that the computer will shock you if you are not careful.


Answer: Apparently this sign is the Japanese indicator for wireless internet. I thought the universal symbol was the dot with radiating arcs coming from it, but this is what they use here in Japan.

What is This? 1

So since I didn't actually find enough good Weekly Engrishes, I'm starting a new segment in Kyoto called "What is This?" in honor of Nancy Nichols. It will feature a photo of something that I found odd here in Japan that begs the question "What is This?".



Spotted: A field of blue caps and white shirts planted on the central floor of Kyoto Station, the city's biggest train station at

What is this?: Hoardes of school children returning from morning adventures during their current summer vacations.

Cambodia Bucket List

This week at work I've been working on the 3D Rhino model of Vann Molyvann's house. On Friday I checked some items off my Cambodia bucket list. I made the bucket list when I came back from Kep and it included:

1) Picking up custom-made shoes from Beautiful Shoes:
I ordered some custom-made shoes from a shoe place in Phnom Penh. They trace your foot and make some measurements and then make a leather shoe for you. All you have to do is bring them some pictures of the shoes you want and then they make pretty close to the same design.

2) Visiting the national museum:
Cambodia’s national museum in Phnom Penh focuses mainly on Angkorian and Pre-Angkorian art and artefacts housed in a well-designed and charming (yet small) museum near the Royal Palace. I went to the museum after having lunch with Ed and Nancy at Friends, an NGO-run restaurant that provides Cambodian street kids with training in the food service industry (partnered with Romdeng). The museum had a great little interior courtyard with fish ponds and a pavilion as well.

3) Visiting the national palace:
I enjoy visiting royal residences. When I went to the Cambodian Palace I was a little disappointed because you couldn't really go into parts of the royal residence, but could only see the royal pagodas and little temples on the grounds. There were also some exhibits of royal possessions such as the current king Sihamoni's collection of elephant bowls. There were also several monks on the palace grounds who seemed very eager to practice their english with passing tourists.

4) Going to Tol Sleng:
The Khmer Rouge torture camp in Phnom Penh was housed in a former secondary school. S-21, as it was referred to by the Khmer Rouge, is currently a genocide museum with frighteningly horrific photographs, paintings, testimonies, and an hour-long movie. I was especially shocked by the exhibition with photos from 1976 (I think) taken by a Swedish man traveling on a sort of cultural ambassadorship. He wrote that he was a Maoist at the time and believed that Democratic Kampuchea (what Cambodia was called during the Khmer Rouge) was an exemplary example of functioning Maoism. It was really creepy to walk in the torture chambers and holding cells that prisoners were kept in before being taken to Cheong Ek (?) or the Killing Fields.

5) See an Apsara Show:
Didn't actually work out because the Apsara (Khmer traditional dance) theater we were going to go to closed down the weekend we all went to Kep. They're supposedly opening again later this year.

6) Going to Louisiana Fried Chicken:
According to LP, before Cambodia joined the World Trade Organization it didn't have copyright laws and it apparently had a KFC, 7-11, and other popular establishments. Once it joined the WTO, these places changed and I think became Louisiana Fried Chicken (a.k.a. LFC) and 7-11 became "7 Elephants". I went to LFC with Nancy and Sokly before going to my last stop on my list, Wat Phnom.

7) Climb Wat Phnom to see the monkeys:
At lunch on my last day Sokly took Nancy and I on Chhoy's moto to Wat Phnom, one of the original Wats (or Buddhist Temples, NOT pagodas) in Phnom Penh. Phnom means "hill" in Khemai so the temple is set up on a little hill surrounded by a park. It's also home to several monkeys and we saw two of them. Nancy even got a great picture of a monkey mid-leap going from a lamp post to a tree.

So I finally finished writing this post after quite a long week of packing, trying to figure out my Rhino model, and working on the bucket list. It was a nice way to end my trip, but I really wasn't ready to leave yet.

On my last night, Darren was nice enough to drive Sokly, Nancy, and I to the airport. It was a dark and stormy night and the sky was crying because I was leaving. The streets of Phnom Penh flooded with water and traffic. Darren's Toyota Camry (pretty much the same model that I drove in high school, but nicer) was up to the doors at least in water while driving through the back streets of the city in an attempt to avoid the incredible traffic jam of cars, motos, and pedestrians in the now flooded city.


My friends at our last dinner together ;_;

After checking my luggage in at the airport and paying the $25 airport departure tax, I ate a quick dinner with Nancy, Chhoy, Sokly, and Darren. They all said goodbye and watched as I ascended the escalator up to the departure zone and onto the plane.

Modernism in Ruins

The Butterfly Villa

Monday was our last day in Kep as we caught the afternoon bus back to Phnom Penh. This morning I woke up early and ate a delicious breakfast at Veranda with Bill and Nancy before jumping on another tuk tuk to explore the French modernist villas that were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. The villas lay scattered about Kep with some along the seashore, others more inland, and even the king's old palace up on the hill is in ruins. My favorite was the "butterfly" villa so named because of its butterfly roof that seems to be derived from much of the vernacular architecture around here. Next door to it was the best-restored villa with its bright yellow hand railing.


A Restored Villa

Exploring the villas was a great way to see the principles of modernism from the fifties, I think. On this trip I was also reading "The International Style" and with the ideas of modernism fresh in my mind, I had the chance to explore these buildings from that era that combined with some of the existing Khmer vernacular forms to create a somewhat regional modernism lost in the ravages of the Cambodian revolution. The ruins of these buildings reminded me of the impermanence of architecture and was strangely evocative of the ruins at Beng Mealea and Angkor that had been swallowed up by the forest. It's really sad to think of all the violence and trauma that happened in the walls of these villas, yet they remain beautiful reminders of Cambodia's architectural richness.


Great View from a Ruin

When the ruin romp was over and we checked out of the hotel, we waited for the bus at the bus stop and learned that it was going to be at least another half hour before the bus came. Bill and I took a quick trip to Knai Bang Chatt, the high end modernist resort in Kep. We spoke to the manager and he explained to us (in French) a bit about the buildings and told us about two of Vann Molyvann's buildings that he did in Kep. Bill didn't know about him, but the manager said that he learned about them when Vann Molyvann stayed with him about 3 months ago (I think). It could be really interesting to take another look into the history of these villas to learn more about their architectural value. It's really difficult because the land and the villas are increasingly getting sold to corrupt officials, destroyed, or encased behind high brick walls. I think the visits to these villas and the principles in "the International Style" really helped me to understand what the modern architecture movement was, something that I didn't get at Yale and that I wouldn't have gotten without this trip to Cambodia.


Another Villa

Kep Kaves and Kampot

On Sunday Steve, Yen, Ed, Nancy, and I took a tuk tuk to Kampong Trach about an hour and a half away to see some caves. The first cave we went to was in a large rock outcrop that jutted up from the rice field plains. Once the tuk tuk pulled up near the cave area and we each paid our $1 entry fee, two children with flashlights followed the tuk tuk until it stopped at the cave mouth. When we got off the tuk tuk they immediately guided us into the cave with their flashlights chattering off the names of various rock formations such as "the turtle", "head of the eel", "eagle", and perhaps the most easily identifiable formation, "policeman's foot". It was quite odd and I felt very hurried being herded along by the now 12 other children who had joined them. The cave opened up to a large central area or "open sky cave" where there was a small temple with a reclining Buddha statue (a garish replacement because the original was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge). There was also a narrow staircase leading up into an opening in the cave wall that we couldn't go into because it was according to our little guides "too sticky and too many mosquitoes".


Open Sky Cave

When we were finished at the Open Sky Cave, we hopped back in the tuk tuk and drove a little ways while three of our little guides followed us on their bicycles. We got off the tuk tuk and had to walk about 1 km to reach the next cave, the swimming cave. The tuk tuk couldn't get there because there were too many big holes in the dirt road and it was a bit too muddy for all 5 of us to fit in the tuk tuk. On the way to the swimming cave, we passed a pond at the foot of a large outcropping of rocks. I asked our guide, Dap (?), if we could go closer to that mountain and he said, "no. too many bombs." I suppose he meant land mines because this area was one of the last Khmer Rouge hideouts and is still riddled with landmines. The eight of us continued on past some goats, a quarry, and children shouting out enthusiastic "hello"s to us. The swimming cave was indeed a sort of subterranean lake filled with clear and clean water. There wasn't too much trash in the lake and there were even little fishes swimming about.


The Swimming Cave

At first I was a little apprehensive about jumping in to a random lake, but after Dap (?) leapt in and was splashing about, I was put at ease and Ed, Steve, Nancy, and I all jumped in in our swimming suits. The water was nice and cool, way cooler than the ocean had been the day before on Rabbit Island and it was also fairly shaded so it wasn't hot at all. Ed and I decided to explore the deeper parts of the cave and headed towards the back where we thought the lake might continue further, but it got too dark and it didn't look like it went much further. The water must have come from somewhere underneath and beyond the walls of the little cave. Apparently when Ed and I were heading towards the back of the cave, Dap told Nancy that there were ghosts back there and we shouldn't go there. I didn't hear him, but I didn't see any ghosts, only some garbage gathered near the back, probably where the current of the water drained into the other parts of the cave. Some swimming and splashing later, we walked back to the tuk tuk and our driver took us to the Kampot pepper plantations.


Our Cave Guides

The pepper plantations were a bit of a ways off the main road and quite unobtrusive. Our driver showed us how the pepper grows on a vine and explained how they pick the pepper when it's green and after they dry it it becomes black. The white peppercorns come from peeling the pepper berries before drying them, but I don't think their flavor was as intense. We met a nice family that runs the pepper plantation and practiced our Khmei language skills with them. The plantation also grows sapodilla, durian, mango, and papayas too, but they weren't in season yet as the mango season is in May.


Legendary Kampot Pepper Plants

By the time we were done with the pepper plantation, it was about time for lunch so we headed back to Vanna Bungalows in Kep and ate at the nearby Veranda Resort restaurant. The food was really good there but fairly expensive as the Veranda is a really nice resort with moderately priced rooms. They really get you on the food, but it's worth it in my opinion. We were going to stay at the Veranda, but they were all booked up and I will definitely have to stay there the next time. The view there is also really amazing and the bungalows themselves are up in the trees and connected with elevated walkways. I had a delicious chicken club sandwich with fries on freshly baked bread.

After lunch we all had a food coma and took naps in the hammocks on our bungalows' lanais. Dinner was down at the crab shacks again, but in a different place this time. We ate in the shack all the way down at the end and the crabs were bigger than the ones from the shack from before. The crab was also really good and soft and came right out of the shell. We ordered two plates of crab (grilled and with spices) and it came with the excellent Kampot pepper sauce too, yum! Steve, Ed, and I were still hungry after sharing the crabs with the whole group, so we went to the Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant for round two. We ordered deep fried and battered prawns and crab with spices and some morning glory veggies. I'm sorry to say that I was pretty disappointed with the restaurant that LP recommended. LP said they gave a free dessert, but they didn't. There were termites in the table, at least two rats running around the dining area, and the crab was kind of tough and tasted a little overcooked. It seems that the restaurant got Lonely Planet syndrome and has slacked off since they got into the book because they get so much business that they don't even need to be up to the same standard that they used to.


A Kep Crab Dinner