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