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).