Quote for the Day:
Even the best of friends cannot attend each others' funeral.
- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
Kyoto Jidai Matsuri · Thursday October 27, 2005
In Japan, people like to measure the best things in threes. For example, “The 3 Most Beautiful Places in Japan”, or “The 3 Tallest Mountains”, or “The 3 Stooges”. Maybe not the last one. In Kyoto, there are three big festivals.
Around October of every year, the ‘Jidai Matsuri’, or ‘Period Festival’ is held. This involves people dressing up in clothing from various periods in Japanese history, often representing various famous Japanese historical figures. I went to the festival with Yumi (a friend in Kyoto), Akemi (my old golf partner), and Ms. Matsui (Akemi’s friend). As you can see from the pictures, everyone was wearing fancy clothes. I even managed to get a movie of part of the parade.
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Mr. Heien's Wild Ride · Friday September 16, 2005
After returning to Japan in September, I shipped all my luggage to Kyoto in preparation for school to start. However, I still had my bike, and rather than shipping it I decided to ride it from Okayama to Kyoto.
The first day, I did about 112km from Okayama to Himeji, which was fairly tough because it was through hills on the freeway, sometimes with no bike lane. I spent the night at the house of my friend, Mr. Tatsukawa.
The second day, I headed off with a plan to reach Osaka. After another 100 km or so, I hit Osaka, and decided to try and reach Kyoto that day. Bad move. I got lost 3 times between Osaka and Kyoto, I was caught in the rain, and by the end I was swearing and yelling at the other cars on the road and mumbling nonsense to myself. In the end, I arrived in Kyoto around 10PM, after having travelled 270km in 2 days. Good times...
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Last Days in Kojima · Friday July 29, 2005
I finally wrapped up my time as a teacher in Kojima. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks in Kojima. Onward to Kyoto!
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Found: Lost Japan · Sunday July 17, 2005
In preparation for moving out, I began sorting through all the things in my apartment. In my bookcase of unread books, I came upon the book Lost Japan, a famous book about Japan I had never read before. I spent a week reading it, and realized that I lived right across the water from the old house that the author used to live in. So, as a weekend excursion, I decided to meet up with Kaori and find the house.
This was made tricky by the fact that the map in the book is very vague, intentionally so. We wandered along the only road that seemed correct, until out of the corner of my eye I noticed “Alex’s House” written in Japanese next to a side road. We headed up the bumpy road until we finally came upon Chiiori the ancient house preserved by Alex Kerr and presently occupied by caretakers (i.e. hippies). I was quite proud of my accomplishment, and made sure to take many pictures in celebration.
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