More, We Need More!

So I'm sitting here, 2 more days left of my holiday.  Things that might occupy my time today include; doing uni work, running or going to the gym, writing letters, reading one of the trash chick-lit books mum left behind or concocting another blog post.  Of those things, it's self-evident which I chose and as a result, hope you come to learn a little of the laconic malaise with which I prefer to spend my time off.  Why work hard in these short few days?  I'm only going to have to head to the money making institution come Monday.

So we start this edition with photos of a couple of my friends eating ice.  Quite literally ice.  I don't know why they do it, I've got to assume it's an american thing.

It took a good long while for them to get used to having a great big camera shoved in their face, but I got a few good pictures of them - something for them to look back on.  Again, none of these are colour corrected (because I'm too lazy).

The girl on the left is the opera singer from a couple of years ago.  Still got an amazing voice - still not seen her live.  I'll get round to it one day, when I have lots of money and lots of free time...  Probably not soon then.

And the last one, because I like it.

I don't know what kind of insect this is, but there were a few emerging from their pupae stage.

Late night photography is tricky without a tripod.  It often leads to unexpected results.  This is the river that `

I quite like the fluid look of photographs taken over a longer period - even if they're not particularly well thought out.

Every city looks the same at night, looking down a long road at a line of taxis.

There are homeless people in Kyoto too.

Pagodas too.  Lots of pagodas in Kyoto.

This is the entrance to Kyumizudera temple, or as I affectionately know it; the temple in the clouds.

These stone guardians are everywhere.  I assume they ward off something evil or bad, but they could just be effigies of past owners pets.

I don't think I had the correct lens setup to portray what you could see through this gate, because the view through to the rest of the city was quite special.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

Unfortunately an awful lot of the temples and religious structures were under repair.  The kind of repair that lasts until 2020, and encompasses the entire structure.  It wasn't just at kiyomizudera, it was all over Tokyo and Kyoto.  I wondered whether the Tokyo renovations were due to the earthquake, but I don't think Kyoto was particularly affected so I'm not sure whether there was a different reason.  Maybe an injection of funding from the government?  Implausible, I'll admit.

So here's something I've learned the hard way.  A very large number of your photographs rely on horizontal lines being exactly level.  If they're not, you end up with the above.  It looks like the titanic just after it struck the iceberg, replete with worried passenger.

I don't know why they like terrapins so much, but they're everywhere.  Also, try telling a Japanese person that English people call freshwater tortoises terrapins and not tortoises/turtles. It elicits some interesting attempts at pronunciation.

Once you've gone through the main temple, you walk around a short covered path that looks back on it.  In my opinion, this is where the best views are to be had.  You can see the fantastic work that went into creating the structure.

The city is in the background, with the bowl of mountains encompassing it.

These are looking back at the pagoda, which is a less photographed part of the grounds.  If you've ever seen a photograph of a Japanese temple, there are good odds that you've seen the silver pavillion, golden pavillion, or this place.  It might or might not be particularly important within the realms of religion in Japan, but it is a fantastic sight.

For that reason I tried to shoot something that's a bit different.  Obviously there are a billion pictures of this too, but you work with what you've got.

The main structure is supported on these beams, extending upwards ten or so metres.  It's very large so I'd imagine there's a fair amount of stress on these uprights.  I wonder how they replace them?

These are paper cranes.  Origami is obviously popular in Japan, but the cranes are symbolic of peace.  A girl tried to fold a thousand after the Hiroshima bombings, believing they would save her life (she was burned and suffering from radiation poisoning).  Unfortunately she died before finishing, so her classmates folded the thousand and hung them up in Hiroshima.  After that, they came to act as a reminder that war is bad - and don't piss of the yanks.

These ones have obviously been hanging up for a while, fading in the sun.  You're free to form your own opinions of what this is symbolic of.

Lyn doing some martial arts.  In my head, Kung fu fighting is looping continuously.

Kyoto tower is essentially a baby version of Tokyo tower, which is now a baby version of the new skytree.

Kyoto tower, once more.

I think sushi is a taste you come to like more and more, because I'm starting to enjoy it as a foodstuff, rather than simply a novelty, as I did before.

This drunk chinese guy was attracted to Lyn, and our stuff in the fridge.  I tried to get mum to leave him and Lyn alone for some quiet talking time, but her sense of camaraderie beat out my devious plan.

I think this is back to Tokyo now, but I'm not sure.  While the temples have distinguishing features that make them all unique, the eaves aren't one of them.

All artsy fartsy like.

So we went to learn about a tea ceremony.  I knew some of the stuff, how to present and be presented with a bowl for example, but I learned tons about old Japanese customs.  In much the same way as European high society developed a complicated 'language,' with fans, Japan used them to communicate with their hosts or guests.

A particular highlight for me was a trip to the hotel that Akira Kurosawa stayed at, while filming some of his epics.  He wrote a lot there too.  He was the director I compared to Shakespeare (he based several movies on Shakespearean dramas) during my final year dissertation.  I'd walked past the place a few times (it's in Kyoto) but never realised this is where he stayed.  It was only on the off-chance that I noticed something written in the kimono shop, leading to the owner (Takako's mum) explaining that it was from the hotel across the street.  A marvelous coincidence.

This is a lamp from the hotel, touched up to bring out the details in the paper.

He had a specific room, looking over this courtyard, where he used to write.  The woman who owns the building talked about him and how they'd talk about films, music and anything else that had taken his fancy.

And this is us outside the entrance.

After I dropped mum and Lyn off at the hostel, we went out for a couple of drinks.  As I was still recovering from my knee/hand op at this point, I wasn't afraid to have a few.

This container was actually only a litre.  I didn't have the heart to tell them that in Germany, this is a standard size for one glass - and in England people would think nothing of ordering a few of these for themselves.  It was worth leaving them in the dark for the reaction though.

So I wore rugby stuff for the entire holiday.  My theory was that rugby clothes are meant to be sweated in, which is something I did with aplomb.  The shirts are also comfortable which helps.  Free advertising for Lion.  (Buy their shampoo!)

This was a wedding shoot in Nara, south (I think) of Kyoto.  When you look at the screen on a digital camera it's called chimping, and the way this guy is walking makes him look like a monkey, so it's a perfect combination.

It was a thousand degrees and the photographer is wearing a hoodie with trousers, and the couple are wearing kimono.  Incredible.

I sometimes wonder why they need to meter the light when it's that bright, but I guess the shade from the umbrella changes everything up.

Last one from the wedding shoot.  Physical contact.  Risque.

Look carefully at the sign behind these guys.

How they didn't make it onto TV I'll never know.  Wasted talent.

Nara is famous for deer, of which there are many.

And temples.  There are an awful lot of those too.

This old bastard was spitting, making the most horrific noises that I've heard come from a human being since I watched Psycho.  Anyway, I accidentally took quite a good picture of him.  Damnit.

These chinese girls kept harassing the poor deer, but their picture taking made for some interesting pictures of my own.  Very meta.

I threw some change into this guys bowl.  After doing so, realised that I'd woefully underpaid him so I took a quick snap and ran.

This is pikachu eating Lyn.

Kyoto station is massive in every sense of the word.

We went to an umbrella shop, a very high-class establishment that had little for under a hundred quid.  Needless to say, I was on tenterhooks every time they picked one up.

I can't remember which one Lyn got in the end, but they were all magnificent.

This is the festival for a town near me.  After Lyn departed, we went into town and happened upon this event.

The same place, with a woman accompanying the drums.

There were a surprising number of children.  Considering the much bemoaned decline in interest of younger generations in traditional arts, there were a lot of kids playing instruments.

This guy was the best.  He was belting those drums with everything he had.  Extremely energetic considering the heat.

Thumbs up, good music too.  The street had a dozen trucks each carrying music makers, creating an intensely confusing, but extremely vibrant atmosphere.  It was difficult to tell where one song ended and another began, but it was a great piece of Japan.

This was the shrine they were carrying.  We got there quite early so no one was actually running around with it yet.

The last picture is one of sashimi.  I think sushi is raw fish with rice, whereas sashimi is raw fish sans rice.  There's also some chopped up octopus there too (too chewy for me).  Octopus aside, delicious.  The green paste is a strange, hot accoutrement that is delicious.  Any more than a dab and it acts as a decongestant rather than a foodstuff, however.