Kyoto 2 - Kiyomizudera Temple June 25, 2010 10:13

In the United States, a tourist attraction might be the mummified corpse of an obscure gunslinger with a stapled-on dolphin tail, advertised as a real mermaid, lying in state behind a gas station.

In Japan its more likely to be a solid granite temple built by master artists, frequented by real spirits and demons.

In this case it is a truly amazing temple built to channel a natural spring which has been running constantly since, like, eight hundred years ago.  Otowa waterfall.  It is part of a large complex of buildings and temples at the foot of a mountain.  People stand in a short line for their turn to capture a little cup of water from one of three streams coursing above their heads.  Each stream has a specific in its properties.  Drinking the water of the three streams is said to confer wisdom, health, or longevity.  I was told that drinking from more than one was considered bad form, and may bring misfortune.

I wasn't sure if the order of the  streams went from left to right, or right to left.  So I didn't chance getting the wrong thing, and just watched from a distance and took pictures of everyone else drinking.  I'm not sure about the power of the water, but the temple seemed to bring a lot of happiness indeed.

Kyoto part one June 24, 2010 18:40

So we arrive in Kyoto last night, and wisely decided to get dinner at a really cool restaurant that was super-hard to find.  It is hard to find partially because smaller streets don't have any names.  So when you get to this level of searching you're really using landmarks as much as anything.  Like, "Turn right when you see a house with yellow curtains.  If you see a guy on a red bike you've gone too far."

This suits me because its how I navigate.  When I was a kid I rode my bicycle everywhere, but never realized I wasn't reading street signs when one day, after riding the same route for ten years, I looked around and didn't recognize anything.  I was lost.  I had to backtrack and circle for quite a while before I figured out where I was.  How did I get lost in a county I rode through thousands of times?   A guy painted his house.  When the color of the house changed, I didn't get my cue to turn and, well, just kept riding, looking for a yellow house, till I hit the foothills of the rocky mountains and realized there was a problem.

Sugiyama Jogakuen University's Elementary June 24, 2010 18:16

Every morning we visit a school.  And every morning I think, "That was magic, we'll never be able to top this."

And every time I'm wrong.

We visited Sugiyama Jogakuen Elementary yesterday morning, and, well, how am I going to explain this?  You know what, for right now, I won't.  I'm in Kyoto for a couple of days so I'll see if I can't work on something that will maybe get it across.  For now, I'll just leave you with a picture or two that won't do justice to what happened.  The temporary story is this -

We arrived at Sugiyama, which is an all-girl school.  Before we went to their assembly hall we visited with the Head Master, who was charming beyond belief.  Two of the students arrived to escort Dean and I to the hall.  I hopped up and started out the door, but suddenly got a vibe that I should bring my little Flip video camera.  So I turned around and picked it up.

That decision was probably the best one I'll make this year.

More on that later.  For now, here is a picture of Dean leaving the assembly hall after our question and answer session.  He is being swarmed by the younger group of 354 girls somewhere from 1st to 6th grade.  Dean is carrying flowers that they gave him and is actually trying to not fall over.  I'm about eight feet behind him in a similar situation.  The next to last picture is the entire hall  giving a super high energy shout-out to a row of TV video cameras that lined up on the stage after we left it.

The very last picture is a detail I had to pluck out of that picture for you.  I think it does a better job of explaining the community at that school better than I could.

What a place.  That morning I was the luckiest guy on Earth.

OHK! :) June 24, 2010 10:45

If you read my previous post you understand this picture.

This is me and OHK.

OHK gets me.

Its alright that Dean is in our picture.  OHK is cool with it.

Even though this is really just a picture of me and OHK.

Yeah, OHK

Uchiyama Kindergarten June 23, 2010 18:06

June 23.  Too many things happened to fit in one post - I'll never be able to narrow it down to one picture or video.

I started the morning by taking the Bullet Train from Fukuoka to Okayama.  We visited Uchiyama Kindregarten.  Uchiyama Kindergarten is where Japan keeps the cutest kids on the planet.  About 70 or so children gathered in their auditorium/gym to ask some questions about our movie and what we do for a living.  Then everyone split into four groups to paint some large dragons.  We were supposed to talk to the kids as they worked, but Dean and just I ended up painting with them.    After the painting they made a giant circle and did a bit of dancing before we had to leave.

We had lunch in an italian restaurant across from a real palace.  Dean and I were told that this town was famous for a legend about a boy who was born out of a peach, and went on to defeat demons.  As we left the restaurant I noticed that an illustration of the boy from the legend was molded into the manhole cover in the street.  At least I'm pretty sure that's who it is.

Then we drove to a TV station for a live TV appearance.  When we arrived I immediately became distracted by what seemed to be the station's mascot - a little animal named OHK.  It's pronounced OH-koo.  He wears a black cap that covers his ears, and orange pants.  I immediately focused all my attention on him.  I helpfully identified every OHK I saw as we walked through the building, waving at plush OHK I saw in offices and poking at the eyes of the ones printed on posters.  I asked if he was working there somewhere, and if I could meet him.  It didn't take long before they dug up some OHK stickers and a OHK file folders for Dean and I.  They even had a little rubber stamp they had made with OHK's autograph, which they stamped a business card with.  This made me extremely happy, and I was buzzing with joy when we went on the TV show.  Dean and I each drew Toothless for the hosts as we answered questions.  Dean drew Toothless' head, and I drew Toothless sitting on a lawn next to OHK with a big shiny heart floating between them.  I think the show went well, and everyone seemed enthusiastic about the accuracy of my OHK drawing.  When we got back to the green room I couldn't believe my eyes...."

OHK!!!!!!!  He was there!  The real actual OHK!  There he was in his orange pants, waiting for me!  I ran to him and asked him many questions.  They showed him my drawing and he threw up his tiny, perfect white paws in exclamation.  I didn't have my camera handy, so Dean shot a few pictures with his cel phone.  I'll get hold of them and post them later.  Alas, I couldn't stay with OHK as long as I wanted (he has many responsibilities) so we bid him farewell and moved on to our next appointment.