RoundTwo

My second time in Japan has been just as magical as the first so far. Whilst the flights are always long and horrid, its all worth it in the end. Our hostel is another old family home converted by young hipsters into a cool hang out and hostel. All traditional style rooms may disturb some but im in my element. As always, the simplicity and grace of Japanese interior design fasciates me. The woman who owns the hostel is a 30y/o Japanese girl who often invites her friend over in the afternoon to party with the gaijin and make a ruckus; which is fine by us.

The first day we were here i took Alex around Osaka for a while, to the castle and finally on to some of the famous shopping districts such as Yodoyabashi Camera and Shinsaibashi. Whilst i had seen it all before, this place, like all places, changes with the seasons. The new fashions, the new colours, everything slightly different to before making this another new experience all over. I did not go to Yodoyabashi Camera last time however but now i know how it gets its name. Imagine JB Highfi, or some such store and multiply its intensity by 20, add a couple of hundred more people and 6 more floors and you have it! Amazing!

That night we came back and Kana the woman who ownes the hostel gave us some advice for heading out in Osaka. Osaka has a notorious night life scene. Its incredibly difficult for a foreigner (or even a Japanese person who didnt grow up in Osaka i have been told) to know where to go. Everything is hidden down back alleys, or in old apartment blocks or washed out old electronics stores. Kana suggested we check-out a place in the old 1980s Blade-runner esque district for a cheap tasty Osaka dinner then a cool underground bar area.

Dinner was amazing, Don-katsu which is essentially bread crumbed pork. But like all Japanese set menus dinner came with a huge number of accompanyments, beer and a smiley old Japanese lady who was overjoyed to have 4 Gaijin eating in her restaurant. So overjoyed in fact that her husband and herself offered us all gifts upon our meals commencement.

From there we walked up thorugh a mall called DenDen town (electronics town) which was closed at this time but still lit by colourful lights and advertisements. The bars we went to were in an old apartment block which was now filled with cheap takeaways at the bottom floor. We climbed an inconspicuous spiral stairwell onto the second level to what seemed to be an old apartment floor. But now, all the doors were open with music drifting down the hall and red lights beconing one inside. Its as if everyone on the floor decided to have a house party at the same time, and you only had to choose which door to enter. Toby would have had a haemorridge from all the options! We chose a small place that looked like a washed up old American bar. The two workers were taking shifts on the decks, playing OLD American hiphop. They invited us back on the 25th for their bars 2nd anniversary party.

Yesterday we just went out of town to a temple called Hasedera. But, i will leave Alex to tell you about that later. For now, we are off to Himeji to marvel at the castle and checkout a festival. Photos will be up soon. Please excuse the spelling, im in a hurry!

first, ill write quickly about last night...i fished myself out of my horrible mood by going out to nanba, the big night time district here in osaka. it was everything you would expect, brightly dressed japanese teenagers smoking cigarettes and doubling on bikes as they cruise through throngs of people. all the bars and restaurants arnt on street level, theyre up in high rises and one has to catch a lift up to your floor/eatery of choice. we ended up at a quite tapas style japanese place and had nearly every one of my favourite japanese foods. the shashimi was delicious!

we then ended up at a brittish pub, quite lame really, but they were closing and the staff were almost as drunk as the patrons. it was quite funny

thats all really, theres just some cool photos...















this is a ride like the giant drop in dream world that is on the side of a building!!! on the side of a freaking building!!
















another great janglish sign
















this is some live fugu, or puffer fish, famous for their culinary toxicity if their preparer isnt properly trained. lots of fugu restaurants, but crazy prices!





























and this is the famous shin-sai-bashi bridge....very flashy

oh sorry... i thought you were buddah

today i ran away from the big smoke again, up to somewhere i had been looking forward this whole time, a mountain and buddhist monastic complex named Koya-san. the train took about an hour, and i feel asleep after some interesting activities last night - an irish girl in our dorm must have thought in her drunken stupor that my bed was hers and insisted on climbing in with me no matter how hard i insisted it was not where she wanted to be. i dozed off but then awoke to a glint of sunlight in my eyes, as the train rolled between the mountains, covered in pine and cypress, in and out of tunnels and groves, immense cliffs on one side and dense forested groves on the other.

to get to koya san you have to take a cable car. and then, you can catch buses around but i found it much more pleasant to walk, its not very large. i first caught a bus out to the cemetary, which is one of the largest and oldest in japan, with some very famous people burried there. i entered the cemetary with a sense of achievement, i have wanted to go here ever since i started reading about japan.

as i entered, i steered off of the main road and stumbled into a mossy grove. i follow a path marked by speckles of sunlight, like some celestial hansel and gretel have trodden this path before me. a window of light shines through the embracing branches of the pines around me, illuminating a solitary buddah. i laugh, for i feel a mimic, a mirror for this ancient statue; my all knowing, satisfied smirk reflecting his and my mossy coloured coat a poor imitation of his thick and luscious coverings.

as my giggling subsides a silence falls over these ancient grounds. one of those silences that gives you sudden skepticism about the accuracy of your hearing, a silence that engulfs you, like when you let your ears slip under the water in a bath and feel the water fill your ears and block all sounds but those emanating from your own body. the hush of wheels on bitumen, the twitter of busy-making birds, all stopped momentarily. the silence only broken by a solitary monk sweeping the snow from the paths and collecting pine branches.

i return to the same buddah later, to find him dull and lifeless, now in the shaddows of his massive pine neighbours, his moment of life has passed. not passed away however, but to other corners of this amazing place, to illuminate new groves and paths. i could spend years following my celestial hansel and gretel around this place, with each passing hour, passing day, passing season new objects gain life for their moment, then pass back in to the shaddows. their moment of glory going often unnoticed.

i sit for a while, in another grove. my meditation only broken by a shriek, then
ええ。。びくり　した！！ah you surprised me!
i look up from my reading, to the response
i thought you were another buddah...

i giggle again, then see my mossy coat and red knitted hat match perfectly with the other inhabitants of this grove. someone too has come to warm their mossy heads with hand made hats and blankets...

i did not want to leave this place. there are some places on this planet i have just felt like i belong, places that call me in like the sirens and keep me there, in this eternal state of bliss, oblivious to the outside world. but alas, i had only a few hours and koysan and the cemetary was only a small part. throughout the day i ran into another lone-wolf, and english man, around random corners and peeping out of tatami matted temple rooms we continued to bump into eachother, with that awkwardness that can only be likened to those moments in the supermarket when you see someone, and go through the motions, then part and have to keep going past them as you go up and down the isles.

i then strolled the streets, poking into temples and monasteries, raked-stone gardens and frozen ponds. i came home as sun set, my last glimpse of koyasan from the main gates. the fabled spirit guardians protecting the mountain from evil spirits who too want to occupy its mossy peaks.

so now, my last night in osaka before heading off to the end of this main island to hang with a friend from university. ancient japan under my belt perhaps its time to experience some of what modern japan has to offer...especially my first shinkansen ride - the fabled super fast trains!

notes in retrospect

today i stumbled across a sweet market that sold all sorts of crap for people who owned restaurants...isles filled with pottery, tea pots, plates, sake cups, all individually painted and decorated, all GORGEOUS and all very cheap. if only i could carry more stuff! i ended up buying a sign that stall holders who sell tako-yaki use out the front of their stalls...haha, it has an octopus on it! and a teapot, from a bitch of a lady must i say, and just some food and stuff...it was fun! a welcome break from strolling around the covered malls here in namba, which are freaking insane!

and this all reminds me of another cool market i stumbled across in my last days in kyoto. it was a food market, branching off the famous terramachi shopping street - i remember the name because it instilled terror in me every time i went there - but this place was quiet, and cosy, filled with lanterns and dried squid. my favorite!

im definatly not made out for japanese city living. theyre very interesting, and beautiful none the less, but i feel the tension ease so quickly as soon as i get out of the cities and in to the country side. ill take some pictures of osaka i promise, because i am sure some of you are interested in that sort of thing. chris - my brother - would love it here, theres gaming parlours every three shops,and in all the suburban areas! lol

so today, i forgot my camera when i went to osaka castle, but im going back there tonight for a late night stroll...i went to go to the museum aswell but it was closed today. then, i came back here to drop off all my purchases and then went out again to a temple in the suburbs of osaka. it was quite quaint, with a beautiful park adjoining. a small crowd of japanese salary-men were filing around, following their little ritual, whilst local kids run about the shrine gates, throwing stones at the local ducks and rippling the perfect reflection of an orange bridge that leads up to the main temple complex.

yeah, thats about it. im having a very gai-jin day - gaijin means foreigner. kids pointing and geting up when i sit nexto them on the subway, grandmas stopping to stare. i think, but starting in the small towns and moving up i ruined myself. im not used to city people and getting pushed about. but the people here are very cool...im quite impressed with how naked these girls are with the temperature and all....

anyway, thats enough i guess...im gonna have a shower and head out to osaka-jo to take some photos...then tomorrow im going to the long awaited koya-san. its a large mountain temple complex, supposidly its snowing there. yay...ill rug up extra this time...

haha the photos dont refeclt the day this time

i kind of pocketed my camera today, so this blog wont be very fulfilling for you guys. and ive had a bit too many asahis to document it all properly...last night i had a great night, i went out with the american couple ive been hanging with and their japanese friend and the french guy ive been hanging with. we went to a local okonomiyaki restaurant and ate a lot of okonomiyaki and drank a lot of beer!!! it was a lot of fun, and their friend shyuun is studying buddhism and hes really good to talk to...yeah anyway

so after that affair this morning i went to an onsen this morning after i did a spot of shopping. i found a beautiful print shop and spent all my money...but it was worth it. all will have to wait and see till i get back.

the picture below is the river that ran along the bottom of the onsen. i took the train and then walked up there, the whole place was immersed in an old growth camphor forest, it was AMAZING!! the forests here just drive me crazy. no photo can capture the feeling of them. just sitting there, in the moist air, breathing in the mossy, musty, woody, wet air. ahh its kind of like the old forests in victoria, but amongst it all are mossy stones that were once beautiful temples, or glowing orange gates calling the spirits to this beautiful place.

and the onsen was incredible. it was outside, and jutted out with a view of the massive forest accross on the other side of the valley. sigh...amazing.
















this is just a cute little sign in the township, the place was called kurama...















this is the path leading up to the temple, there was a massive walk from one side of the valley to the other but i didnt have the change on my for entry, and i had to get back to the hostel because the girl was kind enough to keep my bag even though i had checked out. that hostel was amazing! the people were so incredible, always family hanging around and drikning in the cafe, sitting in the window drinking tea and watching the surprised faces of japanese commuters...sleeping on futons in golden screened rooms...sigh...beautiful















i cant be bothered running up and getting my lonely planet, toby will know the name of these guys immediately. theyre famous in this region, famous demons in the area...trouble makers and the like....very cool
















sorry this blog isnt very interesting...im really tired, it was a beautiful day though but one that was filld with reflection.

one thing i am sick of, is people who are here and are not even interested in japan. i talked to some guys on the train to osaka today and they were so racist, so rude about japanese people and culture, completely un-interested in everything cultural, only tits and ass and video games. it made me really mad. i think im going to miss the people i was with in kyoto, they were all there for the people and the place and the feeling....not the clubs....but i guess thats the way it goes...right now theres american movies on the tv and football games...im going to go find a place to read...

a union of opposites. its a statement leandra made once, in a seniour year art class, when she was rehearsing her new role as an art critique. a union of opposites is slowl becoming the only way i can describe this place. and today was another perfect example of the phrases usefullness.
like i said yesterday, by plan to get up super early and go to this shingen buddhist ceremony was fulfilled. at 5am thismorning i was up, and dressed and out the door walking to Toji - a really famouse temple here in kyoto - to participate in/watch the ceremony. it was FREEZZINGGG!!! but we made it eventually, and on time...
we were most certainly the only westerners and at that, the only people under the age of 60! like australian religion i assume, attending services is becoming a bit `old hat` here in japan as well, and thus the elderly cling to the ritual but there is noone moving in to replace them. the ceremony was beautiful, i would liken it to the catholic style of ceremony. lots of incense, and bells behind screens, all members chanted from books in monotonous japanese syllables that surprisingly did not lull me back to sleep.
the priest, tapping ceremonial cups and jangling sacred bells, performed his rituals like we were not even there, back to the group. the finery on display was a pleasure to behold; gold hilt screens and cushions, more candles burning than hearts beating, screens of fine wood upon which shaddows of the other priest who performed secret tasks behind them played. very mystic. and emily tells me thats what shingen is, mystics...
after that we hit up the seven-11 for some heat and some eat..and waited for the flea markets to start at that same temple. i tell you what, to a japanese person all the kimonos, pottery and trinkets would have been nothign new, but to three westerners hungry for souveniers this market was everything that we wanted! i spent a lot of time and money and dont regret a single cent or second! it definatly tested my japanese aswell...































and it only got better after that! we returned to the hostel to warm up, then i headed back out into the cold after a warm bowl of soba, to brave abashiyama - a temple district outside of kyoto. there was a lot of changing subway trains, and a very quaint tram-like railway to the township, but it was beautiful. i headed first to a zen buddhist temple close to the station...tenryuku-ji. zen is a very different idea to shingen and its obvious in the way they arrange their surrounding, in their aesthetic.
this temple was large, but predominantly garden. with a very simple hall and temple complex that was surrounded on all sides by a perfectly manicured garden. raked stones, mossy mounds, an immense cherry grove hibernating for the next bloom in spring, and the constant sound of tapping bamboo and running water. coy carp swim lazily around the huge central pond; one positioning itself perfectly under a waterfall; relieving the stresses of its daily life i am sure. for living in that place, amongst the bamboo and the moss and the weeping pines, would be horrendous. sigh....



























































after that, i wandered up a bamboo lined path to some other very small temples that have almost been my favourite yet. unlike hasu-dera, which was my favourite till now, the beauty of these temples lay in their minute details. their moss gardens, their tiny streams. like the bonsai that adorned their biuldings, these two temples were beauty on a small, meticulously executed scale. the first was renowned for one of its inhabitants, who was once an incredibly famous geisha, but whos love affair with a promenant general led to her fleeing to the nunnery and joining this temple with her mother and sister.












































MOSSS!!!!!

the second, where i spent an hour in its tiny grounds, is fabled for a romeo-juliet style love affair. a nobleman is banned from marrying his country-girl sweet heart and flees to establish this temple in the outskirts of kyoto. she follows him however, and serenades him from outside the temple gates with her flute. here last attempt to contact him is rejected and she writes her final love letter in her own blood on a rock infront of the temple and throws herself into the river that runs beside it....the rock is still there supposidly.this photo is of it...
i sat there for like an hour, relaxing, enjoying all the moss! haha, im realizing my love for moss, as lame as that sounds.



























































then, i headed to the famous bridge that is in ALL the anime...had my closest encounter with some geisha - though i am sure they were just girls dressed as geisha, they had no grace - and then i headed back to town. i had to buy a new train pass, whch took like a freaking hour! the union of opposites; that i can spend a day in mossy groves and secluded temples, then in crazy market filled city temples, from being relaxed and mellow to chasing lights and buses and atms...japan, it does it so well. blending all these things together. and now im back here, again, drinking asahi and waiting for my dinner companions...yay
enjoy the pics, these are some of my favourites.