27 August 2005, night Mike's visit: Kyoto
One of the most impressive experiences of Mike's visit was just riding through Kyoto prefecture on the train. We went to Yagi-cho for a fireworks festival on the 14th. We spent most of the afternoon in Kyoto city, where we first went to the Tezuka shop at JR Kyoto Station. I wanted to add another robot to my collection, and that's been the place to do it in the past. When we got there I quickly realized they were no longer carrying the robots I was after. That was fine though. I saved about 4,800 yen on the trip, and in the long run about 20,000 yen, since there are, I believe, 4 robots I don't have from the series. I ended up buying a 250 yen washcloth instead.After that, we went to the museum at Isetan department store, where Kumiko and I went a couple of years ago for the Takehisa Yumeji exhibition. This time around, there was a much more popular exhibit: Anpanman. Anpanman is a cartoon superhero whose head is made made of bread. There were about 8 million kids and infants at this show, so it was kind of hard to move around, but it was fun, and the art was better than I'd imagined. On a side note, I recently met the mother of the woman who is the voice of Currypanman, Anpanman's curry bread headed sidekick. Believe it or not, people are actually pretty impressed when they hear that.
Afterwards, we made our way to the restaurant floor, and had some pretty excellent ramen. I was very surprised at how good it was. I didn't expect to get top-notch ramen at a department store, but there you have it. It was some of the best I've ever had. This type is called "shio ramen", because it has "salt based" (shio) soup. It's the lightest tasting of the major varieties: shio, shoyu (soy sauce), tonkotsu (pork bones), and miso (miso). The flavor gets heavier in that direction. Usually a ramen shop specializes in only one of those, but might offer one or two others to please everyone. We had some delicious, ice-cold Asahi Super Dry with our ramen, which helped me, because I was suffering from some kind of feverish sickness that day (and the next). Mike was lucky to fall into such excellent ramen on his first full day of the trip.
So after the ramen we kind of goofed around Kyoto Station for a while, and ran into our friends Jacob and Haruyo, who were also showing a visiting friend around Kyoto. Following Mike's concept of manga-based Japanese reality, we had some immaculate ice cream parfaits in one of the shops underground. I was glad he chose this, because I always want to eat those things when I see them in the shop displays too, but never do.
Eventually it was time to meet up with Kazuomi, Chiaki, and Daichi, who were to accompany us to Yagi for thr fireworks festival. This brings me back to my opening statement "One of the most impressive blah blah blah...". We'd never been to Yagi before, but we were desperate to find a fireworks festival that would fit into Mike's vacation schedule, and this was the one. That's why we planned the day in Kyoto on the 14th. So, we met up with Kazuomi's family, and boarded a very cool-looking green and orange local train for Yagi, which is not a city, but a town, out in the boonies of Kyoto Prefecture. On the way we passed over probably a dozen picturesque river valleys, and then through green, green ricefield land, and I swore I would come back and get off at every station along the way to walk around with my camera. I will. It was so peaceful and beautiful.
There was a middle-aged guy on the train wearing a shirt that just said "WEAKNESS". I recently saw a young Japanese guy with a shirt that had a very Catholic-looking picture of the Virgin Mary on it which said "Mary is my Home Girl". A few years ago I saw a young guy in a shirt that said "Ask me how to save 10% off your purchase now." I'm sure those last two came over from the US as some kind of American vintage thing. I don't know where "WEAKNESS" came from.
When we got to Yagi, it was looking like rain, which is no good for fireworks, so I was worried it might be cancelled. Luckily, the rain we got was pretty weak, and stopped eventually, so the show went on. Mike and I were pretty much going crazy taking pictures the whole time we were there. Daichi was being pretty cute, so he made it into a fair number of photos. I ripped off one of Daichi's fried chicken pieces, but it wasn't enough, so Mike and I slipped away before the show started and loaded up on yakitori and yakisoba (and Asahi Super Dry). It's not my favorite beer, but it will always do.
When we came back, we still had some time to wait, and an old dude came over to me to talk about cameras. He was lugging around a big 4x5 Toyo view camera. I'm sure he wasn't too pleased with the weather. He saw my Super Ikonta, so he decided to say hello. It turns out that his name is Yagi and he lives in Yagi. I gave him my "business card" and a roll of the old-fashioned Croatian 120 film that I made Mike lug over for me (bless him). Anyway, he was a nice old guy.
I set up the Super Ikonta on my mini tripod and screwed in the cable release, and the fireworks began. It was a lame small-town show, but those are the best kind. Reminded me of the shows we've seen in Sanda. We got moving again before the show was over, to try and beat the crowds back to the station. It sort of worked. We still had to wait in a mass of people, but not too long. It felt like a long time though, because I was feeling sick.
Once on the train, I overheard a bit of Kazuomi and Chiaki's conversation about bathing. I knew what was coming and felt some combined anxiety and fascinated anticipation. We were going to a sento. I'd been to public baths at Japanese hotels, but never to a full-on sento. This place was huge, and business was jumping. Of course it was nothing at all for Kumiko and Kazuomi and Chiaki. That's just a part of normal Japanese life. But for Mike and I, it was a moment of humility. Going to a sento means taking it all off in front of a room full of naked people. Actually, thank goodness everyone else is naked too. It was actualy a great experience. Little Daichi seemed more nervous than Mike and I. He covered his weenie when he was out of the baths. Mike and I were careful not to look at eachother's special regions. There were 4 types of baths at this sento: hot, cold, bubble massage, and outdoor. I tried them all. Then I went into the dry sauna room, where the temperature was 90ºC (194ºF!). There was no steam, just dry heat, and breathing was like inhaling fire. I had to breathe through my washcloth, because the air burned my nostrils. I think people could die in there if they weren't careful. After a final shower to cool down, I went out and got dressed, and we all went down to the common area and joined the ladies for some beverages. I had two bottles of ice-cold milk, which was delicious and calcium-rich. I think Mike and I were both surprised at what a nice experience it all was. I want to go back!
Finally we drove back to Kazuomi's house, and talked for a little while, and Mike gave them some Texas presents. I had to go to bed pretty soon, because of my condition, but it was a nice evening. Kumiko didn't buy a beer at the sento because they only had Magnum Dry, which sucks. She decided to wait until Kazuomi's house. Kazuomi went to the fridge and brought out some Magnum Dry. Kazuomi, why do you drink Magnum Dry?
1.Kumiko ordering yams in Yagi 2.Yagi firworks (my only good shot)
24 August 2005, noon It's hard to get started again. Once again, this is only a quick post. I need a weekend before I can get around to writing about Mike's visit. It was great. Details to come. I've been spending the evenings getting some fireworks photos printed for the Yodobashi Camera Hanabi Photo Contest. And I just printed a few others to send to the Onishi family (our hosts in Tokushima). Here are a few photos to get the ball rolling. Kumiko and I started watching "24" season 3 this week, and it's getting pretty engrossing now. It's going to dominate our evenings for a couple more weeks, I imagine.
1.Mike at Higashi something temple in Kyoto 2.Onishi grandkids in a rice field 3.Kazuomi's family, plus Kumiko at Yagi before the fireworks 4.Kumiko boarding a good-looking train at Kyoto station
16 August 2005, late night Phew! It's good to be home again. Mike is here, and we've spent the last two nights at other homes. On Saturday, we took him to Kyoto to see a fireworks show. We spent the afternoon shopping, attending an exhibition of Anpanman art, and eating excellent ramen. Then we met Kazuomi, Chiaki and Daichi and trained it over to Yagi-cho for a slightly rainy fireworks festival. The rain didn't matter. It was a fun show, but we were all a little damp and a lot hot. There were six of us facing one bathroom at Kazuomi's house, so we decided to go to a sento (public bath) near their house. It was my first time to try a sento, so I was a little worried about the prospect of being naked and surrounded by others' nakedness, and Mike was fairly petrified, but we got through it. It was actually a great experience, and now I want to try my local sento. I always take pictures of the outside, but I've never been in. I don't have the gumption to type any more now, so I'll leave today until tomorrow and some more details from yesterday as well. Good night!
10 August 2005, early morning I'm 3 for 3 on not getting rained out at fireworks festivals this season. Yodogawa Festival was a close call. It rained in the afternoon on Saturday, and even during the festival there was thunder and lightning, but luckily no rain until after. I went by myself, since Kumiko was in school, and lugged a bunch of equipment with me. It was worth it though. I was a little bored hanging out before the show started, but I occupied most of that time taking short walks within eye-shot of my little camp (and equipment). I found a great spot to set up the camera, where no one wanted to sit for a little while because of a partial obstruction from some thin towers on the river, which were just the kind of thing I needed to give my fireworks shots some perspective. I brought my Contax Aria + 45mm for the bulk of the firworks, as well as my Bessa rangefinder for pre-show pics. I didn't bother with tungsten film, because it's crazy expensive (¥1000/roll). I just bought a light blue filter to balance the light a bit on regular daylight slide film. I used mostly Konica-Minolta Sinbi 100, which I picked up in a ten-pack for only ¥440/roll.I got some of them back today, and there's a little trio of pictures below this posting. I'll put together a full gallery when I have everything wrapped up. On Monday, I had the day off, and Kumiko and I headed over to Ibaraki City for another of my favorite festivals. Ibaraki has a big audience, but still manages an old-fashioned festival atmosphere. I had giant yakitori, which is pretty much my favorite festival food, although the giant frankfurter on a stick comes close. I'll be sure to go for the frankfurter on the 14th in Kyoto when we take Mike to his first Japanese fireworks festival. I'm excited!
1.stormy skies before the show 2.a guy watching the show 3.the show!6 August 2005, mid-day WOO HOO! Toyonaka! Yesterday we set a record. Hottest temperature for the year anywhere in Japan. It was 38.4°C, which is about 101°F. Something to be proud of. That'll generate some good background excitement for the Toyonaka Matsuri (festival), which is today. I have a day of festivities planned. I'm going to head over to Toyonaka Station pretty soon to enjoy the early stages of the festival before heading over to Juso for Osaka City's biggest fireworks festival, Yodogawa Hanabi Taikai. They fire off 25,000 fireworks every year at this time. I want to observe from the wings this year with a camera or two. New pictures on the side of this page. As always, you can click to enlarge them.
Models and people at JR Osaka station last winter.
photo with Canon A-1, 50mm lens, Kodak Ektachrome 2004 August 2005, early morning I'm scanning! It's my hobby. I just scanned a bunch of medium format negatives while we watched Kumiko's old video tapes of Twin Peaks. So weird to see it after all these years. I remember being so disappointed each week that the episode was over, and breathless for the next. This show is filled with beautiful women. It's great. I remember at the time that it seemed like a new type of beautiful woman, unlike what I'd ever experienced before. We had leftover Chinese eggplant stuff on rice for dinner. It was much better (approximately 2.4x) as a leftover than it was in it's first appearance. The eggplant were from our garden, so they're extra good. Kumiko and I are gearing up for my friend Mike to come visit us in a couple of weeks (sooner even). I've loaded him down with film and personal hygiene items. He's coming during the Obon holidays, so Kumiko will be free from school, and I'll take some vacation days. We're going to go to Tokushima for a festival called Awa Odori. We went about three years ago, and loved it. Can't wait to do it again. I picked up my Fujifilm Klasse from the shop yesterday. It's working like a charm now (it was full of Guamanian sand), and the repairman was able to explain something else I'd been wondering about its operation. I'll never take it to the beach again.
