It's Hard Not to be a Rockstar in Tokyo

Ah Japan...
The country is known for many things; It's culture is one of the oldest in the world, the Buddhist temples and shrines, the tenth largest population with over 128 million and of course, karaoke.
Back in the states, I enjoy patronizing the Full House Lounge (I can be found there at least once a month on Thursdays or Fridays) in Benson. Although I botch pretty much every song I sing, I really enjoy the thought of performing someone else's song to a group that may or may not want to hear the particular tune chosen. Now, as you would imagine, there are some differences between karaoke here in Japan and karaoke back home (beyond trading the Wild Turkey for sake).
After last night, I am glad to say that I have experienced karaoke both in Kyoto and Tokyo. In both areas, a small room is rented hourly and typically with a one drink minimum per person. The beers and cocktails are around 500 yen (one yen is roughly equal to one penny) as is the room per hour. Due to the size of the rooms, I recommend not setting down your beer as there tends to be a domino effect when (not if, but when) a beer gets knocked over. In Kyoto, we were lucky enough to have our friend Akira (chef and owner of kitchen Rakuraku which a few of us attended almost every night) show us the ropes. After getting a hang of the the wireless machine which just uses kanji (japanese symbols), to dial in the numbers of our selected jams, we were ready to rock.
The videos behind the words on the screen show the most awkward of moving images, from a very distraught man who gets out of his convertible to smoke a cigarette as traffic screams by on a busy street, to the most ridiculous computer animation of some sort of spaceship cruising between sky scrapers in a futuristic cityscape with a grip of missiles chasing closely behind. There is also this reoccurring video of some buff white guy being admired by a woman as he's leaning on a gas pump filling up his ride.
As you can tell from the photos, one is much more susceptible to seizures while singing in Tokyo rather than the laid back Kyoto room. As the lights flashed quickly above my head and the glowing lights changed the skin tone of people's faces from blue to pink, I looked at myself in a rounded mirror and realized that while in this room, we are all rock stars.
I'm not saying saying that I prefer karaoke in Japan, but the Full House Lounge may need to step it's game up.


P.S. I didn't post any videos that I shot, because people also shot video of me... I would be shooting myself in the foot if I posted, but if anyone back home wants some blackmail videos, contact me at j.addison0@gmail.com. Keep in mind, these videos don't come cheap.

It feels great to be alive.

Today was one of the greatest days I've had yet here in Japan and in my life as a whole. I know it's really something to say that, but I mean it. The day began with a tour of Byodo-in, also known as the Phoenix hall, a national treasure of Japan. This temple is nearly 1000 years old. This just isn't something you can find back in the states. There's something about the ages of these places and monuments that fascinates me. I imagine all the people that must have walked and interacted here and it instills in me a sense of awe, leaving me speechless really. It's hard to compare a 1000 years of blood, sweat and tears to anything else I've experienced thus far in my life. After we left the temple our group split up to find some lunch. A friend and I looked around for a while and were beginning to think we wouldn't find a satisfactory place to dine. Our efforts were not in vein because eventually at the end of the road (ironic?) we found a soba noodle place on the 3rd floor over looking Uji river. I didn't know what to expect from the food but I soon realized it was some of the best I've had since we've been here. Immediately I noticed the spectacular view of the river and mountains. Breathtaking really. The perfect place to enjoy Japanese cuisine while at the same time taking in the scenery if there ever was one. I had tempura soba with shichimi, a Japanese spice consisting of 7 ingredients. When were finished with our meal we took a stoll through the market again and bought some green tea ice cream. I wasn't aware this even existed but in Japan there's virtually green tea everything. Very delicious. From there we went down to the river I spoke of previously. This is where things really started to fall into place. There was a man playing an oboe whose music permeated the surrounding atmosphere and set the mood perfectly. In that moment time stopped and the dream was alive. One of the most memorable moments in my life, one that I'll never for get. I took this energy and put it into a sketch of the view I had from where I sat. I wanted to keep working but time is of the essence and we had a train to catch. Besides, once you stop letting these moments move through you and you try to hang on to them, they lose their meaning. I was there, I lived it and I loved it. I can't wait to return.

Because I found it interesting, and because it's pretty culturally significant, here's a link to learn more about green tea.

The Initiation of the New Head Priest

To read Balsam Ali's story, "The initiation of the new head priest," please click on the link.

The Amazing Bullet Train Ride to Nagoya

To read Balsam Ali's story, "The amazing bullet train ride to Nagoya," please click on the link.

Smoker's Paradise

Due to technical difficulties some of the students are unable to post to the "Japanese Visual Culture in Context" blog. Please read Balsam Ali's story, "Smoker's paradise" by clicking on the link.

Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari is probably one of the best temples around Kyoto. The site itself is sprawled across a mountainous landscape, and the pathes are lined with hundreds to possibly thousands of torii gates. After getting off the train we noticed right away one incredibly large Torii gate standing right outside the station. This torii was practically welcoming visitors straight into Inari, and it was less than 100 feet from the Inari Station. The first thing I noticed as we walked past the large Tori was the statues of the Kitsune. These spirits were followers of Inari and helped carry his messages and orders. These were playful spirits and the statues were all similar with one holding a scroll in its mouth and the other is holding an Orb.

My first thoughts on the sight were from having seen pictures and movie scenes that involved the torii gates and how amazing it was to see all these gates lined up to look like a wall. I learned that business would donate money to the complex and would receive a Torii gate in its honor to be placed along the path. This tradition is thought to bring success in the business world and who knows maybe it helps a little to contribute to many of the nations historical sites.

As we walked along there were many smaller shrines that were dedicated to Inari and the Kitsune and all of these small shrines held tiny Torii gates, and smaller statues of the kitsune with offering boxes. We ended up wondering around for awhile and eventually off the regular path. We didn't realize that this path was off the tracks, because we saw an older man walk up it just before us. We ended up walking for 30-45 minutes in the woods and found some very cool shrines that many people do not see.

So after we turned around and hauled butt back to the regular path it was getting some what late and we decided to head down the mountain. We ended up walking around and finding an awesome little pond that had lots of turtles and Koi fish swimming about near the shore. Watching these little creatures go about their days was very relaxing and we needed a break from that hike in the woods. One of the more interesting things we found were a tiny buddha with a glass of sake in front of him and a priestess which is the first one I had seen the whole trip.

Kinkaku-ji: The Golden Pavillion

I'd love to tell you about my experience at Kinkaku-ji, (this goes for my experience in Japan as a whole as well) but for me words cannot truly describe what it means to experience what I have seen. But I'll do my best. Last semester I drew a picture of this temple for a project I did for one of my art classes but it wasn't until I was preparing for this trip that I realized I would be going there. This temple is positioned like a dream on the waters edge in the outskirts of Kyoto. Pictures really don't do the gold leafing on the temple justice, its most definitely something that must be seen in person to really be appreciated. All the temples here have a presence to them and the gold on this one only seems to heighten that quality. One thing about the architecture here that stands out to me is the amount of overlapping, converging, horizontal and vertical lines. For me, this makes sketching things out rather difficult. So I've realized that to represent things accurately I should try to draw them in layers, starting with what would be farthest into the picture plane. This makes trying to keep track of how how everything is laid out easier, for me at least. There's a sort of fusion and harmony between the modern and the traditional here in Japan that I don't see present anywhere else in the world. Being more concerned with the overall aesthetic in everything than the practicality. Which makes nearly everything art. Which makes for a very visual culture. And so, it is here I find myself in Japan. Visual culture, in context.

Here's a link to find out more about Japanese architecture.

Byodoin Temple- National Treasures

The reason I was first interested in experiencing the Byodoin Temple in Uji was because of a previous visit to the replica in Hawaii. After visiting the replica and the original, I feel like they each come with a different experience and give off a different mood. When I experienced the one in Hawaii, it was quiet and serene, with only a few people walking around. It felt like my own private place nestled in the mountains. The original Byodin Temple in Japan seems much more regal and imposing with sprawling grounds and tons of tourists coming to get a glimpse of the many national treasures.

replica in Hawaii

The real thing

Byodoin Temple was first established in 1052 when the Fujiwara clan converted their family villa into a temple. It was during the mid-Heian Period and is now one of the last surviving pieces of architecture of that time. The pure land garden with the Ajike Pond is also a great example of Heian design. The main building is called Phoenix Hall because of the two phoenixes flanking the center roof and the structure's resemblance to a phoenix spreading its wings. In the center of Phoenix Hall sits the seated statue of Amitabha Tathagata, made by Jocho, a Buddhist sculptor specializing in the assembled wood technique.

The Phoenix Hall itself is a national treasure as well as the Amitabha Tathagata statue inside. There is a modern museum at the back of Phoenix Hall that houses relics and other national treasures including the original pair of phoenixes, Buddhist temple bell, and the fifty-two worshiping bodhisattvas on clouds. The modern architecture of the museum is a surprising contrast from the aged beauty of the temples on the grounds. Lines, framing, materiality, elegant simplicity, and the use of dark and light suggests traditional Japanese architecture and the concept of yugen. I think that this site is definitely worth a visit and that the modern museum adds a great visual contrast and a more in depth view into the history of the site. Directions to the site and more history and photos can be found at sacred-destinations.com. Byodoin Temple on the 10 yen coin

Japanese Food: not always as tasty as it looks

I went to Fashimi Inari yesterday, which is... Well, it has over 10,000 tori gates that are orange and black, so it looks very cool as you walk through them. The fox-god of the mountain has become a god of business. Many companies have donated these tori gates, so there are more each year.



The walk up the mountain was nice, but I was looking for places to eat the whole time and none of the shops caught my eye. I ended up eating at the bottom near the entrance after coming back down. Big mistake. >.>

I came across a shop with some fried and grilled foods. Like many restaurants in Japan, they had plastic representations of food at the entrance. I asked, in Japanese, if they had an English menu. They explained that the plastic representations were essentially their menu. So I got some banana flavored shaved ice, and what LOOKED like yakitori. In the example, it was just skewered meat. When it arrived at the table, it was 5 pieces of meat which I had to eat with a nearby toothpick. There were four larger pieces, and a smaller piece, which I thought might be a heart, because I'd eaten heart-yakitori the day before. Upon eating one of the bigger pieces, I noticed that it was very crunchy. That's normally a good thing, but I soon realized that the crunchiness wasn't coming from the outside. It was on the inside. This thing was full of bones. I realized I had no idea what I was eating. The flavor was fine, but I was chewing up some kinds of animal, and I had no idea what it was. Bones were busting and popping in my mouth and I decided it was disgusting. Somehow, I managed to eat a second piece. I gagged several times, but kept assuring myself, "just chew and nod." I really, really wanted to spit it out, but I took at least 5 minutes to finish this bite. It was quite the challenge not to vomit, but I did what I had to in order to avoid it and swallow the second piece. (I am pretty proud of swallowing a second bite.) After this, I had my suspition regarding this 5th smaller piece. I prodded it several times with my toothpick to confirm my suspitions that it was a skull, not a heart. It was the head of something. I could not finish this meal. I knew how to ask in Japanese what it was I had just eaten but I didn't want to be rude. I politely paid and left, despite my curiosity. After walking for another minute or so, I saw another shop which had a similar dish, and they had the names in English. It was BBQ quail.

I love meat. I enjoy eating off the bone. But these tiny, popping, crunchy bones were the grossest thing I have eaten. I'm sure many people enjoy it, but it was not for me. Oishikunaideshita. It was not tasty.

The Top 5 Things You Should Know about Japanese bathrooms

Greetings blog folk. Join me on this journey as we go over many of the different features of Japanese bathrooms:

1. Bathrooms can be as high tech or low tech as you want them to be:
From squatting toilets to western toilets to toilets where you can press buttons to rinse your rear end at different temperatures-- you never know what you’re going to find in a Japanese bathroom


2.You can simulate the sound of toilet flushing
I’ve been noticing a remote handle attached to some of the bathroom stalls I’ve been in at malls and grocery stores that include a music note as one of the symbols. I thought this was for “therapeutic toilet music” but upon further inspection I found out that it was the sound of toilets flushing. When I questioned the usage of this to one of my friends in Osaka she replied “ Some Japanese people feel uncomfortable with their bodily functions so they have noises to cover that up. Isn’t it ridiculous?”


3.There is anti-bacterial soap in the stalls with which you may clean the toilet seat for you to clean the toilet seat. Wow.
See attached photo of directions on how to perform:




4.Some toilet seats are heated ☺

I can’t explain guys you just have to trust me on the fact that you can really feel the difference.

5.There are WESTERN TOILETS and JAPANESE TOILETS:

Western toilets are toilets that we in the states are used to. All the above information might be included in the settings of a western toilet but Japanese toilets are floor toilets where you squat down to perform you bathroom needs. Males and females both have Japanese toilets but from my experience they are just as common as western toilets. Sometimes they are marked on the door before you go into public stalls, but not always. It is an experience with trying.

For more information on one of Japan's largest toilet brands check out
Toto's site
http://www.toto.co.jp/products/zone/toilet.htm

Osaka Vs. Kyoto

Part of this trip has been about discovering new things and taking chances. Being a woman in a foreign country has obstacles that some might not be able to imagine. The truth is—there’s always going to be one point where you will be lost and feel like a stranger in a foreign land--completely alone. In the end, no matter how much you try to emerge yourself in your surroundings there are times where you are literally lost in translation.

I was very adamant about visiting a familiar face today. A childhood friend, Aya who now resides in Osaka, Japan. Osaka is a 15 min walk, two train rides and a subway trip for where we reside in Honazono.

What made Osaka far more interesting than my week in Kyoto had to do with the extreme differences of these two cities. I was very unfamiliar with Osaka when I first arrived and I had no idea what to expect.

For the most part Kyoto is a very traditional city. The viewings of temples, shrines and the aesthetic beauty of art and gardens have been repeated day after day . Each garden is uniquely beautiful, each temple worships something new but the message is still the same—traditional Japan.

Osaka strives on variety. This urban city (the second most populated in Japan, next to Tokyo) is filled with characters and flavor. Just from the train ride to the station I noticed a change in looks and appearances (and that’s saying a lot for a country that pushes group dynamics)

Individuals on the train stood out with brightly colored hats and ensembles, not like the teals and beige of women in Kyoto. There was no traditional dress that I noticed similar to the ceremony I saw earlier at our temple but rather an array of pinks, purples and stripes walking down the streets of Umea.




I felt like a lonely little tourist all by herself in awe of the city for the first time.
I noticed a local stare at me when my jaw dropped (literally) on the train at all the OOH ads that were covering the city even before I left the station. She smiled at me and giggled at my amazement. Had I really been a small town girl living in a lonely world all this time? It was then that I couldn’t help but wonder…
Did I finally reach enlightenment?

For more information on traveling to Osaka please visit

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/kansai/osaka

Geisha: Objectified Beauty

One of the most common things that come to mind when you think of Japanese culture is Geisha. They dominate Japanese artwork, and represent the ideal of Japanese beauty. They are masters of art, appearance, music, conversation, and style. This is why I felt the strong desire to visit Gion in Kyoto and find one for myself. I was fortunate enough to see two, and when it happened, it was as though time itself had stopped. The two Geisha walked down the street briskly, and after probably about ten seconds, they were out of my sight. A whole group of tourists surrounded the area, cameras out, ready to spot one at any moment. As soon as they were spotted, the entire street began to crowd and buzz, and a kindly older Japanese gentleman beckoned me their way. I ran across the street, focused and ready to capture the moment. The women wore beautiful kimonos, their faces painted a gorgeous white, eyelids and lips a brilliant imperial red. All my life I have wanted to see a real one, and now that moment has passed. It reminded me of mono no aware, loosely translated as “an awareness of the transience of life.” I only saw them for a brief moment, but it was amazing. I will forever remember the first time I saw a geisha. However, I noted a sadness in both Geisha’s eyes, and I felt the inhumanity of it all. After all, they are human beings, and they were being hounded by dozens in the street for a mere glimpse of them. While they were once a revered representation of Japanese ideals of beauty, now they are culturally whored out for tourists. My reverence for the severe lifestyle they lead brought me to feel pity for them. While they have chosen this lifestyle, it cannot be easy. It was like celebrity spotting of sorts, except their work is not seen to the general public. They are objectified just as beautiful people, often misunderstood by others as prostitutes. While I was happy and honored to see them, I felt at the same time intrusive, as I came only to get a glimpse into their private lives.

Nijo Castle- MUST SEE IN KYOTO

I went to Nijo Castle with Bethany on our free time on Friday and it was absolutely stunning. We has to walk the complete length of it to get to the front gate to be able to cross the FIRST mote surrounding the castle. This castle was so important it has two motes for protection.

After walking through the front gate two tour guides asked us if they could give us a free tour so that they could practice. We were surprised but very grateful for the offer. I knew we would not have gotten as much out of the castle had we simply walked through it on our own.

We were able to take pictures of the outside of the castle but once again were unable to take pictures inside the building and for good reason; nearly every wall was covered in gold leaf screen paintings. It was possibly one of the most beautiful things I have see in my life.

But it wasn't just the walls that were special. The wood floors were gorgeous. I could feel the knots in the wood were the rest of the boards had been worn down and smoothed from being walked on for hundreds of years. The tour guides said they were called nightingale floors because they squeak when you walk on them. They were made with nails and clamps under the floor so that when someone steps on the board it presses the clamp to rub against the nails and creates a high pitched squeaking noise. The shogun used these floors as a safety precaution so that when an intruder would come in he would be heard walking through the halls.

There is so much history in Nijo Castle that I think anyone who is interested in Japanese history has to go see this castle. Even those who are not interested in history will find this site fascinating. This is a definite must see in Kyoto.

The Japanese Raise the Roof

When one leaves the US and arrives in Japan, one of the easiest differences to notice is the architecture, and the most distinguishing feature of old Japan's buildings are the rooftops. After seeing temple after temple, memories can run together if you don't take the time to notice the subtle differences. Towards the bottom of the rooftops, there are special symbols that differ from place to place. Sometimes they are Chinese characters, sometimes you see flowers, leaves, etc. The more closely you look, the more you realize that each place is unique in its own way. Among all the symbols I've seen, the most prominent are an image of swirling dots. According to our sources, this symbol means water. These temples are primarily wood, so it's only natural that this symbol is systematically placed to protect against fire. It makes even more sense, since most of these temples have been repeatedly rebuilt due to fire by lightning. More interestingly though, are the family crests that are found on the rooftops. There seems to be a sense of family pride even in the architecture that you don’t find in America. I also found it amazing that this architecture remains even as the city of Kyoto becomes more modernized. In Nishiki market, you will even find temples and shrines with these roofs. I find it beautiful and amazing that even these minute details of buildings show how different the Western and Eastern design is. I wonder if a big city like Tokyo will still hold on to these aesthetic ideals.

The Dead and Gone

Museums have never interested me. No matter how grand or how humble, they have always been areas of empty scholastic pursuit for me: dry and lifeless. The Tokugawa Art Museum was, in the end, no different for me, but the process of walking through its halls and being utterly underwhelmed helped me realize just what it is about museums that utterly disinterests me.

It isn't the history aspect. All of the ancient shrines and temples that we visit enamor me; there's something so indescribable about those experiences. Perhaps it's because there is a beauty that is so astounding, so arresting, that it is almost otherworldly, or perhaps it's because there is always a heavy, deep feeling that comes simply from the age of these buildings, but in any case, those feelings wouldn't exist were it not for the history mounted on the walls and in the beams of these sites. In a very literal sense, they are history. When you walk through their doors, you walk into a different world, one that has otherwise long been forgotten.



Museums have a distinctly different aura. You aren't transported to another time -- you aren't even supposed to be transported; instead, everything is presented to you as a show, something that you yourself could never participate in. There is, in short, a very clear and ever-present wall between you and the object, and when the object is the history, it is impossible not to feel like a foreign identity, hovering and dissecting something that you could never truly understand. The distance removes the bridge.

And, even more than that, the objects themselves are dead. Not only has the viewer been removed from the culture and time of the objects, the objects have been completely displaced from their own time also. They have no context; they're lone survivors of places forever forgotten. You can't get an idea of life from them because they have none of their own, and that simple fact drains whatever wonder and beauty they may once have had.



Museums may have their place in the world, but it's a place too lifeless for me.

The Guessing Game

There's one thing that I noticed in this country prior to everything else. That they have pictures everywhere. I thank god for that, because that's how I've been surviving off the food I purchase. Granted, not everything has a picture but almost all of it does. You want to know what a restaurant has to serve? Just look outside for a giant sign with pictures. Want to know what's in that bread you're about to eat, because there is always something in the bread here in Japan? Look at the picture. While this may not always be a key for success, I've found that it comes in pretty handy for me.

It's easy to discover if something has pork, look for a picture of a pig. Want chicken? I'm sure you know what comes next. This country is a very visual one, in a way we're not quite at in America. In some ways, it's like they're just telling you everything without you having to figure out anything. In others, it's not. In America, you have to read the menu, judge on what you've had before, to see if you'll like something similar, etc. In the long run, they just end up asking the waiter what it is and such, they want to be told. Here in Japan, they make it simpler for you to understand because the brain just naturally takes an image and translates it, without much effort on your part.

Even the transportation systems are easy to figure out...once you have a map. It's not that everything is entirely foreign, it's just the way they break up certain things where buses or trains stop that make it difficult for anyone from out of town to figure out at first. Once you get it though, you become a proficient very quickly. Pictures just help make things stand out, and figure out, when deciding where next to go. I'm not sure what other countries are like, but I know even if they look like they could speak English in Europe, a foreigner is probably out of luck. To be truthfully honest, the best system is the Japanese picture system, so foreigners and even countries own citizens might have an easier time understanding things.

Castle Context

I went to Nijo Castle today and it was an excellent experience. It's a wonder the teachers didn't have it on the agenda. We got a free tour, just out of shear luck and learned about many things related to the visual culture of Japan. One of the more obvious ones was how the Shoguns showed power. During the 12th Century, there became the first shogun, Tokugawa, who came to rule for over 260 years. They still had the emperor at this time, but he was more of a figure head just like he is in modern Japan. Tokugawa's symbol was a three leaf clover.

He had several meeting and waiting rooms, depending on who he was meeting with. If they had originally been counted amongst his enemies, they were kept in the farthest waiting room, where lions and cheetahs were painted on the screen wall to show off his power. Interestingly enough, neither animal had been to Japan at this time, he had only seen pictures. In more personal meeting halls, like people the Shogun was close to, the wall paper was much more relaxed, more easy going. And in the special room where only the Shogun and his concubines could go, there was a very cloudy, relaxed, even dreamy type of wall paper.

The councilors' meeting room was blank because they were servants to the Shogun. And finally, the royal message receiving room, while rich in color and design, had the Shogun on the lower level to the messenger. To show loyalty to the crown. However, the crown laid in the east and Tokugawa put the messenger room in the south corner of the castle, showing a disrespect to the Emperor. Not only was paintings a good way to show power, but the floors in the halls were called nightingale floors. The reason they were called this, was because they were designed so the boards squeaked when anything came across them, as a way to protect themselves from enemies. Nijo castle has two moats, an outer moat and an inner moat where I can only assume the royal family stayed. The inner castle was the originally, but after an attack they built out, expanding but keeping certain parts.

It's a very beautiful castle, and I was lucky to get a history of the building, in English so I could understand. I recommend this to anyone who is seeing Japan.

Elegant simplicity.

Throughout the course of Japanese art and aesthetics, specifically the two-dimensional works, we often observe how the works are dominated by large amounts of negative space. Even within this negative space we can still find vast amounts of detail. When I was visiting the Tokugawa art museum, several of the scrolls that they had on display depicted a celebration of the Tokugawa daimyo opening up a shrine within a major city. The paintings used vast amounts of negative space, very small subject matter and other artifacts within the painting. Even though the work may be dominated by negative space, within the smaller subject matter lies an incredible amount of elegant detail. The use of patterns gives the art perfect balance between simplism and elaborate detail.

As I’ve traveled through Japan I’ve noticed that many of their logos and emblems contain this same sort of simplicity. Many of the logos contain few words or numbers and are instead dominated by simple images. This tendency ranges from the cities’ symbols to restaurant signs and company logos and so forth. While these current designs lack the elaborate detail of the earlier Tokugawa works, they form a sort of elegance through their use of other western design concepts such as unification, symmetry, and other such ideas. And even though these newer designs lack the same attention to minute detail that their ancient and more formal predecessors possessed they still attain a certain elegance that we rarely see in the western world.

Fushimi-Inari: A Reminder of the Duality of Japan

Once you decide that you are going to hike to the top of a mountain, there’s no going back. And Fushimi-Inari is definitely a hike. 250 meters later, we were tired and sore, but we were at the top, looking down at… well, trees.

One thing that I have noticed about Japan is the sheer amount of foliage. Fushimi-Inari, the birthplace of kitsune mythology, is definitely no exception. Going up the mountain we saw trees…

Trees…

And trees.

Then suddenly we looked to our right and saw…

...Kyoto. It was probably the strangest visual experience I’ve had in Japan. Here I was, practically wrapped in greenery, and then all of a sudden I was reminded that half an hour ago I had been on a train, in a city with thousands of other people. The shrine is literally right next to the city; all that separates them is a line of torii and a sea of leaves. This is visual Japan. Unlike America, where the parks exist in one place and the cities exist in another, Japan allows the urban and the organic to mix: you will never see one without the other. This is not only tue of Fushimi-Inari. Everywhere I go I see greenery. Whether I’m in a trrain or walking down the street, I’m constantly reminded that nature is everywhere. Cities either nestle themselves in the middle of nature, or nature twines itself around the cities. This duality is, to me, what defines Japan, or at least Kyoto. There is no “inside” or “outside” there is just… Japan.

...And trees.