Today we went to see a bunch of those Shinto arches. There were hundreds of them which you walk through like a big vermillion tunnel that snakes up the side of a mountain. It was cool for the first few hundred metres. Trees kick ass. They should have them everywhere cos they keep you cool, mostly dry and not sunburned. Yay. However, the disadvantages of trees include the fact that they can give the strategic upperhand to hostile monkey troops. As is becoming increasingly clear as you read this, I don't really have anything to say today cos I didn't really do that much today. I tried to visit Kyoto International Manga Museum which would have been really cool except that it's closed on Wednesdays. Wednesdays! What's closed on Wednesdays?
For some reason, it's really cool to wear T-shirts with English slogans here. The only problem is that because there's so little English fluency around, the slogans rarely if ever make any sense. For example today I say a girl with a T-shirt that said "Even a worm will turn". What does that even mean? Seriously! Another girl was wearing one that said "Alcoholic go to Meetings". And she obviously had no idea what it meant...That would probably actually sell quite well in Ireland. It's such a common occurance that I just had to buy one to confuse people with when I get home, because I already had a T-shirt printed up for myself a few years ago with "Quack" written on it for that very purpose. So I bought one today that says "Kingdom of Order - Get filed in your field of interest." Ok...thanks for the tip...I'll get right on that.
The thing about coming to Japan is that it involves becoming a child again in that you have no idea how to behave and have to learn everything from scratch, like how to talk, eat, act...everything. It's been a very refreshing learning experience so far, which I think is what any good holiday to anywhere should be. Everyone still wears Kimonos for various kinds of formal events so you'll often see the odd person walking around in a kimono among hundreds of business suits and nobody bats an eyelid. You have to walk much more slowly and sit much more carefully when you're wearing a kimono and it straightens up your posture so people wearing kimonos always seem to move very gracefully with great fluidity. Last night I was sitting on a subway wearing a Carolina Panthers NFL jersey next to a lady in a kimono who was texting on a phone so sophisticated that it made mine look like a brick and I wanted to take a photo of the weirdness of that moment but knew I just had to sit quietly and experience it. It was such a convergence of east and west, old and new, all in the same moment and I think it really encapsulated Japan as a nation in the 21st century. There's an keen respect for history but an urge to move forward at the same time, there's a nod to Western culture while maintaining national culture and I think that's quite a unique dichotomy to find in any country. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan with a population somewhere around the six million mark. If Kyoto transport was difficult to figure out, Osaka will be real fun to get around! A few new photos up at http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb178/gctrionaem/Japan/ PS. This entry has nothing to do with tenacity but I needed another T noun for the title!