post 32. good night and good luck.

the family once again shocked me into a speechless moment tonight. bearing gifts for us. i didnt know what to say. apart from now i have an extremely cool pair of traditional japanese sandals made from some of the nicest qood i have ever seen. luckily chris (the walking filofax) will remember what its called. it was again really hot an dreally sticky today, so after developing my image ideas from last nights breakthrough, which i have been told isnt really very innovative but has indeed been done many times before ('never there though' i like to add!) we headed for nearby arashiyama adn the zen garden of 1930s silent fimstar. makes me appreciate what a fine job the botanmical garden staff have done these past 22 years. it was just like being back in edinburgh but only hotter and stickier. i.e. when there is no-one else there i prefer edinburgh. good sign. as always i find when im away. i miss my city. its sounds, its smell, the dry air, clear air. its familiarity. although now also feel very much at ease in kyoto. with all its history and tactility. its really a place you feel you could just reach out and touch. but you wouldnt want to disturb it, incase it were spoiled.



kosho's dad was very impressed by my photography adn requested my photos for his website. adn he is considering using one for an album cover. i am very flattered. even if he doesn't use them it was nice to be able to connect with him in some way, it is with him i have felt greatest regret for my lack of Japanese.
after the garden we went to a very 'different to what i am used to' flower shop and chose flowers for koshos mum and then came home and made them cards to show our appreciation. along with my greatest thanks and photographs i feel i have little else to offer. but they seem happy and we have been told to return. with girlfriends. lol, koshos mum is very keen to meet polly and grace. astonished at their ability to make us cook and wash up i believe...although we have assured her that the responsibilities and chores are shared equally.
after dinner i wanted to develop further my light photos and felt a collaboration would be a lovely way to end what has been a fantastically productive three weeks. so the three of us treked up to the temple with torches,a camera and tripod. then set about being inspired.
here are some of the results. again i, along with kosho and chris are happy with what we achieved.















sorry that was alot of photos and not many words. i am quite tired now and am aware that i only have 3hours before i syart my 30 hour day. oh yeah and i saw a crazy stick insect and a big snake today too. reminded me a little to keep an eye out. after which i turned round into a huge spiders web. properly freaked me out for a little bit. i wasnt just scared, i was more deeply sorry for my clumsiness in destroying something which had taken so much effort and such a long time to build. mr. spider i am sorry.
thankyou for stickking with me folks and i hope you have enjoyed my adventures.
maybe next time you can be here too. until that point i have 3728 photos and a plethora of videos for us to absorb and filter.
love+peace. x

the pen-ultimate addition.

well welly well. it was the second last day today. day 20. a late start was had by us all. aprt from koshos mum who was very excited about going upto tokyo to see a concert tonight. she was travelling on the shinkansen there and then getting the sleeper back. without the bullet train, the sleeper takes seven hours. the journey for us was 2andahalf. thats a hell of a fast train. i am very excited about coming home. new flat, new beginning. i have alot of material (? photos and stuff) to share with you all and look forward to hearing about everyone elses adventures while ive been away. to be honest with you i cannot wait to fly again. on the flight over we saw the flat plains (Planet Earth style wilderness) of lower eastern siberia. oh my god they looked pretty darn special. adn ofcourse the films were good too. i hope its a different selection for on the way back. i think i watched all the ones i wanted to on the way here. i have managed to fit all of my stuff into two bags. i feel pretty clever about having brought a spare. Genius even. tonight i went out, after watching matrix revolutions on kosho's dad's projector adn 5.1 cinema surround pioneer sound system. it is an actual private cinema. i'll need to take a photo of his t.v. with chris in it (the photo) for scale. its big...oh yeah. and took some photos using our new tripod. funtimes people. the area is pure colin mcrae style japan. really beautiful little windy roads white street lights and the longest little single track tunnel i have ever seen. its actually perfect. so i made use of it.


what do you think of that then eh? no photoshop necessary just a torch adn some manic running around. i like it. although i got pretty sweaty and scared by all the japanese racers who use the tunnel as a track. not as many as there would be though as its local folklore taht its haunted. kosho and his family are quite funny in their superstitious and then stubborn ways. they wont go in the temple at night andthey wont go al;ong the tunnel. even through the day. oh we saw real wild monkeys today. first time for me. discounting the ones in gibralter as they were just midget spaniards. the area up the side of the arashiyama lake, a damned part of the river nearby is like a proper jungle, with real jungle sounds and monkeys. i say real jungle sounds because on the top of the kyoto station they have piped in bird song to make you feel more with nature in their ultra fake rooftop garden. so i was weary of the sounds until i realised where they were coming from. primarily flopping fish, cecadas and monkeys. i tried to get a photo but they are fast little buggers and prettyu aggressive too, so didnt want to use a flash or appear threatening in any way.


i thinkm it looks a bit like that photo of the saskwatch. you know the one where it is supposed to be him running through the woods. big foot. we had a nice walk actually. and came upon a collective of people which kosho was very scared of. so then we went back. some religious sect or something. here is one of their signs.


mount delights water laughs sounded alright to chris and i ass it was very sticky adn it had just been raining so we were wet anyway. chris was very tempoted by the river. i was wet enough, although not really wet at all, just soggy. he deciedd no.probably a good idea given the depth of the river and the probably significant raisins.


it was quite funy as we were watching a big monkey in a tree chris was unintentionally mimicing his actions by picking away at his arm adn shoo-ing away flies. it made me chuckle and remember about the fact that we are animals too. just we have umbrellas.
after our walk we walked to the supermarket adn after deciding taht we were going to make fish pie for the family, had to opt for the whatever was recognisable and available in the shops approach. a tasty chicken adn vegetable dish was produced though. a kind of chicken lasagne slash potato hot pot. as there were no lasagne sheets. tasty. and much appreciated by the family. as was the peach crumble and cream we had after. yum. was just a shame koshos mum wasnt here. although she wont let us do anything, no waching up no helping cook, no nothing. such a good host. although i appreciate it i think it frustrates chris, as he likes to be able to help. my help is to stay out of the way. and be grateful. fair enough i think...maybe.
this was our dish, photographed in a traditional japanese style way. you order foiod by pictures and plastic copies in restaurants.


it was kind of our way of saying thankyou. and i shall make a card too, as chris says he is no good at this. im sure he is though.
ok its late. adn i am tired. so if i think of anything alse i did today, other than pass out on the tatamis this morning, and wake up with mary snuggled into my side. it took me a while to work out it was her. but i got there. as i said, we were all a bit tired. although chris managed what soiunds like a fairly hefty run this morning. in this heat, i think hes mad. there are guys who pull carts around for a living though. but not on bikes just running. properly nutters. but big resp[ect for their fitness. heres a photo.


ok im done. i shall read my book, a hand me down froim chris. i enjoyed the first part. the second is a bit too long. but i shall persevere and hope that the third part is better. a;though i may just skip this one. its about a guy who lives in trees all his life. what was that guys name again? oh yeah, swampy. i wander what hes upto now. anyway. hope you are well.
big love.x

'Whats for you will not go by you.'

i bought two watches. a skirt/shorts. a scarf. 3 extremely cool tshirts. (two extremely cool tshirts, the other was red.) four mugs. a bowl. a side dish. a large dish. that was today. i must stop. my spare bag is now fool. that wasnt misplelled. that was...haha. fool. i pity no one. we may see a tsunami wiuth this next typhoon. another wird weather condition to tick off in my 'i spy' book. remember them? did i ever actually finish one. has anyone? haha. has anyone actually finished the whole series. in other words has anyone actually seen EVERYTHING. you know if thats a negative captain. i may have just thought my way into a vocation.
am very much looking forward to coming home. although it will be sad to leave this extremely special place. special in every sense. but the temple adn this lovely family in the warmer sense. how was your day? bet it wasnt as sticky as mine. watermelon rules. k freakin'. O. i wish i could post videos on this thing.
love from south of the equator all the way to you. night night.x

p.s i just looked that up and i am nowhere near south of the equator . i am no where near the equator. i verifiably north of even the trpics. so ignore my south of the equator and you will just have to settle for my good old northern love. adn the point of this email was to tell you i bought two watches and will not wear them. i do not like watches. in Great phrases i trust. x

toKyo

like Kyoto. toKyo is in Japan. or Nippon. as i found out it was known as in the native Tongue. Nihongo.
the crafty amongst you (you know who you are!) will have also noticed that they are an anagram. this is interesting because neither chris nor i could remember this testy little word and have just spent the last ten minutes looking foir what it is on the internet. it is not easy to find a word that you have lost. when you cant really describe it because your description usually always requires the word. i look forward to having a lovely big party to celebrate our family and all its loveliness.
so yes, i digress. or maybe i dont and i intentionally tangentiallise my thought process to avoid a very long. very, very lengthy description. indeed story describing our last three days. i feel like we did alot....

i shall list it as i think about it., as it will help me write about it or retell the story atleast in the future. we got up monday. realised the train left 30mins before we thought so stress and rush. NOZOMI 700. a very fast, efficient, clean vehicle. we waited 45mins to wait for typhoon to chill out. comfortable. big seats. i fell asleep. at the window seat. lovely. into tokyo. typhoon. VERY wet. wheres the hotel? kosho had photo of the map on his phone. couldnt really make it out. had left my compass on my pillow in kyoto. found hotel. very clean. dropped our bags. 12pm. went to shibuya. saw huge crossroads. didnt believe it was them spent the next day looking for them. found a really nice noodle bar. really tasty. guys were cooking infront of us. amazing authentic. fast. i beat kosho eating with chopsticks. the padawan becomes the master...chris got nose bleed. i took photos while we waited. walked around a bit. found tower records. big shop. walked around a bit more. photographing. back to shibuya station and then onto shinjuku. big tall buildings. looking for cosmopolitan building or something. found it. got coffee. went up the building it was free.....wait a minute. ive written all this before....
back to hotel. went out for meal. horrible. tourist cafe. full of the o.c lot. felt shit being there. waitress a bit nuts. kosho felt weird, mini west we had found in the east. walked about a bit after. found love hotels and other rather risque bits. quickened our pace. got lost in shibuya. thunderstorm. lots of very strong lightening. extremely heavy rain. couldnt find station. time of last train was approaching. askied passer by. very helpful.showed us the way to station. through university found random station. got on train. found out we had been really close to the station we actually wanted before we walked for miles with nice guy. got back to kanda. where we were staying. went to bed. nice to have a bed after fouton for two weeks. got up went to akihabra for breakfast went to contemporary art centre. found it strange. the people.

here is a sign for people visting the art centre.


my patience for oragami was not at its best that day.

you are supposed to make a little Totoro cartoon character than stand him infort of the scenes and take a photo. there was a lady who had brought her favourite toys to also pose infront of the screens. its just not normal. for me.

everyone there to see anime exhibition, we were the only ones in the other exhibition. different approach to art. different not strange. had lunch. pasta. tasty. made art in art centre. empty locker. now i have the key. lol. dont mind if you ask. but im not sure yet.



walked the 1km back to the station. hot. on train upto ginza, i think. just like new york. all the parts of the city starting to llok the same. just diffenetly dressed people. but architecturally adn structurally similar.


photo of street in ginza. sorry, there was not much thought put into this photo. just lots of people and many many signs. oh the one minute english lessoin on the train. can you tell me when you would use many as opposed to much, having never thought about it before thanks to that handy little video i now can.

found huge crossing. this is a pretty unexplanatory of scale photograoh. but an action shot all the same.



sat and had expensive ice cream. but it was extremely tasty. went to wander around and try and find art galeries that the japan:lost planet. lonely planet. book said about. couldnt find them found the ikibuki. big old traditional theatre. instead. glanced at it then. got subway back to kanda. had dinner. i might have just missed a bit. seems not long since i was eatin g ice cream...place we found for dinner was tres intersting. under the railway line. behind a few beaded curtains. and a clear polythene one that was mighty difficult to work out where the opening in it was. had saki. big glass. strong stuff when gulped. advice would be to sip it and try and work out what it is that it tastes like. funny food. not really a restuarant at all. bemused the waitresses. got on train to akihabra in search of manga cafe. funny busking bands/j-pop girl with a massive (male) crowd. couldnt find an interesting looking internet cafe. back to kanda on train. found one we all agreed on. i thought it might be interesting atleast although a bit geeky. did not like that place. had to leave and sit outside. it felt seedy and wrong. yuck. sitting on the railing outsiude waiting for chris and kosho looking at the crowds of people around. then realised they were punters, pimps and prostitutes. there is actually a queue of taxis waiting just for their business. very interesting. had never witnessed before and wouldnt have thought if we hadnt been approached by a guy trying to sell us girls earlier in the day. well, thats what kosho translated him as. seemed like just a nice bloke to me. dressed all smart etc. so after that experience it was time for bed. oh yeah, thats what i missed out. we went up tokyo tower.



pretty much a red and white version of eiffel tower (from photos ive seen of eiffel tower, would like to visit gay paris.) this was between when we were in ginza and kanda. i cant remember what the area was called. but we found about a thousand gizo aswell. little buddhist statues to remember children. you pray to them for lost children adn their welfare and happiness. nice idea i thought. they were all dressed with little knitted hats and windmills. very lovely. adn quite similar to a certain idea i had. unfortunatly bad light and lack of tripod meant unable to take good photos. sorry. here is an attempt.



tower was high and busy. good view. some nice photos i like from there. here is one. i want to make some big prints when i get home. maybe splash out on expensive paper for the machine at college.



and then it was back to kanda etc. this morning we got up early had to leave hotel by ten. went to tokyo station to lock excess baggage away until later. got on funny train to crazy man made island. about the size of fife. where everything is from early to mid nineties. crazy postmodernism to the absolute maximum. extremely surreal. visited the science museum.



funtimes. got hand stickers. i chose red as background. chris chose blue. i was wearing red. chris usually wears blue. i think i see a connection. psychology is interesting. went up biggest ferris wheel in 1999. lol. i think london eye is bigger now. still 115m up in a carriage with strong sidewinds is high enough for me.



then went to toyota motor history musem. awesome. i want a subaru 360 deluxe. rory check it out. oh, they had a delorean aswell. bare metal was nice. excellent shop, would have probably passed out if i had seen it 15years ago. that makes ME feel old. sorry. back on funny train to somewhere. got some more tasty noodles. very tasty. nice clean place. had to pay at machine before you sit down and then the guy makes it for you and hands it over. nice system. easy for me to understand. nice floors aswell adn new bathroom. got on train back to tokyo station. its a rubbish image sorry. i rushed it. the whole thing.



about hour and half before shinkansen(bullet train) was due to take us home to kyoto. saw the tokyo station builduing from front. western architecture. strange. but true as always. got tasty ice cream adn coffee i forgot what i was doing and ate all the ice cream out of my cone with the spoon provoded then felt guilty for the ocne and had to eat a huge wafer on its own. should have seen the next bit coming, chris and kosho wnet off to big bookstore i lay adn looked up listeming music. when they came back the book stire sounded great so i thought id pop in. we still had to find where wed left our bags in the tokyo labyrinth before the train. they werent beside david bowie, but chris found a puddle of wee. 5pm now and the train leaves the platform at 5.46pm. nothing either way. efficient. so went into bookshop, found amazing books. and read through some pictures and lovely magazines. found awesome book. so was taking isbn numbers etc. decided to buy a book for the train. then remembered about train. it was now 5.31pm. ouch....

so i bought the book. ran down 4 flights of escalators. well, 2 flights, got stuck behind lady after that. was running out of shop when i saw kosho going up the escaltor. arg. 'we have to go ross' the train will be leaving. we ran out the store. out of the building. onto the street. over the wide road. over the next wide road. into the train station. it was maybe 32degrees. by the way. down the stairs. into the seathing corridor of 3billion people. along it. the wrong way. found a map. we ran back along it with the next 3 billion people (im surprised i didnt see you guys, although i guess it was pretty busy, did you see me? i was the one red all over) for about 500 meters. bumped into mr mackie, who had had an equally exciting 10 mins. found my key. found my locker. got my bag. adn my computer. this was lucky. ran up the stairs of...alot of people. crossed my fingers for the train. realised we still didnt know where the shinkansen was...found the right terminal. ran and ran and ran. up 35thousand steps and into the first waiting carridge. luckily it was ours. exciting stuff. then the train left and the rest as they say was easy. it wasnt until three hours later that i realised how heavy my bags had been. as chris reminded me adrenaline will have kept me going.

the book is really good though. its a wee taschen book about a japanese architect who goes by his second name alone. Ando. nice work and interesting man. kosho is still recovering. a buddhists life is not meant to be quite so stressful.



so that was tokyo in a breath. maybe some time i can elaborate on something. but for now i shall find a couple of pictures for you then fall asleep. safe in the knowledge that i need to start wearing a watch and remembering things. i hope you've had nice day. lots of love. Ross. x

a little memory.

yey, im in tokyo baby. woopwoop. ah-hmm. bullet trains are fa-ast. dont let anyone tell you otherwise, but as we whirled through the japanese countryside between kyoto and tokyo this morning. out of interest and intrigue the kyo in both of these means capital, but the to is differnt. in the tokyo it means east capital and i cant remember in the kyoto, something equally as fun im sure....back to the story. we had to stop due to the newest typhoon not as big sweeping its way through the mean streets of tokyo. they are not really mean it just sounded better. so we were to wait for 45minutes for the rain to clear enough for us to continue. it was cool though, there were five nozomi bullet trains all lined up. nozomi means hope in japanese by the way, or have i already told you this. we met a girl the other day one of koshos friends girlfriends who was called nozomi, she couldnt speak a word of english but i thought id amaze her with my trivia anyway, she looked blank then giggled with her boyfriend. i thought it was a nice name. this is our train, the nozomi n700. only released earlier this year it has a different shape engine cab to the original nozomi bullet trains. i prefer the originals. check em out on wikipedia if you want to be ultra cool like me. im not ultra cool by the way, that was sarcasm.


anyway, tokyo is massive. huge. bigger than new york, but not as tall. we were up the tallest building already, which was free by the way. not quite the 60dollars or whatever it costs to go up the empire state and i have to say the staff are alot nicer here too. but you dont get to outside and the glass is not non reflective so the photos are not quality. so i took lots to make up. luckily i spent along time last night uploading my stuff to my spanking new externalharddrive so now i can afford the space that all these photos are taking up. here is tokyo from the north tower of the metropitan government buildings. tokyo is officially a metroplois as it is made up of so many differnt cities. not a city itself.


this is the guy that cooked us lunch.


sorry rthe images are so small, the internet connection is taking forever and i dint have the patience to wait the twenty minutes it is taking to upload the big ones. we found a really naff little noodle-esque bar. a kind of quick and plenty of tokyo. in shibuya adn i had meat with my noodles. again no english in the establishment so kosho filled in the gaps for us. we would be utterly lost without that man.
oh yes that reminds me why i started writing this blog, i remembered earlier what i was doing when my back was cooking (my back is much better today thankyou, although still rosy its not nearly as sore and no other side effects) i was writing up my version of our travel story. i only got so far but i photographed the pages and wanted to post them up so as you can read....but the internet is being very temperamental here in the hotel so i will have to leave it before i get upset with it. i shall try again later. after our evening tonight.
catch you laterl.

each hat hand crafted.

the 100 yen shops are legend, today i bought some plastecine in anticipation of possible works for tokyo (all for only 100yen. i found chris the m,ake up mirror he has been looking for aswell.) i figure even if i just do small things 'Installation: Tokyo' will look nice on the c.v. took the exhibition down today. it was quite sad really. i liked it alot. ive got loads of really lovely comments in my book. they are all in japanese, so ive been told they are really good. about all of us and the exhibition in general. and especially about kosho, quite the dark-horse i'll have you know. the characters look great, some are so complicated its really amazing that anyone can remember them. up at 7 tomorrow and on the Bullet Train at 9. cant wait. its been a bit of a far-fetched wish for me ever since phillipa forrester introduced me to the 'train that travels as fast as a ferrari' on tomorrows world. well worth the hundred pounds!
hope you had good days and will speak to you soon.
heres a photo of kosho in the gallery today. actually as it was taken. skills people.

'Cruisin' with the bitches.'

its a lame title. but maybe it fits. check this guys look at me. as if its just normal to be riding your mobility scooter, with three dogs, in a sailer top whilst having a smoke. maybe hes right, maybe it is just me.

looklook a huge dolphin.

we found this rare fibreglass specimen in toba. but also in this photo notice how few people are there. in the height of the summer holiday season at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. weird. off to see a couple temples this afternoon after relaxing morning sorting out pictures. nice. catch you later on.x

bad memory.

i just realised i had given an explanation for disappearance. oh well, should really remember what ive written. take care.x

top of the castle.

bebebeeep.

hey guys. sorry its been a while and i just realised that i hadn't even given explanation for an absence in updates. hopefully you have already found chris's entry as to the last few days mis/adventures. it was a weird one and didnt really catch upto me until we were back in ise and i saw kyoto as an option on the board. a reality check was necessary, so 'yes, please' i thought, 'some normality/familiarity will do nicely.' im not sure if chris mentioned, but i will add also that this sun is not one i have ever known before adn boy is it strong. dangerously so. and as we tend to our burnt backs, i feel we have learnt our lesson well. that is all i have to say about that hopefully. it will be better soon...
on our travels i considered a writing, based on 'post-post war japan; the aftermath of the american green.' i feel it unfortunate that it seems all the guilt money paid to japan as compensation for dropping (and testing) atom bombs on their beautiful island went hastily into defence structures. massive concrete moulds lining, where once was beautiful coast, huge concrete jungles built hastily and simultaneously, the intensions were there but the sudden boom in financial ability was not put into sustainable means adn now these once self efficient practical small villages, most of them fishing ports of some kind are now victim of a lost dream. an american dream, sold to the japanese as it was sold to the americans. and just as unsustainable and fundamentally flawed as any great ideal. so the scene was not pretty. but intensely inspiring. the whats, whys, wheres and when are questions left wanting nothing but a logical answer. but there is none. only a severe feeling of ill-advisement and inexperience. ghost town would be a word to describe killin. lost would be a better way of describing what we experienced. and somebody mentioned something about a bubble economy so i will have to look that up. plus it was pretty difficult to get by, as everything and everyone was obvioulsy japanese and, damn our inability to faster evolve, but we are not able to really communicate or function in this alien environment. good times were had but 'preparation' comes to mind. adn 'lack of' follows.
so the decision was made to return home after a very eventful and eye-opening couple of days. top-hats off to chris however, travelling SKILLS.

so now we are back in the safe bossom of the nishimuras. ahhh, nice. this morning (friday) i completed my 'party hats for buddhas' that i had strated to make last night and with beautiful sunshine i placed them atop the Rakhan and documented the idea scene, im considering making it into some kind of film. combining old and new, east and west. in some way. but its yet to be fully thought through. maybe need to experiment with different things. heres a picture.

i thought it was pretty hilarious in person. adn i love that it is no longer procrastination. so its done, its out. thanks to the family for letting me do it, if it weren't for their excellent sense of humour it probably could have been a bit of a disaster. but alas, fun was had. adn sometimes thats all we need.
we left for osaka at about 2 in the afternoon. the sun was really strong and the heat was not somfortable as we walked to the Osaka castle Museum. (http://www.jscs.or.jp/ICNCB/osaka_cast.jpg) i had used my creative juice for the day adn it was just too darn hot to be thinking about photographs so this link should provide you with an idea. or just type in osaka castle to google images. impressive stuff and really good view from the top where it was a bit cooler so the camera came out and i got some japanese skyline shots. not dissimilar to new york. from the air or the ground. similar tree lined streets, granite buildings and road markings. just the signage is different.
the people are pretty crazy too. i got some undercover camera action going on later, but i prefer the out of focus shots so i cant really show you in any detail. but alot of big hair and 'individuals.' this is maybe the best example that ive got of an actual person who is not just a complete moosh. i like these photos, more about composition tone and colour. light travels along way to illuminate us.
the larger images are misbehaving, sorry. oh 'sumi masen' means sorry. before i forget. goodmorning goes something like 'ohiyo, gozoi mass' and i dont understand would be 'wakiri masen'
i got a macro adapter for my nikon lens so now i can take quite close up shots here is an example. the new look mary was more than forthcoming as model. she was at the grooming salon the other day. we saw our first dog hotel today, wow. this culture has some issues it maybe needs to work out.

tomorow i think i would like some rest adn to maybe stay away from the sun. its scaring me slightly. and then to the gallery in the evening possibly to get some decent documentation sorted before the exhibition come down on sunday. then monday we are off to the dizzy heights of tokyo. i maybe shouldnt say that as i do think it will maybe make me a bit dizzy. ive been checking it out on the web and it seems more than i ever thought it would consist of. there are 27 cities within the city of tokyo. and there are actual cities within those cities. how am i supposed to choose which one i want to visit. two nights are all we want to spend there. i think we will be pretty shattered after that adn in need of another reality check.
ok guys im done. thankyou for keeping on reading, its a really good way to remember what ive done. clever computer people who though it up. hope you are all well at home. thankyou for comments. O es mi. x

sumi masen

i forgot to add this in. check out the view i woke upto this morning.

night.x

open 10.59-20.01

the opening times here are silly. we were at a boreders esque place yesterday and it said it was open from 0900-2500. eh? maybe its because of the time difference. or maybe japan is explanation in itself. crazy people. crazy times folks. yesterday we were in nara to see the largest buddha in the world. to be honest with you i struggled to see the difference between this 16 m eter bohemoth and jabba the hutt. but the buddhists (and tourists) love it and so he exists, in the worlds largest wooden building too.
yes all wood.
its awe-inspiring stuff still. and im starting to actually see it now instead of just being overwhelmed. which is useful. nara was beautiful adn so different to kyoto. everything in nara seems built to impress. whereas kyoto is much more subtle and delicate in its beauty a trait i much prefer. Nara would be like the theme park middle america would build if it were to emulate japan. although the city is a bit older than kyoto and was infact the capital before kyoto (howvere this only lasted 75 yrs) the engineering seems more advanced or atleast more structured but i feel the scale and style of these buddhist buildings may reflect the corruption found within the religion adn political structures of the time. greed basicaly and that is not very buddhist at all. but nara the city is much more relaxed than kyoto. and that is lovely.

we found a great little cafe and relaxed there for a long time. chris read 'come home.' which is apparently exacyly how hed like his perfect home to look and i ate a tuna and cheese panini followed by a blt in a burger bun. how disapointed was i when i fouynd out tyhere was no burger in the burgerbun b.l.t. very. but it was really very nice all the same. adn a welcome, familiar taste after 8 days of fish. my joints are still cracking though, so it might be a bit of a wifey's to say taht fish is good for the joints.
then chris tried to phone grace a couple of times but couldnt find his phonecard adn then we jumped on the train home and started discussing our excursion for toworw. we are going down to ise and then on down that coast. i just want to find some nice beaches adn just chill out for a few days without needing to worry or stress about language and times. it should be lovely. weather permitting maybe. so i shall be gone a couple of days and then back saturday or sunday. after which we will take down the exhibition then head upto tokyo on the bullet train. exciting stuff. but for now once again. i am absolutely shatterd. the 38degree dry still heat today, three meals and relaxing evening have finished me off. so to bed i go. hope you are all well. come hell and high water, eh? take it easy guys. i will take lots of photos and let you all know how we get on. peace.x
p.s. sorry about the spelling. usually i'd read through and fix it but im just too tired toinight. night.x
p.p.s presents were very well received. check out koshos dad, he loves the quality scotland forever hat. adn his mum really appreciates the blanket. good work team.

kyohototo.

interesting day today, after the temple morning we went into town to experience the shops. and we found alot of them and a huge amount of people to boot. i can think of quite a few people who would have been very much in their element. i however felt guilty for my early cashsplash for a zip drive (to store all my photos and music so hopefully i will never lose them again...hopefully) and managed to resist an overload of purchases. some amazing clothes and shoes and hats and scarves were not purchased but i know they are there and if i miss them then i can always return.

we were really tired today actually, all of us. i think the last few days took it out of us. we are up early again tomorow and off to visit the nearby city of Nara. guidebook-chris was explaining to me that the largest wooden building in the world, the Tsodei temple is located in the centre of nara. so it will be another awe-insoiring day. we were not at the gallery at all today and were not inspired by the choice of tripods on display so no further progress on more photos, but it is maybe nice to have a little break for a couple of days. might start making my party hats tomorow. should be fun...
hope all is well with you? how is scotland looking? i really want to go explore when i get back. but it will be the grindstone i think. good night folks.x

as i said, i cant get over the temple floors. adn what they represent. so many feet have passed to make them what they are now.
p.s was it the secret wedding today? if it was please let me know how it went adn id love to see some pictures. in actual fact, if anybody wants to send me some pictures i would love to hear from you....hello.
Oyasumi nasai.x

woopwoop.

it is really very hot here today. we rose at what i thought was 11 but in actual fact due to my inability to read cool old wooden clocks when my eyes are half shut it was 10. still an extra hour on our day is always nice. i ate breakfast then went upto the temple to record the sound of me walking round the temple on the wooden decking. i am still in awe of its antique and beauty. the sound of footsteps padding around the surface is amazing and from a fixed point the recording recedes and then escalates as the person walks away adn toward the point of recording. i have an animation to show along with the recording. nice nice. chris and i realised last night just how much actual work we are getting done while we are here. it must be a truly inspiring place. i think anywhere this new and different would have to have a major impact on our perception of both this and our home environments. lovely. anyway, we have spent the last two hours helping to spring clean the temples in preparation for the mass congregation of monks to arrive on tuesday when the tendai-sect will worship at otagi-ji in a rememberance srevice, type thing, for the establishing monk,senkan naigu, who built this temple in 1192, after it was moved from the otagi district (central kyoto) where it was first founded in 792 but washed away when the kamo river flooded in 1192. the exciting news is that we are the first ever foreigners to ever help in the upkeep of the temple and its estate. e.v.e.r. cool, huh? thats alot of responsibility for us. but we did our best and the temples are looking spickandspan...lol. as i said to kosho, they will be done in a different way to how it is usually done, but to the same high standard. (if i could put a cheesy photo of a winking cheeky monkey then i think it would be muchos appropriate right now.) talking of monkeys there are some in the forests round here. we haven't seen any yet but our eyes are peeled. nice one. anyway, wanted to get in from the humid, heat and thought i could let you know the progress. still on a high after many comments and compliments on my work last night. grin.
here is a photo of our opening last night taken from across the very busy street without a tripod, sorry if its blurry im stioll to look through all my photos from yesterday. i took another 300. eek. zip-drive soon me thinks.

catch you later.x

the day the weight lifts.

Guten abends meiner freunden, es ist sehr gut zu haben du gesehen. Ja? give me a german speaker anyday, even just a european. i will cope. but japanese! gollygollygolly. boy is it difficult. but muchos respect for the guys who do manage to get what we are at. it cannot be easy. not easy at all. and kosho. the god of all JApan...hail buddha kosho...is an absolute saint, it is incredibly tiring for him to be a translator. for those of you who know kosho you know he is not entirely comfortable with english language but his achievement so far is unbelievable. respect.
so today we opened, here there and then, a gallerie weissraum exhibition. oh my god what an amazing space. everything is white. it has made me realise that it is not white that i love but its possibility for being anything. and everything. so yesterday, we were up at seven, an hour before our usual rising time, chris had what appeared to be a massive task ahead of him. finding the right soil, collecting enough soil, transporting said soil, building shelves, painting shelves, hanging shelves, mounting photos, etc. the list could go on. in true chrismackie style he managed it all and some. kosho too, had a big challenge ahead having to format the space in a way he felt fit (when the time came however we all sorted this out. but for the sake of takaya it was kosho's responsibility) translate screeds of our english blurb into japanese, and to top it off assemble his work. i had frosties when i woke up, follwed by marmalade on toast and a cup of lipton yellow bag tea. A nice cool shower, a deep breath and then got stuck in. we packed as best we could at otagi-ji, the gallery is far from the temple and we would not be returning until after we had finished...wherever that would leave us. the sun was out adn it was a beautiful drive across the city. the rush hour traffic was receding and we made it to our destination within 45minutes. so many cyclists on the roads, it is really amazing to see. if a little dangerous when walking along the pavement. but they actually have whole parks just for bikes to be left. makes us appreciate just how neolithic britain is in this area, aswell as many others.


when we arrived at weissrauum there was everything to do. takaya was not yet there and wouldnt be until afternoon but the door was opened for us by one of his students who studies with him in his studio above the gallery. kosho also studies here in the years between school and coming to edinburgh. takaya's studio is amazing, it felt so familiar to me and it took me a while to realise how much it reminded me of granny's classroom at graysmill. the smell, laminate flooring, 1970's deco and layout. along with the random stuff lying around ('jack in the box' spring to mind anybody?) it was a really nice place to be. helga weihs was still to take down her show and so we were to help in this before we could begin work ourselves. the whole operation was remarably smooth, everyone sorting themselves out and asking for help/receiving help whenever it was necessary. i think the fact that we have all such a close relationship now really helped in this situation. many bottles of juice were bought from the infamous mr.boss (the drinks machine next to the gallery) and it was sushi again for lunch. salmon rice balls this time, wrapped in seaweed, i had a few other things aswell, but the local scotmid (or lawson's as it is kjnown here kept us well. kosho and i wentr on an epedition to the hundred yen store....wow. wow. and wow. you thought the edinburgh bargain stores had everything in the world. cheap. well the hundred yen store tops it. and everything costs 100 yen. oh yeas, including the luminous shoe laces. but we got what we were looking for and headed back to base to continue. it was an eventful day adn very productive. i got alot of work done. including a collaborative piece with weihs. i call it, 'You draw it, i'll colour it in/p.s Helga doesn't know!)'



i was pretty pleased with it and i think she would be too, if i had actually explained to her what i was upto. oh by the way check out this page, i love it. its my name, but only it says that i have an exhibition in kyoto. sorry, i still can't quite believe it. i need shaken. http://www.geocities.jp/weissraum/new/new.html

i set up a few different ideas before deciding on the right one for the space. my inquisitive nature paid off when i unearthed some amazing black holes which had been boarded over and painted white. luckily nothing stops me when i get a screwdriver in hand. adn i found the most perfect cavity in an amazing corner in a room presumed to just be a white cube with fluoro striplights. and then chris had the genius realisation taht tehre were spotlight tracks on my ceiling adn he would not be needing lighting in the front room so i could borrow the big old spots from the front and use them in my room. bone-us. so i could then start to make a house a home and sorted it out till i felt really happy with it.
this setup very nearly made it as a piece. and it was for about 3 hours and then progress prevailed.

the end product of which is a white room with a dark, wooden-clad passageway in the corner. my strings are over the passage entrance. occupying the space between the room and the inside of the buildings structure. when they are plucked they resonate greatly (plasterboard on wooden walls.) basically it is perfect and i couldnt have hoped for more or better, i am a very pleased and happy camper. here is a photo what do you think?


over the doorway on the right hand door post as you first enter the space there is a single string again bridging the gap between spaces and when plucked sounds very different from the other setup. again a i am happy that it is a successful representation.

apart from these two strings have only the statement on the opposite wall from the door. due to the warm light from the three very old 100w spots and the position of the room within the building i feel it produces a very warm, enveloping environment. one chap has already written in my 'penny for your thoughts?' comment book that he felt like he was inside the soundhole of a guitar and that the presence of the strings made him realise all the sounds within that environment. very simple idea but beautiful to see it being said. success. i liked him he studies philosophy.



it helps that chris and koshos pieces are equally as successful, we are all really happy with how it has turned out. well almost, chris doesnt like his boxes anymore but really likes the rest of it. i dont think id like my strings if i hadnt found that hole. adn i have three 9x6inch prints of me in the environment along with my most recent sketchbook in the cafe room.



i will get some more photos posted once i get time. but for now it is 2.30 and i know mary will be in to wake us up in the morning so i best get to sleep. she is a maltese terrior.

nightnight.x