fewer photos yesterday makes for less to show today.

so yesterday was very very hot. especially in the evening. i was knackered by 8.30 adn we still had a 45 minute journey home. we were on the trains yesterday. they really are extremely efficient. which is excellent if you are too. we travelled from aragiyama station to kyoto main station it took us about 30 minutes hbut was really interesting as the train line is raised above the low rooftops of the city. so we got to see just how vast kyoto really is. we hope to hike up mt. otago soon and then we will really be able to view the extent of this vast urban jungle. once we arrived into kyoto station i was amazed at the building it is absolutely huge. with a very po-mo glasss roof and shapes. i will get a photo downloaded and put it up. talking of photos after the 600 that were produced on the first day both chris and i decided that it was necessary to calm down a bit and try to take in what we were really doing. as opposed to just looking for the next nice picture. which i found quite difficult, but alas i like a challenge and therefore only took 16 photos in the entire day. well after my early morning stroll around the temple. lol, koshos phone ring sounds exactyly the same as the start of the mission impossible teme tune.. sory i digress the phone just rang there. its the same length of tone and everything.
so we visited an amazing temple, in english its name is 33 spaces (or 33 screens) it is a 120m casm filled with 1000 lareger than lifesize buddhist figures. it was truly breathtaking adn i felt extremel;y privilaged to be visiting this national heritage site with the grandson of the sculptor who had rextored 800 of the golden figures. unfortunately there was no photography allowed and i couldnt find a photo of them. but trust me. awe-inspiring. they actually used to have an archery competeion on the west veranda of the temple the most difficult of which was a competeion called 'great many arrows' and it involved archers battling it out over a period of 24 hours (all lit by bonfires, which in turn had to be carefully managed so as not to catch the building alight) adn they fired as many arrows as they could along the 120m distance at a single target. the greatest competitoir managed 13000 accurate arrows at a rate of 9 arrows per minute! thats alot of arrows and alo0t of stamina. i thought grandpa might like that story, im sure chris has the name of the temple in japanese but im afraid im rather useless at remembering their names. in one ear and no matter how much i try, out the other.
after this we got some more juice, i topped up my camelbak and we headed upto gallery weissraum on the underground metro. again, extremely clean adn very efficient. and cheap. it was maybe 50 pence to ride. as was the trainride into kyoto station. weissraum is as i should have expected very white. even the probably beautiful wooden floors have been painted white. if i had more time adn was able to really communicate with takaya i would perhaps try to persuade him to let me strip just one of the massive wooden floorboards. i think it would be beautiful. anyway, he is fine with all of chris and i's ideas. it was really a rather weird meeting. as kosho was quite upset at the fact that takaya was saying one thing to chris and i and another, pretty much opposite thing to him. it became very apparent to me that this was a test for takaya's pupil and he does not really mind about chris or i. which is fine because we have no real pressure, but it is a shame as kosho has chosen two very strong minded friends to try to curate and i am not very willing to bend for the sake of bending. a good learning curve for myself to see what i am and am not wanting to do. anyway, takaya fed us sushi the first real sushi ive had, and octopus (oh my god it was tasty, fried like calamari but only sweeter and more flavour) adn some japanese beer, was good and a refreshing choice in the muggy-heat of the evening. after this we wandered back into town to try and find some paperhats, speaking of mission impossible. you should see the japanese take on a department store. wow. so, chris and i decided to race up the most amonut of steps either of us had ever seen. while kosho took the escalator. pretty much the most perfect place i could ever find for my shiny step idea. i might film it and then photoshop it in. nop theres a good idea.
after this we were properly knackered and headed back on the train to aragiyama where koshos dad was waiting for his younger brother and gave us a lift back up the road to the temple.



this is the kyoto station. huge adn huge.


the east veranda of 33-spaces. check out the old wood floors. unfortunatly inside they have had to carpet due to the shear volume of people now visiting the landmark. coincidentally this is also where koshos mum adn dad met. whilke they were both working here.



one of the screens in 33-spaces. quality not quantity...for photos, not screens.





arty pics to finish with. i think i will wander up to the temple now. chris i think is already there. damn the distraction of computers and comunication. good times.x