a little words.

hello. how are you this evening? well, yesterday was a trully culturally diverse day. we relaxed in the temple for quite some time in the morning as kosho was catching up on some sleep, i dont think he had the same forplanning as chris and i toward the whole jetlag phenomena and now, theree weeks after coming home, is still trying to find his place in time. (i just wanted to say place in time really, although the rest of it is true also.) so we chilled in the sunjshine of the temple, i took some more photos and thought about how i wanted my part in the exhibition to look, really it is a shame almost that i have a whole room as i dont really have the inclination to fill a space. maybe i will try to find something new tomorrow. no conclusions were drawn yesterday morning, however i am rather proud of an animation i made. with water dripping into a bucket. you gotta see it toi believe it folks! after lunch (king prawn in breadcrumb, with leftover beef curry and greek salad. oh yes, there is cultural diversity right there, on a plate...) we headed to the diy store. WOW. chris found this a slightly more stressful experience than myself. it was pretty much a poundstretcher/homebase on the ground floor with habotat through ikea on the next few floors. all thrown in the mix with no English and a 'What Everyone Wants' colourscheme. all hail Alpha, the greatest store of them all.
then kosho's buddhist father suggested for the evening's entertainment. 'sushi' and 'Die Hard' no complaints were heard from me. again, gobsmacked by the dinner. id never eaten somethings head before...and we were all suitably knackered after observing john mclane for 2hrs. the really different thing about japanese cinema is that they offer merchandise for the advertised film after every commercial and they sell the film programme outside the screen after the film. and people buy it. oh adn these guys are incredibly polite. its such a breath of fresh air. i mean they leave the lights off until the end of the credits as it is considered rude not to show appreciation for the film by walking out before everybodies names have been acknowledged. legend. if i can find it i have the best example of this cultures propriety in photographic documentation.
so today was again literally breathtaking. in every sense. we visited the most amazing temple. built on the side of a mountain, it has a stage which hangs over the trees below, it is legend that to jump from the stage of kiyomizu is to throw everything you have into an impossible task. the stage itself is a feat of engineering, no nails were used and each vertical is an entire stripped and cured tree. big trees.
i decided not to take too many photos today so i stole this one of kyoto from kiyomizu from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera) where you too can read all about this sacred place. and yes we did drink from the fountain of eternal life.
after kiyomizu we headed back down the mountain through tourist ville and into the Gion district, famous as the residency of the Geisha. this was really the kyoto you see when you look at the architecture books and it is such an amazing contrast to see this ancient wooden town in the middle of a geometric concrete and corrugated iron city.i took lots of photos none of which were in focus. this was intentional, there was lovely light at this point and i couldnt get over the shapes and colours.
this lady was spotted scurrying up an alleyway to empty her bucket of dirty water. and the cyclist didnt see me coming as i was hiding behind a van. cashback.

and this was a dude who i said had really good style. and chris said, 'is that because he is dressed just like polly?' to which i had to reply 'good point. good point!' although just in the fact that good style was being observed. polly doesnt dress like a bloke.


the meal tonight was perfect. we are being completely spoiled. i have no more words to explain or describe my utter gratitude towards our guests. kind, kind, patient people. i shall let chris give an evening description as he was the man with the camera, i decided id had enough for one day. so only took my video camera. whcih unfortunately we cant post video on these sites.
so i shall bid you good night. oh yes, befor ei forget, the culture is so proper even the green men have bowler hats and slacks. nightnight. x