Speaking of Shinkansen, here's the business end of one of these sleek beasts. More like a fighter jet cockpit than a train, the travellers could only again gape in awe at the superiority of Japanese infrastructure. (As an aside, Wikipedia notes that in 2003, over the approximately 160,000 trips made by the Shinkansen that year, the average arrival time was within 0.1 minutes or 6 seconds of the scheduled time, including all natural and human accidents and errors!) Thus, the adventurers duly arrived in Kyoto on schedule, right down to the second.
Kyoto was one of the few cities to avoid full scale bombing in WWII, and as a result it's literally a treasure trove of ancient temples and shrines that rise mysteriously out of misty forests, or peek incongruously out from behind the gleeming skyscrapers and malls of the modern Kyoto. Unfortunately for this bunch of sightseers, nonwithstanding the non-ratification of the Protocol that bears the city's name, the weather failed to deliver anywhere near greenhouse conditions. In fact, it was downright miserable (the weather that is, not little miss complaints ;) - rainy and chilly. But since when did a little rain stop a bunch of die hard kiwis?
One of the highlights of our temple-hopping excursion around Kyoto was the myriad of old cobblestone streets, lined with rows of traditional wooden buildings and filled with the scents of the many udon shops hawking their wares to hungy sightseers. Like the one pictured above. It's impossible not to soak (hur hur hur he says as the rain continues to soak through his meagre jacket) up the history of the city in a place like this.
The rain continues, as do the sights. Here's a traditional Japanese garden, complete with untraditional fountain.
And now a shot for Galley. It's food time! This time around it's traditional Japanese pancakes. No maple surup here folks. These creations consist of fried soba noodles and cabbage fashioned into a rough disk and topped with bbq sauce. Usually I think you are supposed to cook them yourself on the hotplate in the table, but luckily they took pity on the poor fool in the blue coat, and did the hard work for him.
Another photo, another temple. Yes, one really could get sick of temples in Kyoto. Fortunately this one distinguished itself by having a cool gold exterior. Jared was particularly fascinated, having not seen the shiny stuff for a while now in his fencing career. Hur. Hur. Hur.
And to finish off another day, yep you guessed it, another feed. Here Rock shows his artistic side with a Rembrantesque composition to rival The Night Watch (or, as the critics might unfairly claim, he forgot how to turn on the flash...)
2 comments:
you misspelled 'gleaming' and 'hungry' :)
Must remember to spell check this post...
Yes, more shots of people eating please. Especially the close ups of the J00ster’s formidable chopstick skill-set. There’s a job waiting for you at the city council, little one. With the speed you can move masses of material with those things you’d be guaranteed work shifting landslides and the like with your sticks. They’d be clamouring sign you up.
You have problems with bad weather over there? Monday I fly in to Wellington from Dunedin. Through wind, rain and, from the way the pilot was manoeuvring, probably Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. I doubt Douglas Bader twisted and turned that much when he was trying avoid the Luftwaffe in World War Two. Just before we kissed tarmac I was examining my knees, ‘cause that’s the thing you do in those situations. Yes, it is. And the pilot must’a grown bored with flying or something and the aircraft drops the last few feet. Bang. We hit Mother Earth. A neck snapping experience; the sort of violent nod of the head you’d give if God asked you to do him a personal favour. Last time I made the mistake of looking down at the critical moment was on a roller coaster on the Gold Coast; spent the journey up the first loop tying my shoelaces back up with my teeth. Gravity sucks.
Dunedin is great. You can smoke a cigarette right down to the butt and it don’t burn your lips; just melts the ice. Saw a seal too. Every time I see a seal I think: Wow, it’s a dog with flippers. Dunno why I think that, just do. Anyway, the little fella was flippy-flopping his heart out across the road toward the bay. It was understandable. You’d be flippy-flopping with that sort of unglamorous enthusiasm if several tons of bus was racing toward you. I know I do. When I’m drunk. Otherwise I get up and run.
The seal lived.
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