Golden Week Art Holiday around Japan...

location: Japan

So start of the journey: Tokyo! showed up a day early and messed around in Ueno Park and in Asakusa near the famous Sensou-ji temple. Tried to walk over to Asakusa from Ueno Park and
cruising through the aboveground art installation that was the walk from Ueno's subway station across the street to Asakusa street, where I encountered various sculptures, such as this walk underneath me black obsidian looking globe. Interesting...





From there, it was a 25 minute walk in the scorching sun down a street full of buddhist altar shops (literally, shops full of items you buy to remember your dead with. An entire street. In downtown Tokyo. Kinda surreal...) Then finally made it to Sensou-ji. It was still a little early in the day, so there weren't too many people. Then, I headed over to Shinjuku to do a little shopping and to meet up with my friend Elin, who's from Sweden, but currently studying in Tokyo. We studied together at Kansai Gaidai. We met up and headed over to Shibuya, and grabbed some dinner. Finally, we got some karaoke, and I crashed over at the first internet cafe I could find, to get up the next morning, grab me some donuts, and go out to Narita Airport to meet Andy...

...from there, we chatted up a friendly group of Lady Gaga and Rihanna lovin' high school girls til we reached our destination at the Sakura hostel in Ikebukuro.
That night, it was off to all you can eat korean bbq, and catching up about life...
then, the next day, Sensou-ji temple in Asakusa again! Here are some more of the pix from that beautiful temple. It's a fun part of town, because there's also an old theme park there, where I took this dorky photo with two popular children's animated feature favorite characters, and this tower of terror is visible in the background behind the temple..

Finally, it was back out through the arcade/shopping street that let to the temple and back on the train over to the airport. Our flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport (wayyy nicer than Narita, for the record, which basically sums up how little they care about foreigners by giving them the shittier airport haha) to Takamatsu was a quick one, and we headed over to the pier to catch the last speedboat ferry to Naoshima..it was a passenger ferry (aka it might have had room for 30 people..there were 9 of us) and not at all what i was expecting! It was a heck of a ride. then, we got picked up by local Fisherman and self-appointed ambassador of the island of Naoshima Mr. Hanbe. He picked us up at the pier, and we headed back to his place for food, beer, and conversation (during which time i acted as translator, of course, much to my chagrin. have i mentioned im not fluent in Japanese???) We trudged around to the Ando Tadao designed Chichu Museum, which is literally in the ground. But, um, the building was the best part of it. The worst part were the lines we waited in. The strangest was an installation piece that was a room filled with a hazy purple blue-ish light that made you feel like you were in the middle of a bad drug trip. it was pretty awesome, actually. Then, it was Benessee House and the beautiful beaches and sunny weather. It's impossible to be in a bad mood and be on Naoshima.
That day, it was a hop on the ferry and a train back to my town of Saijo, then from there a short stop at local watering hole World's End and onto the beautiful--and uber crowded--Orange Ferry for an overnight ride to Osaka. Even got to go out on the deck in the warm night air and look to the Shikoku shore line (spoiler alert: it looks just like the night sea scene in Princess Bride when they've kidnapped Buttercup, minus the eels... i think!) Next morning it was off to meet Jennifer in Kyoto, where we witnessed the glory that was the Tohaku Hasegawa exhibit. He was a contemporary of the Kano school in the Momoyama period of Japanese art, basically characterized by gold background folding screens, wide angles, arched bridges, and plants and animals serving as seasonal markers. It was a lovely exhibit. Next was SanJuSanGendo, which unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of, but that really doesnt matter because a picture can't capture it anyway. It's this long, darkened hall 10 times as long as it is wide (it used to be an archery stable) and filled with 1000--yes, a thousand--gold covered images of the Boddhisatva of compassion, Kannon. Each has a slightly different face, and statues of the images of the sacred guardians of the Buddha are lined up in the front rows, with the most impressive figure being set in exactly the middle of the hall, a lovely eyes have opened seated Kannon bodhissatva figure easily about 30 feet tall. Always an awe-inspiring place to visit.




Next was a walk to fetch tofu donuts near the Nishiki market on the other side of the Kamo river in Kyoto, then finally saying bye to Jennifer and a train ride back to Osaka to take a stroll in the nice weather. We wandered over by Ebisu bridge, the main hub of Osaka shopping areas, and viewed some art on display near the canal. Then it was dinner at a Japanese-style pub (called an izakayaa here) , and guessing from the pictures what we're eating! always fun. Next morning was a day trip to Himeji-jo castle, the White Heron castle out west a little from Kobe. The main part (donjon) was under construction, so we headed over to the lady's quarters after posing for pictures by the main part of the castle and wandering the grounds. the cool rooms and floors of the lady's wing showed a more elegant side of the castle than I had planned for, with an excellent view of the main building. From there, we headed back to Nara for the evening and ate at a lovely rotating sushi restaurant, before retiring at our former geisha house Japanese style traveler's inn.














The next day it was off to the Big Buddha in Nara at Todai-ji, the world's largest wooden building, featuring the giant indoor Buddha himself and of course his famous nostril-sized hole in the pillar (the line for englightenment was ridiculous this time!) and then it was off to feed deer in the park nearby. After the big buddha himself, it was time to take a break back at the inn during the heat of the day, and then heading off for Kyoto, to go enjoy Fushimi Inari, the fox god shrine of the thousand gates trailing up the hill.











it was nice and quiet, as there was a temple festival nearby that everyone else was at. so we wandered up a bit through the cool of evening and then meandered back. then we got a ride over to Kiyomizudera which was ...closed (thanks cabbie lol) so we wandered through the back alleys and deserted streets back around to Yasuka shrine, which looked amazing at night, as always. then back around to the Kamo River, where we ate dinner on a platform over the river--expensive, as expected, but also an extremely relaxing, and delicious, experience. and the service was incredible, of course. but that goes without saying. we also got entertained by a local, um, Celtic flute band (i couldnt make this up!) it was very, traditional(ly Irish. lol.) and fun!

















The next morning we took the fastest possible train from Kyoto to Tokyo (um, try a 3 hr trip, basically! pretty sweet. the landscape went by faster than you could make sense of anything around you!) the Nozomi Shinkansen train. Then in Tokyo immediately checked into the hotel and set off for Akihabara, where we explored the electronics capital of Japan (sans maid cafe, thank god.) and then it was to the performance art izakaya (pub), but on the way, we were lucky enough to run into the beginnings of the local festivities near the castle part of town in Shimbashi. even got to see them bless the shrine before all the men --and even some ladies! -- hauled it off to the temple in their hapi (festival coats.) it was cool to see something so homespun and traditional happen in the heart of Tokyo! Then it was Kagaya downstairs performace art pub, where we got to don silly glasses and watch the shop owner make a spectacle of himself. it was tons of fun--so much fun the owner couldn't resist chasing us down the street with his fake ninja gear. Uh, ok, i'll think twice before crossing you, ninja/restaurant guy!



Next day it was up and after dealing with a bit of a hotel situation I'd inadvertantly caused, it was off to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo, where we spent our afternoon viewing the provocatively titled "Can There be Art?" dealing with contemporary artists in Japan and their current works. There was everything from noise rock done automatically by household appliances, rigged up record players, and even a car engine, a montage of videos taken in a sports car of cityscapes at night that spawned a drone-induced trance-like state. some were good (i've mentioned my personal favorite two) and some not so good (a hitler dress-up video comes to mind) but overall it was definitely thought-provoking! After that it was over to Odaiba for burgers and a visit with our own lady Liberty
in the Odaiba island harbor.




Finally, the last day consisted of a visit to Harajuku, so of course the crazy gaudy dress-up street of Takeshita dori, and then across the street to Meiji jingu, or Meiji shrine, shrine honoring the Meiji emperor. We were even lucky enough to witness a marriage! And the weather was so beautiful too. Lucky them! Then, before i knew it, I was saying goodbye to Andy and the end of my golden week...