More trips
Guess what, I've gone so many places I had to make another page. The things I go through to get pictures for you people. You can thank me later.
Copyrights of all pictures belong to me.
Kyoto
This is the view standing on top of the
gate to some shrine in Kyoto. Uh, well actually it is a temple. I was recently
informed of this via a helpful, albeit gruff, e-mail. Anyway, shrines don't
have gates. Shrines are Shinto and have torii and temples are Buddhist and
have gates, generally speaking. (I actually learned that fact shortly after
this picture was posted but forgot about my boo-boo until I was reminded
today.)
And I've also been informed that this temple is called Nanzen-ji. Well, the person who told me that clearly has never been on a Japanese sightseeing tour! We went from site to site so quickly that it's amazing that I remembered the names of any of them at all! Fortunately I went to Kyoto again and saw it all nice and slow, but I never saw this place again. I never even knew where it was.
See all that green behind me? This picture was taken in mid-January! Jealous? Ha ha! Too bad!
From the bottom of the gate in the above picture, you
can see here the path leading up to the temple. I was very VERY lucky to
have a shot without any people at all ruining it. I took this picture for
no other reason than the fact that I thought that it was a nice, almost
neo-classical view. One is very rarely confronted with such opportunities
in Japan. Traditional Japanese architecture and gardens are most definitely
not neo-classical in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
Kyoto is a must-see for anyone traveling to Japan. But don't get any misconceptions about it. That in Kyoto which is not old and traditional is astonishingly ugly and poorly planned. Simply put, Kyoto is not a nice city. Not at all. It is one giant, ugly, traffic jam from Hell. Only the fact that it is seething with historical places makes it worth visiting. Stay away from modernity in Kyoto and you'll do just fine!
This is the school superintendent of Atsumi, Mr. Yamada,
standing in front of Ginkaku-ji. Ginkaku-ji means "silver temple."
As you can see, it's not silver at all. Why the name? The man who built
it wanted a temple to rival Kinkaku-ji (gold temple) which is actually gilded
in gold (see below). Unfortunately, this particular person didn't have so
much money. So he built an ugly, wooden building and some nice gardens around
it. The gardens are actually very nice. The temple doesn't really live up
to it's name though. What's Japanese for "old, ugly, wooden building?"
Now here is Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Temple. You'd think
the guy who built the Silver Temple would have taken some lessons from the
guy who built the Golden Temple, now wouldn't you? Kinkaku-ji is definitely
a treat to the senses. The temple and the surrounding grounds are beauty
beyond parallel. It's worth going to Kyoto only to see this temple. It must
cost a lot of money for upkeep though! Having your house guilded in gold
is a far cry from having new vinyl siding put on. Of course, if the guy
who built the Silver Temple were alive today, he just might have done that.
He clearly didn't have as much of a sense of grandure that the builder of
this temple had!
Mt. Fuji
Here are some of my students at the beginning
of their climb up Mt. Fuji. Oh, sure. They look happy and ready to go now,
but just wait until later. It started raining you know. And Mt. Fuji is
essentially nothing more than a pile of tiny, loose rocks, making climbing
rather difficult.
Mt. Fuji is a volcano, albeit a sleeping one, and people build their homes and businesses right at the base of it!!! The human capacity for stupidity never ceases to amaze me. It's one thing to be on and off in 24 hours, but to live by it? The words "asking for it" spring to mind.
Addendum: Mt. Fuji has been sputtering lately. So the government is now holding disaster drills in the Fuji area FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!! Rather than dispense a witty remark at this time, I'll just let you come to your own conclusions.
Climbing is definitely worth the risk,
because this is the view you are presented with! I don't normally get to
see the sunrise, but I'm sure the sunrise from the top of Mt. Fuji is one
of the best there is. At the top is a convenient gift shop, believe it or
not. Imagine what the looks on the faces of the people at THEIR insurance
company were like when they went for a policy. "Yes," they would
say, "I would like to buy fire insurance." "What is your
address?" responds the insurance company. "The top of a great,
huge, not-dead volcano," they respond. "........," says the
insurance company.
This picture was taken while coming back
down. Ha, I told you things would change. I'm still wearing my light to
keep my nasty-looking hair out of my face. Should've brought a hat, eh?
That big white spot is a lava flow coming at us. AAAAAA!!! No really, it's
only a thumb. Hey, we aren't all professional photographers!
My Mt. Fuji climb was one to remember. I was supposed to be "working" as it was a school trip, but my "work" consisted of climbing with the students about halfway and then suddenly discovering that I was all by myself not knowing if I was ahead or behind. It turns out that a huge gap formed in the middle of our group and I ended up there.
Ise
This is one of the many bridges at the grand shrines of
Ise. Ise is the location of Amateratsu's shrine, the sun goddess. The cave
she hid in is in Toba, which is nearby. Ise is a rather interesting historical
place in that none of the buildings are more than twenty years old! According
to Japanese tradition, all structures at the Ise Shrine are destroyed after
twenty years of existence for each of them and rebuilt. Each structure was
originally constructed at a different time, so there isn't a massive torch
fest every twenty years or anything. It's just that usually, there is always
something there that has reached it's twenty year limit and is being rebuilt.
Ise is a good place to go for sushi!