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| I ran for the first time in weeks this morning because of the book deadline and the heat and humidity of the Japanese summer didn't help. I only did 2. something miles and the route i took to the river was under construction so i never got to see the river |
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| On our way to Kyoto. This was not the best day. Still some great stuff happened but we don't remember Kyoto be so full of tourists. It was also oppressively hot and humid because Kyoto is surrounded by mountains it turns it into a boiling pot. Immediately outside of Kyoto station you have a journey ahead of you to get anywhere cool which really sucks in the sun and heat. We were all really tired and Steven also had to huff it back to Osaka in the afternoon for work. |
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| woodblock print restoration at Art Yoshikiri |
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| When I was a freshman at FIT in 2002 in Sal Catalano's class he showed us this book of Yoshitoshi's One hundred aspects of the moon. I was mesmorized and immediately went home and bought the same book. This is my book i've owned for 20s years and now we own one of the prints in this series |
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| the woodblock print is at the framers so I don't have a photo of it but here it is in the book and an image i found online. it was 200,000 yen at Art Yoshikiri. Thanks to the weak yen that was $1,400 and not $3,000 like when the yen was strong when I lived in Japan in 2010. This basically the 2nd piece of art we've ever bought (the first was a Jean Gabriel Domergue lithograph in Paris for like $400). This has been a dream of mine for 20 yrs to own a Yoshitoshi and everytime i've been to Japan it hasn't happened and I was too poor when I lived there but now 20 yrs later I teach at FIT with Sal and now have a Yoshitoshi! I didn't like the experience of buying this though because of reading about the many many aspects of buying Ukiyo-e prints and things to watch out for and it made it intimidating. Next time I need to just chill out. |
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| this is not the specific edition we got, ours is a late edition and they had several of this guy but we went with the crispest best quality print (which meant the most expensive). Kumasaka no Chohan was an outlaw-priest and leader of a band of robbers, so a badass. |
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| Once you make it here in Arashiyama you have way less tourists or even the whole stretch to yourself |
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| you never know what's over yonder |
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| this woman maybe used to be a monk and now runs this not so trafficked outer Arashiyama soba/udon restaurant |
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| Nishin soba, it's mackerel that has a sweet glaze on it cuz of the soysauce, mirin, and sugar it's simmered in and is a Kyoto classic. Also the iced noodles were very welcomed |
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| Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple. Something like 8,000 stone statues for those who died without kin and children |
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| thanks to social media you'll see stuff like these 2 girls dressed in quasi Loli attire taking turns shooting videos for their feeds all over Kyoto and Japan. |
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| baffling, is this a dog barrier and if so it aint gonna do anything. Is the owner named Ina? There are boar problems all over Japan |
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| sometimes you go up a magical pair of stairs and are rewarded and sometimes theres nothing special and that stings more when its like 95 and 95% humidity. At this point we were trying to go on this river hike past Arashiyama that would be like 2 hrs and Steven loves it but we were so hot and tired that we gave up on that. I saw that the woodblock print store that sells shin hanga prints was open until 5:30 so we could still make it in time. I think everyone was happy to high tail it back to Kyoto central. We had a grueling sweaty 40 min walking journy ahead of us to get back to the train. We walked very fast. We even took a taxi from Kyoto station. We got there aat 5:15 and they were already closed. I only needed 15 min to find a dream print by Kawase or Yoshida but I did'nt get that. I was so pissed |
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| Bob really wanted to show steven how the British Bag store failed |
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| at this point everyone was very tired and sweaty. Steven had gone back to Osaka after lunch. We tried to find somewhere to eat that wasn't full of tourists around the immediate area and they were all filled with tourists. We went to sukiya for $4 gyudon bowls. There were arguments. We went back to Osaka silent and picked up teriyaki burgers from Mcdonalds on the way home which we sadly ate and went to bed. This was our final day in Japan and we kinda flubbed it. |
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| this photo represents the sad aspect of our final day in Kyoto (delicious tho). We frustrated Steven cuz we didn't do his plan and he came to Kyoto for basically no reason, the weather was the real oppressor in all of this. We all fought and really all we have to show for it is my dream Ukiyo-e print but at the cost of bricking and entire day in Japan. Maybe it was cursed to be bricked anyway because we were all so tired. No one got what they wanted, maybe we didn't even know what we wanted except to not be walking in the sun in 95 degree weather. This day will haunt me. |
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| at KIX airport with steven ready to go to Korea for 8 days. Everyone slept better I think and spirits were high as it is Bob and Steven's first time in Korea. For me that feeling good time would end soon enough when we had to deal with budget airline Peach Air's infuriating carry on weight restriction. 7kg is like almost nothing and that was the limit for carry on. We had to do a lot of shuffling around amongst the 4 of us and our checked luggage to make it work and we almost missed our flight. Except we didn't because they suck and don't list any info so the flight was delayed unbeknownst to anyone on our flight. Infuriating experience the whole way through. Also very patronizing and infantilizing on the flight. You need to really know what you're doing if you fly a budget airline especially Peach air. |
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