i wasn't quite sure when to expect said VIP. equipped with a flight number and a powerful thirst for the 'Net, i called it a day at work and scoped the narita arrivals. seeing her flight arriving aboot an hour early, enthused, i hit the f'in bullet train station. i figured on a 2 hour window of arrival. i and the JR staff must've felt me a douche, all excitedly getting up to stand at the turnstiles twice and hour and whatnot. came in on the last train o' the day.
i've been to himeji castle numerous times, and had never thought to venture further from the station than the magnificent castle that it is. since i'd spent the prior 3 weeks gaining knowledge of the greater kinki region (no shit), i heard tell of a joint that might be worth a visit. after working for a couple hours in the AM, we hit up Shosha-zan (書写山). bus from the station-ski, cable car to the top-ski, fucking fantastic....ski. ch-ch-check it:
this was this Hugh Gass bell that you could swing that there Heav Yass log into. i struck the bitch exactly 21 minutes before the quake (which i'll discuss in a mo'). the sheer resonance surprised the shit out o' me.
so basically, from the cable car it's like a network of trails and dirt roads leading you to all sorts of different temples and seemingly abandoned establishments. it was cold and friday, so most folk were at work or all snuggled up under the kotatsu. coupled with some unexpected snow, the solace was incredible. we were at one with our awe and sarcastic jokes. one trail was lined wit all deez statues and shit. this was my absolute fave.
this is a bit obscure, but it's the main temple of the complex. neither of us were in the least bit prepared for how fucking sweet it was.
it kind of jutted out 'the hillside. had there been any people there, it might not have been so impressive. we did our best to fit in with the times. went inside and lit some incense and everything. we even hid our beers in our pockets!
anybody see "the last samurai" starring tom mothafuckin' cruise!? this place look familiar?? eh??? there go my hollywood-style name drop for the day. BOOM.
it's hard to capture the scale and beauty of places like these on film. it's even harder to do on flash memory. this was some sort of boarding school for monks back in the day.
the woodwork was quite exceptional. thought my old man would especially dig it, were he to visit. (eh-eh-hem...)
another attempt to showcase the grandeur.
this tomb up on the mountain-piece.
from there we boarded the cable car for the ride down. we shared the cab with only the staff, who explained to us in japanese that there had been an earthquake in the Tohoku area, that there was a tsunami (津波) warning, and that we should take care heading home. at the bottom, Horace hooked up varying reports of the magnitude ranging from 7.4 to 9. didn't think much of it, and continued the adventure. wasn't until the phone call/email from momma that we thought it was serious, and wasn't until we got home all fucked up that we saw the footage. absolutely unbelievable. however, as there was no (AND STILL IS NO) danger posed to us, we took it in stride.
hit up kyoto the next day:
expansive graveyard. the best part about it was that we found it by taking what was probably the wrong side street.
i got this sweet new app for the H-man. allows him to take super scene photos.
kiyo-mizu dera was having this festival of lights that started the night we were there. mighty sweet!
there was this crazy bright spotlight comin from yonder mountain. not sure what that was all about.
this is the kiyo-mizu, or clear water. it comes from a "mysterious spring" in the mountain-piece, and let me tell you, tastes FUCKING FANTASTIC. we seized the opportunity right quick.
the UV sterilizing chambers for the mizu (water) scoops. solid engineering and a desire for freshness at every turn here on J street. we used two of these bad boys to fill up my water bottle (thanks doug and amy) with the sweet, life-giving liquid, then drank the shit out of it in a hard fought battle against our hangovers the next day*.
the best night view i got from the temple, reflected on the surface of a small pond. you see, i hadn't the proper settings on me digi camera-piece, and had to hand it over to the professional to hook shit up.
next stop was nara. it's true that kyoto was the capital before tokyo, but nara is like the grandaddy capital. apparently there's a great-grandaddy capital as well, but i didn't catch the name. besides, it probably has a naked lady tattoo and is always trying to scare the shit out of you by yanking his fake teeth.** here it go:
homeboy is clearly caged up for a reason. this was all wood by the way pops.
this is 東大寺 (todaiji). 'tis the largest wooden building in the world.
it houses this 大仏, or big buddha. michelle got in there for scale purposes, but it's still bigger than it looks. take note of the nostrils.
another bad ass wooden sculpture. i simply can't get enough of them. it's like that lay's (maybe) potato chip commercial back in the day that was all like "betcha can't eat just one!".
hopefully y'ins all noted the nostrils of the big buddha as instructed. this is a nostril-sized hole in one of the pillars in the temple through which, if one fits, one will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life. slid through like a greased goddamn pig, thank you very much.
anyway, it was easily the most enjoyable week i've had in japan to date. if anyone thinks they can help me beat it, good fucking luck. that said, i invite you all to try!
in other news, i got a new baby. now, i know what you're all thinking: "michael, you're way to young for that type of bullshit." but no, it's been far too long. i call it The Stallion, and it's beautiful and fast as shit:
weighs less than my backpack usually does, and loves me with all it's heart.
The Stallion and The Little Mule together. i still have plenty o' use for Ol' Muley, took him out on the train today in fact.
what follows can possibly be described as a rant, and is not necessarily in line with the positive attitude of this post. for those not interested, kindly skip on to the next photo.
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in extra other news, let's get down to the fuckin earthquake. i can honestly say that i've never seen such devastating video footage in my entire life. this is partly due to the fact that it's 2011 and japan is a super high-tech country. many people were equipped to capture the moment from their cell phones and cameras. i even saw some footage from this dude's webcam as he tried to steady himself in the middle of his room.
for those of you who don't know, it went a little something like this: japan is a highly tectonically active country, much like the US, Chile, New Zealand, and numerous others. off the coast of Tohoku, the pacific plate meets the north american plate, creating a subduction zone. the pacific plate (from here on referred to as "packie-p") dives under the north american plate ("namps"; "ol' nampy"; "the nampster"), creating a subduction zone. for the last hundreds or thousands of years, packie-p's been dragging ol' nampy down towards the core of the earth, and friction's been doing it's best to keep them together. on friday at 14:42 local time, however, the nampster simply couldn't take any further bending, and snapped back into place. essentially springing "upward", this displaced an incredible amount of seawater. the ensuing 津波 was absolutely catastrophic.
like i mentioned earlier in the post-piece, J-street engineering is fucking top notch. it's the reason that quake-inflicted structural damage was relatively limited. after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, folks here went to great measures to re-engineer numerous buildings across the country. there were even 津波 barriers in place. this scenario, however, was more or less worst case. i'm not sure it will ever be possible to protect anything against the 9.0 magnitude-13 meter combo.
while the danger posed from the partially exposed reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant are still very real, i'm afraid that the media is seriously over-hyping the situation. this is a widely known phenomenon (the over-hyping thing), yet i'm consistently surprised by how hard people bite the fucking hook. if i'm wrong, then i'll sincerely apologize. for now, however, i don't feel that there's any danger to tokyo, let alone me. i honestly believe that creating a panic in a greater metro area of 30-40 million people would be even more disastrous than the events of the previous week. this idea is most likely on the government's radar.
also, if you're one of the selfish mofo's who's thousands of miles away, trying desperately to relate this horrific incident to yourself by stocking up on iodine pills and bottled water, please stop watching the fucking news.
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in other extra other news, i got all fat.
then turned into a zombie.
*shortly after this peaceful photo shoot, we deftly located the only reggae dance club in town, embarrassed all the wannabe rug-cutters in the house, and called it a day.
**this may not be funny or even understandable if you didn't know "GG", but if you didn't, and it is, sweet.
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