whitebait

urban fish pond

remember to breathe

This gorgeous view is from the Kuruma onsen located nearby Kyoto (photo by my friend E).

We revisited a few weeks back. Whitebait is especially fond of this place because it was his first onsen experience in Japan. Quite intimidating, initially, as at that time as he was the only non-Japanese in the men's section. While W. had done all his reading up on 'how to hang with naked Japanese guys etiquette' it was still slightly nerve-inducing. But in the end it was a revelation about what a great national past-time communal bathing is. Whitebait would put it in his top 5 things about Japan.

The recent onsen visit was great too but the picture was momentarily disturbed when a dude lay on his back on the bath's wooden surrounding plank (yes, in front of the magnificent view my friend and I were enjoying) and proceeded to do some half-arsed sit-ups accompanied by squelchy fart noises from the contact between skin, water and wood. Serenity now, huh.

A friend just gave FrauleinDrDr and I some gift vouchers to the local Japanese bathhouse in nearby Collingwood (with massage included). Hurrah and bless!

weekend road trip to kyoto

Here are some photos from a trip to Kyoto last weekend. It is such a great city. Whitebait has been there before about two years ago, for a few days, and really loved it. No different this time.

photo stats

Just noticed during the upload of some Sydney photos that my typepad host has separate stats for photo albums. For no other reason besides the fact that Whitebait is bloggin' (relatively speaking) like a madman at the moment ... here are the numbers of page loads associated with each album.

5678  - Chicago
371    - Singapore
344   -  Hiroshima
300    - Tokyo
242    - Yokohama
205    - Nagasaki
180    - Kyoto
102   -  Osaka

How interesting! (for Whitebait anyway). The Chicago album has been up the longest time but the number compared to the others is still suprising (especially given that these are mostly architecture photos that aren't particularly brilliant). Go windy city!

the knowledge

A recent report in Metropolis' Japanese news digest notes that:

Of the 12,662 people taking the exam to qualify as a Kyoto Expert, 95 percent flunked. This incredibly abstruse exam simply permits people who pass it to call themselves Kyoto Experts, and was taken by taxi drivers and other curiosity seekers, what the hell.

Another report on the exam notes that a third of those who took the 100 question multiple choice exam live outside of Kyoto prefecture and attributes more generous pass rates. Most interestingly the exams were set up by the city's chamber of commerce in order to promote the city. Usually Whitebait would be reluctant to say 'only in Japan' but this event merits it ... as he can't quite see such a strategy working for somewhere like Melbourne (unless entrants could choose to specialise, say, in footy rather than "The End of the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration," "Shrines and Temples," "Festivals and Events," and "Lifestyle").

urban performances

Whitebait has finally gotten around to including some more photo albums on the blog (with more to come). You can now see images like this one on the right taken in Kyoto. Part of the tourist activities in the city involve heading to the Gion district at dusk when the guide books advise that you try to see one of the small remaining number of real geisha in Japan scurrying to work (though they are vastly outnumbered by hostesses, their contemporary reincarnations and the subject of an insightful ethnographic analysis in Anne Allison's Nightwork). And sure enough, Whitebait and Fraulein Dr Dr did indeed catch a glimpse of some 'real' geisha. But more interesting to Whitebait were the 'geisha for a day' who would suddenly appear in photo-friendly sites near some of the main temples such as the beautiful Kiyomizudera.

Getting dressed as a geisha or samurai warrior for studio portraits (though the latter were not seen on the street) appears a popular tourist activity for some. What Whitebait particularly liked here (and he is not mocking those described in saying this) was the mild seriousness with which the participants undertook the experience (maybe akin to the way karaoke tends to be performed in Japan). There is not a sense of blatant hamming it up in the form of laughter to distance oneself from an activity that might at one level be considered naff (or considered 'out there' because you are so obviously drawing attention to yourself in the crowd).

Oh, and Whitebait forgot to mention. While he didn't perform as a samurai he was 'performing tourist' with that early 'important moss' photo published in an earlier post.  This moss sign is mentioned in travel guides as a 'quirky sight' (as it is!) and W. wonders how many other Japanese and non-Japanese travellers have a similar image?

 

island cosmopolitanism

Walking in a busy tourist area of Kyoto last weekend, Whitebait is enthusiastically invited by a fellow tourist (middle-aged Japanese man) to try  a sample dish  outside of a  shop we are passing. Whitebait politely names it and declines after recognising it as the not particularly appetising  ika no shiokara  he had earlier eaten when out last month with some  accquaintances (Japanese medics who also insisted we try the dish without knowing what it was). The fellow tourist heads off looking slightly miffed that he has been caught out trying on something not so polite in respect of a dish that is by no means that popular among Japanese themselves.

Whitebait meets his language buddy who tells him she is desparately struggling to learn the art of origami before her next trip to Australia - everyone there insistently asks her if she can fold paper in the Japanese way. She prefers going out and listening to hard rock bands and talking to her younger friends who defiantly work part-time and devote the rest of their lives to the music scene..
She also tells Whitebait that  she is slightly worried about going through immigration (on a standard tourist visa) as she received a real grilling last time.  'How come your English is so good'?

A German architect (resident in Japan for five or more years) tells of his frustration at still being continually told 'wow, you can use chopsticks'.

long weekend