Here’s a picture of the thousand Buddhas temple that I went to in Hong Kong. There are over a thousand buddhas as you walk up the cliff, and each one is different from the next. There is a temple at the top with a thousand buddhas inside of it, each one with a slightly different tai chi hand position.

It’s in the “New Territories” in Hong Kong, a place where tourists don’t go as much, but a where there are much more historical sights.

Personally, I like to see historical sights as much or more than seeing the modern parts of a city.

I was in Hong Kong this summer and there was a typhoon, so my plane got delayed. Here’s a picture of part of a building that fell down!

right now im teaching highschool. this weekend they are having the 文化祭(bunkasai) which is a festival that they hold once a year. its a big deal and lots of people go. every homeroom has something they do like make food, have games, etc. haunted houses are popular since the kids love youkai(monsters)

its a little like the punahou carnival if you’ve been.

this is a picture of me with a kid who is into ゛visual k゛a popular kind of music.

Awhile ago Sam and I climbed mount Takao with some of my my other friends. In this picture you can see my friend Teja and Mike as well as Sam. It was pretty fun and I was surprised that just outside of Tokyo lay a mountain with lots of greenery and things to see.  It’s set in an area of Tokyo that is almost a medium sized suburb, and is near where Sam lives

I was also surprised that at the top they served oden, even though at this time it was the summer and extremely hot. Ramen and oden is also served on mount fuji, which doesn’t seem like the best climbing food but actually does hit the spot when you are heading up.

today its extremely hot in kyoto so i ordered some sashimi. at the register the lady said おおきに. apparently in 京都べん, it means ありがとうございます.

this morning i just went to kinkaku-ji.heres a picture. it was burnt down in 1950 and rebuilt in 1955. i read temple of the golden pavillion by yukio mishima awhile ago. it is his rendition of the story. paradoxically, supposedly a monk obsessed with its beauty destroyed it.

I was thinking The Sounds of the Waves by Yukio Mishima, which I read awhile back and which came back to me recently. It’s a simple, classic love story between two characters, Shinji and Hatsue, who live a pastoral life on a small island off the coast of Japan.

However, the simplicity of the story is part of the author’s idealistic thematic intent. The two characters’ simplicity, love, and moral integrity guide them through to a happy ending where they are able to be married.

Actually the story was not meant by Mishima to be realistic. It was meant to be a modern day fable, in opposition to what he saw going on in modern society. It embodies many values that he thought were disappearing, such as the 神道 (Shinto) ideal of harmony with nature.

Actually throughout the story there is always reference to the encroaching modern world which continues to exert it’s influence on the boundaries of the small island and it’s idealistic and pastoral moral values.

Actually I feel kind of the same way after leaving Hawaii. It’s a place that I can tell is becoming less and less how it used to be, especially in areas like Waikiki. Sometimes I get frustrated with big city life, and try to make sure I maintain elements of simplicity in my life, like taking a walk and relaxing sometimes instead of trying to make sure that I am always busy doing something or being productive. I know people that are only focusing on their careers and bettering themselves, and they aren’t happy for one reason or another. Those things are important but there are also other things like enjoying nature, or connecting with someone on a personal level, which serve no objective purpose but can help one grow as an individual.

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I got some 稲荷寿司 (inari-zushi)　from おつな寿司本舗 (otsunasushihonpo), which means “delicious sushi shop” (although the words おつな and　ほんぽ are fairly old and no longer in common usage).

The friend who took me said that the shop is over 300 years old. They are famous for inari-zushi, which is made of あぶらげ and すしめし (sushi rice). I don’t have pictures of what the it looks like (I ate them!) but the aburage was different from what I was used to - it had a slightly rougher texture than normal. Pretty good but a small box like the one pictured below is 950円.

http://e-food.jp/cgi-bin/restfind/view1.cgi?no=1710

Inari is pretty popular in Hawaii, and some people are surprised when they hear that there are companies in Hawaii that make aburage, tofu, and even things like natto and shoyu (Although the qualities slightly differ from stuff made in Japan and are altered to Hawaiian tastes).

As far as I call tell too, there are some goods like this are also manufactured in Little Tokyo which is in the manufacturing area of downtown LA.

After going to the Nasu Highland Park　ゆえんち I went to this restaurant in Nasu:

http://www.fiorano-nasu.com/

Nasu is a kind of resort town in Tochigi where well to do people live or retire, and there’s a lot of nice restaurants and onsen (we were just visiting).

One of my friends who is a fan of Italian food said that the Italian food in Japan is quite good. I haven’t had good pizza yet but this place is definitely one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve been to.

The first pictures are of the オードブル (hors d’œuvre in English/French, literally ‘outside of the main work’) we ordered from the menu. They were probably the best and more interesting part of the meal. Although, they would technically be antipasto (アンティパスト, literally ‘before pasta’) since this is an Italian restaurant.

Confusingly enough also, in France people use the word entrée to talk about an appetizer or hors d’œuvre, although usually it is a little more substantial than a smaller hors d’œuvre which is sometimes served with cocktails. In the US when people say entrée they always mean the main course of a meal. I was confused when I went to france and people said entrée when they were referring to an appetizer.

In Hawaii people sometimes say pūpū which originally was a specific Hawaiian dish. Sometimes people just order pupus because similar to this restaurant, they were the best part of the meal in my opinion. In Spain, people often eat only tapas instead of lunch or dinner.

Does anyone know the regular word in Japanese for an appetizer? Is it 前菜 or is アペタイザー　used more often?　Even おかず could be kind of similar to an appetizer, since it is kind of a ’side dish’ accompanying the rice.

I was reading this article on the New York Times Art/Design blog The Moment recently:

The Post-Materialist Muji Obsession

It’s about Muji, which is often called “The Japanese Ikea”. Actually many people are surprised to hear that Muji is quite fashionable in places like New York and Paris, probably due to people’s fascination with the minimalist aesthetic that Muji embodies and that people often associate with their image of Japan.

The article mentions the Japanese concept of 渋い (Shibui) (unobtrusive beauty) as Muji’s guiding design concept. Most of their products are functional, have little ornament, and are relatively reasonably priced. Interestingly though, it mentions that this idea conjures up a “Japan of the mind”, that people can engage in as an antidote to whatever they feel is lacking or in this case, cluttering their lives at the moment.

Actually the word 渋い originated in the Muromachi period (1333-1568) and literally refers to a bitter or astringent taste, like an unripe fruit. 渋いprecisely refers to the aesthetic of something as being beautiful by virtue of being exactly what it is meant to be or what it is already, without elaboration. My guess is that an unripe fruit is bitter but is delicious precisely because that is how it occurs in nature, without the added component of “ripening”, which is predicated by humans with the intent of making the fruit more delicious than it would be beforehand.

And actually many of the products at Muji are nice but people might not buy them in such bulk if they weren’t sold at Muji, because they are fairly ordinary. It is actually the idea that you are buying and integrating into your life, which in contradiction to purchasing something, is the idea that less is more.

I don’t know how the idea of bitterness plays into this directly, because simple things by nature are not offsetting. Actually though, it could be that with the crowded, overstimulating nature of city life, things that are simple and direct actually ARE offsetting and unusual. I certainly feel that when I’m in a city sometimes, I lose contact with the ability to appreciate things as they are, and expect things to be as they “ought” to be, or for things to be better or faster. Certainly living in the country during the week, and going to Tokyo on the weekends, I can appreciate the accepting nature of people in Kasukabe, which is a small town has fewer criteria and sort of lets people and things be and develop as they are, which is a nice change to a competitive city atmosphere.