Before getting full force into the rest of my journeys I would like to talk a little bit about film. Sorry, but this is what I do. So please bear with me on this one. For those of you who don't keep up with me all too well it's more or less my dream to make an awesome film. Mainly I would love to make an awesome realistic drama. Some examples of something I would like to make possibly could resemble Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa) or Let There Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson). Basically the study of the man, human emotions, or just plainly put, the human mind/heart. I watch at least one film a day no matter how good or bad it might be. The more I cram into my brain maybe I can have the ability to portray the thoughts and feelings I want to through picture and sound.
Last week before going to Kyoto I watched almost three films a day. A few that really stood out to me were "Slumdog Millionaire" which is directed by Danny Boyle of "28 Days Later" and last years "Sunshine". This film isn't the best thing ever but the story is quite interesting and the setup is very good. The only bad points I can call out are a slow final act as well as some chase scenes coupled with odd music making it feel like more something that would be playing on MTV.
Next up is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". SEE IT. Yes it's very long and yes some of the shots are a tad too soft a times, especially composite shots. However, I think this small draw back only leads to adding more of a storybook feeling to the film. It's a very sad, yet heartwarming story about a man who ages backwards. Brad Pitt plays said man and does a great job doing so. Kate Blanchett does a wonderful job as does the remainder of the cast. The film runs nearly three hours credits and all, so if you decide to go to the theater for this one prepare yourself for a long one...
Next is "7 lbs" starring Will Smith. First, I would just like to say...I don't like Big Willie. Ever since Fresh Prince I've just never liked him. However, he tends to do well in dramatic roles. The film is unfortunately a tad too predictable which made it hard to get through. It's more or less a film to watch if you've got some extra time on your hands.
Next, is "Che Part One". Unfortunately, I have not seen the second part as of now but hopefully soon I will be able to view it. This movie, as the title should more or less indicate, is about Ernesto Che Guevara. I'm sure at one time or another you have seen a picture of him seeing as it was actually named one of the most famous photographs in the world. For those of you who don't know Che was a famous Argentine Marxist, revolutionary, author, physician, and guerrilla leader. Che was among the revolutionaries lead by Fidel Castro whose intention was to overthrow the USA-backed Cuba by Fulgencio Batista. I even read his book entitled "Guerrilla Warfare" a few years back. Needless to say even long after his death more than forty years ago he become an enigmatic figure for countercultures. The film stars Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sin City, and upcoming remake of The Wolfman) who of course plays Che. It starts out by taking you in and out and of interviews and events that happened (or rather may have happened) during a short trip to the USA using black and white, whereas the color portions of the story take place when he decides to join the revolution and that's the jumping point of the main story taking place. I'm truly interested in this person so maybe without such an interest it could drag out in another's eyes. Including the second portion this film will be close to four hours long in all. I guess that's possibly why the split it into two parts. If you like history or a good examination of it then you should check it out, it comes to limited theaters in the USA very soon.
Now with this last film I hope not to offend some of the readers on this blog. "Religulous", which takes a look at modern society coupled with the complexities of religion and the type of thoughts that it can spread. Bill Maher takes you through a journey talking to various people of all walks of religion from all around the word. I myself am not too much of a religious man. Would I like to believe there is something more after this life, yes who doesn't. However, my scientific mindset always leads me to believe otherwise. Bill never tries to sway any one's beliefs, but only points out things about religion that just doubt add up. As I said this movie wasn't made to sway beliefs or offend, only to raise questions instead of blindly believing in something without being able to question it. If you're an open minded person, religious or not I think this is worth watching as some very valid questions are raised, as well as religious thinking being compared to what we believe is a very logically thinking world today.
Now back to Disney Sea, last time I left off around the point where we had just gone on an Indiana Jones ride in jungle portion of the park. We made our way back to the center of the park to view the one show I wanted to see "BraviSeaMo". The videos (as always loud) won't explain that much but basically it's a story of a god of water and a god of fire who share some sort of passion for each other. While the story isn't too clear the effects and music really made this show worth watching.
Forgot to mention I went on the
20,000 Leauges Under the Sea ride...
20,000 Leauges Under the Sea ride...
After this, Ho and I refilled our popcorn and headed to find some place for dinner. We ended up at an Italian restaurant where I had pizza and she got some sort of pasta. During this time the final show of the night was going on and we could watch some of it from where we were sitting. As we finished eating we got to go outside and see the final fireworks go off and this is about the time most people began to leave the park.
Then...it was time. Time for the Tower of Terror. I'm not scared of rides like this, but maybe I should after all the bad stuff that's happened stateside (such as the loss of a head as well as some legs). Ho-san cannot stand rides the least bit. So knowing how bad this one was going to be it took me nearly half an hour or more to convince her to come on the ride with me. She even wanted to leave the park with me there and have me find my own way back to the hotel. The whole time before the ride she was breathing really hard and just gripping on to me. I actually thought the ride would be worse but it's really easy on you for a free fall type of ride. However, it was still enough to scare the living piss out of Ho-san. I wanted to buy another picture (like I did from the Indian Jones ride) but she wouldn't allow me to and rushed us out. We then made our way to the exit, shot a couple of pics and left.
We got back to the hotel and we pretty much hit the bed. I hadn't done that much walking in quite some time and was a little sore. Ho-san then thought it would be a good idea to put two heating pads on each leg. I was soon falling asleep when about 15 minutes later I woke up and my legs felt like they were burning off! Little did I know these pads were medicated. I tore them off but the burning stayed there for a while, Ho-san helped me wash my legs off with a wet cloth and there was so much of the medication on my legs that her hands started burning too!!!!
Needless to say I will never use those things again, or at least not that many. We were going to do some more things but the next day one of my problems, out of the myriad ones that I have, kicked it and would have made it difficult to walk around as much as a had on the previous day. I still wanted to go to FujiTV and such but Ho-san thought it best to just head back to Kofu early and get some rest. Before going I had to get me some Krispy Kreme donuts and I spent a whopping $20 for dozen of those delicious bitches. The wait was about 45 minutes, but the upside to this is that they serve you free donuts in line :D
After getting back from Tokyo I pretty much sat around and played Xbox (beat Prince of Persia and Gears of War 2), watched a bunch of movies (most of which I mentioned), and read a little bit. A few days later Pat came back from America and we sat around playing some Xbox. Shortly after I left for Kyoto with my buddy Bob.
Kyoto is a pretty awesome place to see Japanese history. I saw all kinds of Temples. I took nearly 300 pictures whilst there. Some places you couldn't take pictures so it was kind of disappointing. One of my favorite places called "Sanjyuusangendou" (三十三間堂) housed a huge amount of Japanese national treasures. Most of these treasures are statues that represent Buddhist deities. One of which is Kanon, and they had hundreds of this one statue. It was just amazing too see that many artifacts in one location. I also visited some more popular temples such as Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji. However, my favorite of all of them were temples containing "chi-tenjou" which translates to "blood ceiling". A lot of my teachers didn't even know what this was and Bob told me it wasn't too popular with the Japanese people. However, I found it very interesting. During the time of Tokugawa, he left his castle and it was attacked and held under siege for nearly two weeks. After they knew of their immanent defeat, as honorable bushi (samurai) would do, they killed themselves. About 300 to 400 killed themselves that is. Since the lord was away for so long when he came back to the castle the blood and oils of the dead bodies had stained the floors. Due to some circumstances, those of which I did not understand, they could not be given proper burials. So as a monument they put the floor of the castle into various buildings and temples throughout the area. This happened about four or five hundred years ago. I saw two locations with this and in one you could even clearly make out a bloody hand print. Maybe some people think it's morbid, but it's history and that's why it interests me.
Here are pics of a lot of the temples I went to with Bob.
This is actually a man made sand structure.
I can't imagine the patience it took to make this.
Lil Buddha is cold
Evil bunny.....
Make a wish....
As you can see in this picture as well as previous
ones there is like a carpet of moss in the garden.
Needless to say it was pretty awesome looking.
Panoramic of Sanjyuusangendou (三十三間堂)
Busy street in Kyoto
Some Japanese history about the blood ceilings
Old Japanese outhouse >_<
My green tea and me. The other thing is mochi,
it's a candy type thing made of rice, it's not too good
in my opinion anyway. By the way, this is green tea
people not the crap you buy at Kroger, that is
not in any way green tea.....
This tree is like 750 years old or something.
Reminds me of the Mana tree from SNES's
Secret of Mana.....
BLOOD CEILING! Why someone hasn't made
a heavy metal song about this, I do not know...
Random palm tree in the mountains, even
Bob got a good laugh out of this one. I wonder
what it's doing so far away from the coast ><
This sign looked funny to me....
Kyoto Tower obervatory level
After sightseeing for a full day we checked into our hotel in Osaka. After taking a refreshing shower we met with Bob's old college buddies as well as one of this professors for a sort of party to bring in the new year. I threw back a couple of beers, had some sashimi (raw fish), and lots of other cool things to eat. My palette has certainly widened since coming to Japan as I only ate chicken, beef, bread, and cheese before leaving the states. Maybe I can finally get a little healthier now.
After having fun with Bob's group of people we walked down to what Bob called the "dirty minded" place. There's a red light district in Osaka where old ladies sit near the street where young (well sometimes a little older) girls sit behind them. They invite you to come and talk wit them and basically arrange an agreement on how much you will pay for this girl's services. I've seen prostitution in America but never on such an open level such as they had there. Sorry ladies, but there were a few girls there whose beauty was so unattainable that I'd have to pay for something like that. Not that I did tho, I still hadn't received my loan money at that time, but I might have been tempted had I already had the money. Guess there are larger forces at work keeping me from doing bad things. Oh, and sorry, you can't take pictures because there are patrolmen walking the streets. I was the only foreigner in sight as well....
We left the red light district and went back to the hotel and crashed for the night. We woke up the next morning and went back to Kyoto to check out a few more temples and such and topped the night off with Kyoto Tower (I'm beginning to think that Japan has a tower in every city because they have a short person complex). We then started our hellish journey back to Kofu by bus. I didn't mention but I took an overnight bus there and back from Kofu. It was pretty much pure hell. The seat reclines nicely but for a gaijin there's just not too much space to relax. However, coming back was much better as I was very tired and managed to get a few hours of sleep.
A week or so after that Ho and I went over to Isawa to check out the "ashi onsen" (leg hot springs). I assumed it was some sort of onsen like any other where you pay to go in but these are actually around the station and bus stops of Isawa, they also had onsen for your hands.
My Kappa (legendary humanoid turtle being
in Japanese lore) friends and me chilling out.
in Japanese lore) friends and me chilling out.
A leg onsen near a bus stop.
Look at them hairy legs, Ho-san told me she
doesn't have to shave her legs....somehow I
have a hard time believing that....
Contemplating life while soaking the feet.
Just me and a funny hat....
Since these trips not a lot has happened. I went for an interview at a local language school to get a part time job. They called me in but then told me they were fully staffed. How strange is that. They did add that things are always changing because of students coming and going so I might be teaching again very soon. My Xbox also broke down whilst in the care of Patty. I don't think it was his fault but he was nice enough to help me pay for shipping it back to the states. Microsoft is going to fix it for free thankfully, but now I must devise a way to get it back to me seeing as Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 come out somewhat soon!
I also managed to hack my PSP with the help of a Pandora battery and probably have near 100 games on my external. The great thing about hacking a PSP is not only the custom firmware and all the things you can tool around with, but you can take PS1 ISOs and convert them to a format that the PSP can play. So I'm about 35 hours in Xenogears again (probably my third play through of this lengthy, yet awesome game).
I also started using Amazon in Japan to order things for a generally cheap price and only about $4 for same day shipping! Gotta love being in a small country. I ordered a new book to read since I've been looking for some good fiction of late. I sold out and went with what most critics thought was one of the better fiction works of last year, David Wroblewski's first novel "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". Wroblewski's attention to detail and the way he constructs the story is quite enthralling. It's very Hamlet-esque in many aspects, and you gotta love ole Bill and his greats. I find it quite hard to put it down at night when I start reading. For those of you who like works of literature and fiction you should check this one out, and as sad and lowly as it is...this is my first book in which was chosen as part of Oprah's book club...at least she has good taste in books I guess. Another book that I bought on release last year that I think is worth checking out is Donald Ray Pollock's "Knockemstiff" which is a story about all sort of backwater hillbillies and deviants in an imaginary town with the same name as the title.
Well I'm sure there's enough to digest here so hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully next time I'll change the music around. The semester break is a mere three weeks away and I'll have about six weeks off to do some more exploring. Hopefully, if things work out I'll be going to Nagano to ski the weekend after we get out of school. I can't wait!
