kyoto, ichiban!!

kyoto is a city with more temples per square foot than i've ever seen. evidently during world war two, this one guy, the us secretary of war, who had been to kyoto before and was "very much impressed by its ancient culture," took it off the list for the atomic bomb. it wasn't exactly out of the pure goodness of his own heart, but this is one of the reasons that kyoto's historic buildings remain incredibly well preserved. it's a gorgeous city. dripping with humid summer heat, it's modern urban japan meets temples, shrines and gardens crowded with people from all walks of life, all either bathing in temple fountains or seeking out shaved ice or mixed vanilla and green tea ice cream.

amidst the beauty of the city, met some hella cool people:

jan-- a sweedish dude who has seen the knife live and kept telling me outrageous things about sweden. (eg. so in sweden it's required by law that if any kid wants to, the school must hire a teacher and block out a number of hours per week to learn the language of his ancestry, or home country. this with the simple rationale-- if a kid knows the language, he can communicate with his parents better and will do better academically. um, yes people.)

taro-- a guy who is 75% kyushu and 25% who knows. he's spent a chunk of his youth in the states and is basically bi-national. he's the kind of guy who's got deep thoughts for everyday things and a kind and open-minded approach to life. he's also got a serious obsession with cro-magnons, and old japanese punk band.

shin-- a novelist with big ideas and a smile (wink wink) for every traveler who comes in the door at tour club or budget inn. he feels me on wwoof because he wwoofed in canada, when he was living there for a year. watch out for his mad skills in a forthcoming novel...

and i almost forgot. i fulfilled one of my main wishes for coming to japan in the summertime. obon odori. aapip ngec folks, we once did a go around about our favorite summer memories, and i don't know why one of my favorite summer memories completely slipped my mind. obon is basically the japanese version of day of the dead. as i kid, in the summertime, i used to show up at the local temple to practice obon odori (dancing), which essentially are a short series of slow simple steps repeated over and over again in a large circle, around music and a taiko drum. usually they're something like, the fisherman's dance or the miner's dance (imagine fishing moves or coal mining moves here). the best was at the end of practice when a lady would call out to the kids that it was time for popsicles, and we would all run over with our zoris clacking on the concrete.

well, so turns out that they actually do obon odori in japan. there was a night of obon odori in kyoto, complete with beer, dango (mochi on sticks), and different teams of local folks, all in yukatas, ready to dance. and so i jumped in...

check out more of my kyoto fotos.