Christmas & more adventures

I've had a few busy days, celebrating sort-of-christmas, going back to Osaka on a small trip, and, of course, seeing a few more temples.

I went back to Kurama a few days before christmas. The observant reader may remember Kurama as being the site of the Kurama Fire Festival - but when I went there last time, I didn't get to see the temple, nor did I see much of Mount Kurama. So, I decided to go there by bike, since the city is only some 15 km away. It made for a nice trip. Once in Kurama, the I had to do a bit of walking in the mountains, in order to reach the Kurama-dera temple.

Some deities and I

Giant trees, and some steps leading up to the main temple

More stairs

The view from maybe halfways up the mountain

 Perhaps equally impressive was the view from the walk up - offering a good view of the nearby mountain ranges, what I can only get a short glimpse at when walking in downtown Kyoto.

The roof of part of the Kurama-dera temple

The Kurama-dera temple. Full image here.

The horizon, as seen from Mount Kurama. Full image here.

Me, a bit tired after the bike-ride, followed by a walk up a mountain

Another part of the temple

And more horizon. Full image here.

After walking to the main temple, one can follow a path that leads over a small mountain top, and ends at the road to Kurama, just a few kilometers from the city. This is part of that trail.

My bike, and the entrance to the temple

On the way back from Mount Kurama. The river in the image is the Kamo river. Full image here.

I bought a painting, just a few days before christmas. I wasn't exactly looking to buy any art, but I came across a beautiful painting that I just had to get, during a visit to the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Arts & Crafts.

With the help of the staff, I arranged to meet the artist behind the painting, so that I could meet her, and buy the painting from artist directly. It turned out to be a bit of a major event: the artist brought her mom, a friend of the mom, a student of the artist, as well as several other persons from the museum. Many, MANY bows and thank you's were exchanged, and I got a beautiful painting.

From the right: a guy from the museum, the artist (Yoshie Mineshima), me, the painting, the artists mom, another guy from the museum, a friend of the artist, and yet another guy from the museum.

The museum had good examples of traditional crafts...

... and of new interpretations of old crafts.

Another temple I went to recently, was the Kamigamo shrine. That temple is perhaps one of the less impressive that I have seen here - but a World Heritage site nonetheless.

Look at that order! All the bikes are in the same direction, none of them are on the path that one is supposed to ride on. Many of the bikes are not locked, either. Mon dieu, how I love Japan!

Kamigamo shrine

Part of Kamigamo shrine

The Nishijin Textile Center has a kimono show about five times a day. Andy and I went there for a brief visit on the 23rd.

Stunning.

 I spent the evening of the 23rd with Andy and some other friends. We had cooked something that resembles a danish christmas dinner: among the dishes was ryebread with marinated herring, sugar potatoes, cooked red cabbage, and, of course, risalamande for dessert.

December 23rd.

Not the most flattering of images, but little Leo was quite cute!

Risalamande

I went to see some dance on the 24th, on Urbanguild. A small dance company called "KIKIKIKIKIKI" put on a spectacular show.

Four of the nine members of the dance company

One sorta-sketch they did, was the apparently universal scene of bored housewife, and disinterested husband. Maybe you had to be there, but it was good, and quite funny.

Santa Lucia'ish

The dance company in all its splendor

The head of the dance company, a very upbeat man

Christmas eve 2010

Kamo river and Kyoto city on christmas eve, 2010

I joined Couchsurfing not too long ago, and joined a tour, arranged by some people on Couchsurfing, to the Maishima incineration plant in Osaka. While visiting an incineration plant may not sound interesting in itself, the fact that the plant was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, made it quite a nice sight. It was certainly a welcome change from the otherwise dull buildings that Osaka is so full of.

Not the usual look of an incineration plant.

Scale model

... part of the inside of the plant.

Notice the different colors of the doors. Part of the garbage trucks in Osaka city (perhaps also in much of the rest of Japan?)  run either fully or partially on biofuels.

Not your usual chimney

The chimney again

After seeing the plant, we went to a nice restaurant that had specialized in making many different dishes with tuna. This is one of the many delicious dishes.