Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Punch Drunk Pedant's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, January 11th, 2009
6:54 pm	I refuse to use the word "tweets" Determining that 140 characters is very close to the limits of my attention span these days, I have signed up for twitter. http://www.twitter.com/fatherdog if you'd like to follow it. I'm not sure if I'm going to post them on livejournal, or even what sort of things I'll be posting, but it seems more suited to the fact that I only have about a paragraph worth of mental or physical energy to devote to anything other than my training these days. Speaking of which, I just did my first heavy lower body workout of the year, and hit a 405 lb deadlift. Which is not really that impressive comparitively, but considering that at this time last year I was just getting to the point where I could bend over to tie my shoes without pain, I feel pretty good about it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
11:01 pm	New Year, Same Me Stuff I did in 2008 - January, I finished my physical therapy and was no longer crippled. February, I started training grappling again, at Ricardo Almeida's BJJ academy. March, I dated a little bit. It ended in boredom. April, I went to Japan with illdrinn and turner23, and visited waffleking23. I'm grateful to them all for putting up with my loud American self, and sorry that I get to see them so rarely. May, I drank too much. June, I stopped drinking except for vacations and holidays. July, I dated a little bit more. That also ended in boredom. August, I went to Otakon. I wound up watching very little, but I got to hang out with rejoicingapathy, which was nice. It being a vacation, I drank a bit, and probably left some incoherent voicemail messages. September, I got my blue belt in BJJ. Somewhat early, having only been training BJJ for seven months. Somewhat late, having been training grappling in some capacity for six years. So it goes. October, I started weight training again seriously, and started eating at a major caloric surplus. November, I voted. And was happy enough with the results to declare it an honorary holiday. And celebrated vigorously enough to be hung over for two straight days. December, I stayed on-call through Xmas, watched bad movies with my brother, and ate large quantities of food with the family. New Year's eve, I stayed in and had a quiet evening. Things I got in 2008 - New Japanese laptop New Blue belt New car New PRs in squat, deadlift, strict overhead press, and bench press New cauli New drinking habits More room in my downstairs More of me to love Things I intend to get in 2009: Even more new PRs More interior work on my house More time on the mat More sleep and lastly and most importantly, more time with my friends. The thing I regret most about 2008 is how many people I like so much and yet see so seldom. Much of it is my own fault; I am terrible at keeping in touch with people. I resolve to try harder this year. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
6:21 pm	ALL WILL MAKE MERRY, ON PAIN OF DISINTEGRATION (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
2:19 am	Addendum I don't think jubilation is quite the right word; it was more of a sense of satisfaction. Teared up all over the place when he talked about how much it meant to him and his family, though. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
11:30 pm	CELEBRATE, MOTHERFUCKERS I've only been drunk once since June. But this seems like a sufficiently auspicious occasion for a second, so I've broken out the rum. Please excuse any lack of coherence to this narrative. Today, I took a half day at work and went home to vote. At 2:15 I was number 4000 something in my ward, which is pretty impressive when you consider that my hometown is less than two miles from end to end. Then I had dinner with my family, played Mario Galaxy for three hours, went home and lifted weights. When I got out of the shower, my father called me to tell me McCain was conceding. I'm not leaping in the air excited, although I understand those who are. What I mostly felt was a tremendous sense of relief. It's been a very long eight years. Eight years of worrying about the rights of my gay and bisexual friends, eight years of worrying about the safety of my friends in the military, eight years of watching my government actively piss on science, tolerance, and the rule of law. I know I tend towards hyperbole, but I don't feel that the preceding constitutes such - I really do believe that in the light of history the Bush presidency will be considered one of the worst and most corrupt in history. At least Nixon had the good grace to fuck off. I'm not messianic about Obama. He's a little more centrist than I prefer, his health-care policy still includes big insurance companies more than I'd like. But honestly, these are details. When you get right down to it, a smart, educated guy ran a campaign based on hope, tolerance, talking to the electorate like fucking adults and taking the high road, against a campaign that slung mud like a mudslinging device, screamed about socialism and marxism and terr'ism and every other ism, played to the lowest common denominator and fought dirty. And the smart guy that stayed positive kicked some motherfucking ass. I'm proud that we have a President who's SMART again. And not smart-but-pretending-he's-not like Clinton, playing folksy and being the guy you'd like to have a beer with. Obama's an intelligent, educated man who talks like an intelligent, educated man. He didn't dumb himself down for the campaign. He didn't try to come across like the folksy world-wise neighbor. He presented himself as a smart guy who surrounded himself with other smart guys, and America (for a change) didn't say "He's smarter than me! ELITIST!". If there's one thing that could possibly give my cynical ass some hope for the future, it's that America was given a choice between a war hero who promised to lower their taxes and claimed his opponent was a socialist marxist muslim, and a black dude named Barack Hussein. And they gave the republicans the finger in record numbers. We've spent the better part of the last eight years under total control of a party that managed to make itself pro-torture, anti-gay, anti-science, pro-war, and generally anti-fucking-everything worthwhile. And now, for the next four years at least, they're out. They're fucking done for now. We've got adults running the country. From Patton Oswalt's liveblog of the election - 11:15p: Just got off the phone with Harlan Ellison. After a stream of un-printable, joyous profanity, he said: "Today is the day America ransoms itself from durance vile." Word. Current Mood: drunk Current Music: DMX - Bring Your Whole Crew (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 27th, 2008
9:44 pm	I've been busy. Man, I haven't updated in ages. I've been training BJJ at Ricardo Almeida's academy. In addition, I've been doing a lot of weightlifting and cardio. Binge-drinking my way through the 10 months of downtime healing the torn tendon in my back really did a lot of damage to my conditioning and overall athletic ability, and I'm still repairing some of that. I'm in line to complete my most recent set of short-term fitness goals by the end of the year, so things are progressing well on that front. I bought a new Prius. My old car was deteriorating rapidly after the 120,000 mile mark and needed a new catalytic converter and possibly new brakes. With my current modest driving habits, the new one should last me considerably longer. I'm in the process of finishing off the major interior renovations in my house, which from my end just entails writing checks and moving furniture around for the contractors. And that's pretty much it. Aside from my two weekly tabletop games, I've basically been a hermit for the last couple months, and that may well continue till the end of the year or so - I've got enough stuff to do at home that I haven't really bothered making plans. For those of you for whom that means I haven't really talked to you at all - sorry! I'm really very bad at staying in contact with people a lot of the time. Feel free to IM me or e-mail or text or call or whatever - I do like hearing from you folks. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
1:49 pm	Pictures from this weeks D&D game Current Mood: groggy (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
3:31 pm	Otakon Off to Otakon as usual. Text me if you need to reach me. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
6:53 pm	Shades and variations When something's routine, a tiny difference is often enough to seem surreal. As of this past weekend, I've lived in my house for a year. That means, more or less, I've driven the same route to and from work around 250 times. This morning I got up at 5am to drive in for security patching. The brushed-steel sky and dim, directionless light of the world just before dawn were enough to make it feel like I'd slipped sideways, familiar streets feeling out of place. In my artificially lit, windowless office, the same at every hour of the day, I tended to the mundaneness of windows security updates and firmware flashing, and in two hours or so, I drove home to catch a nap. In the daylight, the streets lost their unfamiliar tinge. But all the shadows pointed the wrong way. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
12:35 pm	Villainous Plan 12B Giant Orbital Laser. Pros: Graffiti on a geological scale has a certain charm. Cons: Can be foiled by large mirrors Verdict: Keep it around for holiday weekends when heavy drinking makes carving my name on Ayers Rock seem like a good idea. (Comment on this)
Friday, July 4th, 2008
1:20 pm	Villainous Plan 4J - Summer Blockbuster Independence Day Spectacular Massive, unlikely explosions everywhere! Mass chaos! Car chases (with explosions)! Helicopter battles (with explosions)! BAD IS GOOD BABY DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT Pros: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO \m/ Cons: Foiled by B-list actor, unrealistically-out-of-his-league love interest, and sassy african-american sidekick. Verdict: NEXT TIME, GADGET! (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
3:36 pm	Villainous Plan 7C Domed moon-base with gauss cannons. Pros: Ultimate expression of "occupy the high ground" strategy proven effective by Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi, "king of the mountain" games. Cons: Cost of transport for beer, cheeseburgers, easy ladies may prove prohibitive Verdict: Add NASA to "charitable donations" portfolio. Current Mood: plotting (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
1:52 pm	Villainous Plan 4B Waken Dread Cthulhu from where he lies dreaming in sunken R'yleh, whence he will bestride the globe as a colossus, crushing the workings of man like the nestings of insects as his cultists and spawn run riot. Pros: Will be eaten last. Cons: See: Pros. Verdict: Place in "Scorched Earth Policies" folder. Current Mood: Pragmatic (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
5:20 pm	Villainous Plan 8J Genetically engineered clown heads with prehensile tongues and spider legs. Pros: Panic reaction from all right-thinking people will make organized resistance impossible. Cons: May freak me the fuck out. Verdict: Create prototype, keep in heavily secured pit for intimidation purposes. Addendum: Also, attach reliable self-destruct device. Current Mood: Cackling Delight (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 30th, 2008
3:04 pm	Villainous Plan 6B Bubble wrap filled with sopoforic/deadly/laughing/mind-control gas. Pros: No one can resist bubble wrap. NO ONE. Cons: Amazon may have beaten me to it. Verdict: Bears further investigation. Shelve for time being. Current Mood: Megalomaniacal (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
4:24 pm	biting the heads off chickens This weekend I bought the D&D 4e players guide while unshaven and wearing a stained t-shirt and pajama bottoms. I fear I may be reinforcing stereotypes. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
8:32 pm	Afterthought Also, there are new quotes up. http://www.princeton.edu/~moraski2/malkquotes8.txt and scroll down to Space Hitler. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
6:24 pm	Japan - Overall impressions Over a month removed from the trip, a few things still stay with me - Highlights - Gorgeous countryside. I spent just about every train ride staring out the window, watching rice paddies, lush forests, vegetation-covered mountains and rolling grassland sweep by. The view of the mist-shrouded mountains from our room in Hakone was breathtaking. Food. It's my understanding that most Japanese eat out the majority of the time - the prices are low enough that I can believe it. Moreover, I love eating in little hole-in-the-wall food joints, and that's practically everywhere in Japan. From cheapass ramen to expensive six-course traditional dinners, I found pretty much all of it delicious, even when it was so far off my usual fare as to seem quite bizarre. And apparently reasonably healthy, too - I lost about eight pounds, despite stuffing myself at every available opportunity and pouring enough liquor down my throat to preserve a corpse. People. Despite the Japanese reputation for viewing gaijin as ignorant aliens (and the general reputation I imagine Americans to have abroad these days) I found most of the people I interacted with to be unfailingly friendly and helpful. Plum wine. I love plum wine. Hot springs. Engrish ad copy. Black dudes dressed in complete thugged-out ensembles, whom (upon drawing near enough to hear them talk) are obviously Nigerian. Insane Japanese game shows. "Buu's Up", a neon-glaring eatery by our ryokan in Kyoto, plastered with Heineken ads and US road signs, its one-eyed pig mascot proudly proclaiming "COUNTRY WESTERN!". What did it serve? Okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Of course. Hot coffee vending machines. Cold beer vending machines. Watching turner23 get lit up on lychee liqueur. Wandering the streets of Osaka at night. Tiny theme bars. People-watching. Book jackets with pictures of puppies that come free with your purchase of hardcore pornography. Random bottles of scotch with insane Engrish rambling on the labels about booze from the heavens and the goodwill of stars. Giant crabs and pirate ships. Toasting absent friends with shots of Grand Old Parr. Randomly being interrupted in the middle of our train-car discussion about the weak points of CGI modelling in recent movies by an American expatriate working for a local Osakan company on cinematic CGI modelling. Random Banksy stencils. VIP Moss. Freakin' awesome Godzilla hats. Time with good friends. Lowlights - Expensive trains. Expensive (and crap) Kyoto buses. Kyoto public transport in general. Missing hanami by a week. Lonely Planet's Kyoto section. Club prices. Jet lag. Food poisoning and general travel illnesses. GIANT HORRIFYING CLOWN HEAD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH Thanks to the waffle_king of Osaka, for sharing bits of his city with us. And thanks to turner23 and illdrinn for putting up with three weeks worth of my snoring, sleepwalking, excessive loudness, excessive drunkenness, and overall americanness. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
9:48 pm	Procrastination Station - Osaka The shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka is a considerably easier process than our previous jaunt to Kyoto, which took us pretty much all day and involved some hasty scrambling at various points. About twenty minutes deposits us at the Shin-Osaka station, and thence the regular trains are a pretty easy ride to the Osaka-jo park station, right next to the hotel New Otani. This is a western-style luxury hotel, in contrast to the ryokan we've been staying at thus far, and my back and knees are grateful for the opportunity to stretch out and sit in chairs for a change (Japan, as I was continually reminded on our journey, is decidedly not built with me in mind.) There's a bit of a delay in our room being ready, but we deposit our luggage and use the opportunity to have a pleasant lunch at the hotel's Western(ish) cafe. Eventually we're let into our room, which is lovely, spacious, and contains three beds and a couch - utter luxury compared to the previous pleasant-but-cramped accommodations. illdrinn, poor dear, is by this time deep in the throes of her usual travel illness so after saying hello to waffle_king she crashes out with plans to meet us later as the rest of us go for a walk 'round Osaka. waffle_king points out a few interesting landmarks as we stroll through various neighborhoods and wind up at his apartment, drinking umeshu and discussing Hakaba Kitarō and life in Japan. Later, both waffle_king's lovely girlfriend and illdrinn join us at the appointed meeting place, and we adjourn to what I judge to be one of the all time best ideas for a restaurant in history. $30 USD for all you can eat and drink for a half hour - you're ushered to a table with a deep-fat frier inset in the center, given your initial round of drinks as well as a tray of batter and a tray of breading, and pointed towards the buffet line - a repository of dozens of chunks of pork, chicken, beef, seafood, vegetables, tofu, pastry-like things, spiced meatballs, pickled things, all on sticks. You take them back to your table, batter them, bread them, and toss them into the deep fryer. Then you drink more while waiting for them to cook, then eat them while waiting for more drinks. It's a recipe for gluttony and grease burns; I heartily approve. Post-meal, we adjourn to a 280 bar, another interesting Japanese invention - Everything on the menu is 280 yen (the equivalent of 3 USD). Pint of beer? 280. Giant glass of beer-like substance that isn't actually beer so it sneaks around the tax laws? 280. Shot of ten year old scotch? 280. Fried chicken skin on a stick? 280. Fried chicken hearts on a stick? 280. (I think the abundance of 280 liquor is the only way they move some of those menu items...) The place is loud but cozy, and after plenty of laughter and conversation we're all pleasantly plastered. waffle_king and Mizuki head home and the rest of us grab a taxi back to our hotel room. Day 2, waffle_king is kind enough to meet us at our hotel room with girl in tow, and we all take the train out to Ryokuchi Hattori park to walk through it, dodging random fountains and militant birds, and visit the Japanese Farmhouse museum, a small but interesting place with dozens of different structures from many different places and times in Japan, transplanted and preserved for posterity. We have a pleasant conversation with one of the caretakers who seems both eager to help and happy to practice his english - I'm surprised how much of my high school Japanese is coming back to me just by virtue of immersion, although I still stumble and get stuck on common words all too frequently. After the museum turner23 is off on his own pursuits, so the rest of us wander through Dōtonbori grabbing up takeout food (I get another beef bowl along with a few cans of umeshu) before heading over to sit on the bank of the canal, watching the people and water go by as we make a leisurely meal of it. I enjoy the air of unhurried tranquility, which stands out in the midst of a vacation that has involved a lot of travel, bustle, and hurry. Rejoined by turner23, we do some more shopping and head for Pancho's, a mexican restaurant on the sixth floor of a towering Shinsaibashi building which waffle_king and Mizuki recommend. While the cocktails are surprisingly weak, the food is very good. On my way to the bathroom, I pass by the kitchen and the background of one of the staff computers is a picture of the owner with Hidehiko Yoshida; my Japanese (surprisingly) turns out to be adequate to convey to the nearby head waiter that I A) recognize him and B) consider this quite cool. Post-meal, we head to Babylon, waffle_king's favored watering hole. It's in a building who's basement is like a smaller version of the Shinjuku hole-in-the-wall bar area that turner23 took me through - I catch signs for "Hobo Bar" and "Country Bar" on the way in. Babylon is, like (I presume) the rest of them, a tiny theme bar - five seats, a couch, and a chair in front of the in-house piercer is all the room there is. With bondage-themed decorations everywhere, it's a pleasant environment to drink in as far as I'm concerned; as Kill Bill plays on the bar tv I drink cherry brandy and coke and look over the Geiger art books while illdrinn takes the opportunity to get all her cartilage piercings refilled. As the bar fills up the faulty a/c means it gets hotter and hotter; dripping with sweat, we decide to adjourn to a pleasant outdoor drinking session in Triangle Park, a little skate-park area that seems to be the central meeting place for young japanese skater-punks and alterna-fashion plates. More conversation and we part ways and head back to sleep. Day 3, we're all quite tired and sleep rather late. Once everyone's up an operational, it's out into the wilds of Nipponbashi for shopping missions. As I've already gotten souvenirs for my family and rarely get such things for myself, my part mostly consists of following bemusedly along while illdrinn and turner23 buy all manner of absurd and possibly illegal pornography. Post-shopping, we meet up with waffle_king and queen for yet another foray into the exciting culinary world of 280 bars, after which turner23 and I head out for the tiny puroresu show he's grabbed tickets for. Tiny is a bit of an understatement; it takes place inside a bar around the same size as my local, with the "ring" a square of ropes stretched around a bare area of floor. While we watch the sweaty man-on-man action, I make the mistake of tipping the bartender - as a bit of explanation, Japan is a non-tipping culture, so tipping at all is rather like tipping double in America. The drinks get mixed stronger and stronger over the course of the evening and by the time we're tottering home I'm well and truly plastered. Thanks to turner23 for getting me back to the hotel with a minimum of missing pieces. The next day is another late rise as we head off to Osaka Bay. Sadly the wait to get into the Osaka aquarium is about 90 minutes as we get there; rather than stand out in the brain-baking sun we duck into the Suntory museum. Rather than being, as illdrinn assumed, an exhibit on the history and production of Suntory whisky, this turns out to be "Galleries of fine art, as brought to you by your friends at Suntory!" We are somewhat less psyched, but discover that it does include an IMAX theatre, and so settle in for a 3-D showing of "Dinosaurs Alive!", narrated by Kurt Russel (a bit of an odd choice to narrate anything, frankly). After the show, the line for the museum is still long, but short enough that we're soon under the canopy set up to shelter from the boiling sun, so the rest of the wait is fairly tolerable. I've been to rather a lot of aquariums at this point and Osaka is still one of the nicer ones. The path you walk is a slowly descending spiral around the giant center Pacific tank, filled with giant schools, massive sea turtles, and a whale shark perennially surrounded by its entourage of smaller fish. Meanwhile the outside of the spiral has many smaller tanks comprising bits of more specialized pacific habitats, from the sea otters to the emperor penguins to the whitehead dolphins and giant spider crabs. As we progress downwards we see the giant pacific octopuses, all of them clustered on a specific square of plexiglass, clearly testing it for weaknesses in hopes of escape and marauding. On the way out I pick up an adorable stuffed octopus as a rare souvenir. In the evening illdrinn heads out for clubbing while turner23 goes for more wrestling. I, rather more prosaically, head off for laundry, as I'm out of clean shirts. Upon inquiring at the front desk I find that the nearest laundry is a taxi-ride away. Disinclined to take a taxi to a coin-laundrette, I jump on the subway and pick a stop at random, then start walking until I see a 7-11. Correctly recalling that the typical late-night store clerk is happy to do almost anything to relieve boredom, I draw on my limited japanese and manage to both ask and understand the response of directions to the nearest laundry. One sketchy back-alley later and I've successfully laundered clothing, and seen a good bit more of Osaka in the process. I head back to the hotel in triumph and catch up on various internet things as illdrinn and turner23 make their way back in turn, before we eventually all pack in for unconsciousness. Day 5 and the running about is starting to catch up with us as everybody winds up sleeping till about mid-afternoon. Lounging around the room watching Gordon Ramsey eventually gives way to clubbing as we all head out for Medical Fetish Night at the local goth club. After a stopoff for gyudon on the way, we pay 4000 yen each (!) and head into the club. Doctors, nurses, and bandaged up ero-guru clubgoers are everywhere - along with the two male strippers dressed in matching hot pants and white vinyl cowboy hats/boots, complete with gun belt. And the guy dressed in nothing but a tiger-striped bikini and cat ears. I settle against the bar for light drinking and people-watching, as the pole is put to good use by the male strippers and a tall thin girl that illdrinn declares must be part Thai because "nobody Japanese can dance like that." I'm hard pressed to disagree with her - being an uncoordinated cracker I'm not really one to talk, but some of the folks on the dance floor made me look like James Brown. While I enjoy both the music and the show, which (aside from the people watching and pole dancing) includes some rather nice (and some less so) shibari work, unfortunately illdrinn has come over ill from the gyudon, and we make an early night of it, heading back to the hotel for rest and recuperation. Last day we're up early for the breakfast buffet, and regrettably it's my turn for food to disagree with me - as we head off for last-minute shopping, I get progressively more ill, and by the time waffle_king, turner23 and I have settled down into a small bar to wait for illdrinn to emerge from the nail salon with the Banksy stencil on the stairs where we've left her, I'm covered in clammy fever sweat and occasionally wandering into the bathroom to dry-heave. I follow along dazedly for another round of shopping until we stop for dinner at a nice Thai restaurant, where ginger ale and a scorching hot soup manage to make me feel considerably better. Post dinner, we retire to the club lounge at the very top of the New Otani - it's a staggeringly classy bar with low lighting, soft leather benches and a breathtakingly beautiful view across the lights of Osaka, with the castle centered in the giant floor-to-ceiling windows. Amidst long and happy conversation we toast absent friends, and the day winds to a close as waffle_king and queen head off to their apartment and we drift down to the room to sack out before our respective ungodly early wakeup calls. 8 in the morning, I strap on my luggage and walk off to the train station. From there to the Shin-Osaka station, from there the shinkansen to Tokyo, from there the express train to the Narita airport, and from there the ten-hour flight back to Newark, the train back to hamilton, and the three mile walk back to my small but welcoming house. My mother stops by halfway through the walk because I haven't called since the train station, since my parents are neurotic, but the ride is welcomed since I'm at this point half-delirious with fatigue. Back in my own bed, I crash face down and drift off into blackness, jumbled memories slowly receding into dreams. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
2:35 pm	Better Late Than Never - Kyoto After Hakone, it was off to Kyoto, the old capital before the Edo period and one of the most-visited cities in the world. Since we managed to get there during Golden Week, the crowds were pretty ridiculous, and not aided much by Kyoto having some of the crappiest public transport systems of anywhere in Japan - when it's cheaper to take a cab than take the bus, there's something seriously wrong. We stay at another ryokan here, run by a pleasantly crazy old Japanese grandmother. Between her broken english and my fractured japanese (and liberal use of phrasebooks by everyone) we manage to limp along through some entertaining conversations. First day is a fairly sedate one due to illdrinn being laid low by travel illness. We wander around the temple of 1000 gates that's just within walking distance of our ryokan, wandering through the forest gate road and peering at the various fox shrines. I toss a coin into the coin-tossing shrine, which we aren't able to decipher sufficiently to figure out what that's actually supposed to do (illdrinn's theory is that it's for fertility, which isn't exactly topmost on my list for necessary blessings at the moment but I'll take what I can get.) Later on, we head to the train station building for the mini-museum exhibit of the works of Tezuka Osamu. There's career retrospectives and all manner of statuary and gifts, as well as a trailer for the new Astroboy movie/series. We get photos with the Black Jack statue and move onwards. The next day is wandering around Kyoto proper; we look at the temples along the main geisha district, wander down the Shimbashi Gion ("the most beautiful street in Asia", the guidebook claims - I don't know that I'd go that far, but it is a lovely little neighborhood, tiny houses lining a canal with cherry trees gently brushing the surface.) Kyoto overall was best described as "beautiful in patches" - Japan's apparently lack of care when it comes to property zoning results in brutalist concrete office blocks squatting in the midst of perfectly preserved historical neighborhoods, schizophrenically shot through the city with little rhyme or reason. We eventually take a cab and then hike up a hill (a long and winding road comprising of a gauntlet of tourist-trap stalls selling everything imaginable) to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, which (depending on where you walk within it) overlooks both forests, mountains, and most of Kyoto itself. It's a lovely view. After wandering back down through the gauntlet of souvenir shops (with frequent delays as various shiny things catch our eyes) we head back into the city proper, stopping for dinner at another of the little hole-in-the-wall bars I find so delightful (this one, about the size of my living room, has a Sumo theme and an open kitchen where you watch your food prepared). After that it's off to the Minamiza Theatre, where illdrinn, geisha fanatic that she is, has scheduled us for a tour with Peter Macintosh, a Canadian expatriot 15 year resident of Kyoto who's become the go-to guy for geisha for gaijin. As the community of geisha-knowledgeable gaijin is fairly small, he and illdrinn have friends in common, and consequently the walking tour of the geisha district involves a lot more detail than the average. After the tour, we adjourn to the private upstairs of Peter's bar, where he's brought in a maiko named Harue. We have a prepared dinner as she pours drinks and converses; illdrinn is in heaven and many questions are asked. turner23 and illdrinn both being involved in the BDSM scene gives them a fair amount of parallel experience to discuss; I was more interested in the day-to-day life of the geisha and the district in general (and I found conversation with Peter quite interesting in that regard, especially from his perspective as both a foreigner and a long-time resident with strong ties to the community.) After the conversation, Harue danced - I find the prearranged, almost robotic formality to the movement interesting, but I can never escape the feeling that there's some underlying meaning to the whole that I can't quite grasp. After the dance, Harue says her goodbyes politely and leaves, and we decamp downstairs to continue drinking and conversing with Peter till the very wee hours, when we all agreeably stagger out to the cab and head back to the ryokan. The next day, illdrinn soldiers on despite increasing illness and we head to the Miyako Odori theatre, where the city's geisha traditionally stage a traditional dance production in April. This year is a six act seasonal play based on scenes from the Tale of Genji. illdrinn is once again in thrillsville, surreptitiously snapping photos and enjoying the production immensely despite our unreserved seating (which, being balcony seats, still affords us a decent unobstructed view of the production.) My usual sense of almost-comprehension is exacerbated by the fact that we didn't manage to get a program, so I'm essentially guessing what's happening in each scene. Still, it was a lot of fun to watch. Post performance,we head over to the Kyoto International Manga museum. A huge library of manga (which I'd enjoy more if I actually read Japanese) combined with historical exhibits of Japanese manga over the years, as well as sequential art from other countries with commentary on the influences on/from Japanese manga, as well as a special exhibit on Kyosai, one of Japan's early newspaper cartoonists and a well-regarded print and scroll artist. Frogs and Yokai were a major theme in his work, which I found interesting as sort of a bridge between traditional Japanese art and the early manga produced in post-war Japan. After the museum, we grab dinner at a nice katsudon place near the top of the train station building and head back to the ryokan for more sleepin'. Our last day in Kyoto we head out to the Ginkakuji silver shrine. Sadly, the shrine itself is closed for repairs, but the grounds are open, and them being a meticulously arranged moss-and-tree garden carved out of a bamboo forest, with a lovely wandering track through it, I greatly enjoyed seeing it anyway. Post-shrine, we head for the Kyoto costume museum, a small place on the fourth floor of a building that is currently housing a quarter-scale reproduction of the castle of Genji. turner23 and illdrinn try on the Heian period clothing as I film and get a number of amusing pictures, and after stopping at the station for ramen we head on back to rest at our last night at the ryokan. Next stop: Osaka. (1 Comment |Comment on this)