October 2002

October 31, 2002

Happy Halloween! I've just been doing a little maintenance on the page so far today...although I have no idea why considering how much new stuff there is to put up. I'm still in the midst of getting all of the old pages converted over into the new format.

This Sunday I am going to be looking into Zen temples in the area...I've decided to start taking part in their meditation sessions. I'm also going to start planning my Vipassana retreat: 10 days of absolute silence spent in work and meditation in the hills North of Kyoto. Does that sound like fun, or what? I think it will help to clear out a lot of the mental cobwebs, so to speak.

October 29, 2002

There are so many pictures to put up, I don't even know where to start! I put up some from Kinkaku-ji yesterday, and I'll make the effort to put up a few more today, so bear with me.

This Thursday I'm teaching a little class on Halloween at my school. I'm going to try to steer the narrow course between the occult on one hand and keg parties on the other to give a fairly sanitized version of the holiday...should be challenging!

October 28, 2002

Marlene has left for the United States today, and with her departure our lives will return to some degree of normality. I think the three of us tired ourselves out completely, and a longer trip would have killed us all!

I think we managed to get a good variety in there, and whether by bus, train or boat, we managed to see just about the whole city.

It will likely take me weeks to get all of the pictures together, but we have shots from some of the most spectacular spots in and around Kyoto.

Look for pictures of Kinkaku-ji (the golden pavilion), Tenryu-ji, Sanzen-in, etc, etc, etc, in the near future!

October 26, 2002

We've been keeping up a breakneck pace for the past couple of days, and have done an insane number of things. The pictures have been going fast and furious...check here for updates.

October 24, 2002

We went all over the place yesterday...Nanzen-ji, Honen-in, Path of Philosophy and Ginkakuji. Today we are going to the Golden Pavilion.

There are a few pictures up from our first day, thanks to Mar's digital camera....there will be plenty more to follow! We'll likely do an update every day or so.

October 23, 2002

Yesterday's festival was absolutely fascinating. Although it was strange to see the Imperial Palace crawling with Samurai, it was very interesting to get a peek into the many eras of Japanese history.

That being said, after watching the parade for a number of hours, Laura decided that 1200 years of history marching by wasn't quite good enough, so we went to Starbucks for a latte. Ahhh, culture.

Laura met Marlene at the airport yesterday, and so begins our tour of Kyoto. Today we will be headed to Nanzen-ji and Ginkaku-ji...should be fun!

October 21, 2002

Tomorrow is the Jidai Matsuri, and also the day that Marlene arrives in Japan. We're looking forward to both events, and preparing ourselves for the packed week that lies ahead.

Check out the Imperial Palace page, which has just been completed...lots of beautiful pictures from the gardens there!

October 20, 2002

Some pretty exciting festivals have snuck up on us here...there is a parade of 25 Buddhas going on today that we might check out, and on Tuesday there is the Jidai Matsuri, where a huge procession of 2000 people will wind its way through the city in historical garb. Time to stock up on film...

October 19, 2002

There are only a few more days now until Laura's aunt arrives, and we are getting ready to do a full tour of the city. We've got a lot of fun things planned and we will be taking a tonne of pictures...it should be really fun.

Today's Aikido class is going to be in the old training hall again, so I'm pretty excited to go; it's always fun training in there.

I scanned the Imperial Palace pictures, so I'll be putting those up tomorrow.

Work is coming along really well on my book; I'm finished with the outline for the time being, and writing is going really smoothly...so far. Woo hoo!

October 17, 2002

We have finally been able to get the pictures of Kyoto's Imperial Palace developed, so keep an eye out for those over the next couple of days.

Crazy things going on in the news...Al Qaeda up and running again and all things pointing toward war in Iraq. Quite a lot of drama in the world these days.

Monday night Laura and I had our first taste of a home-cooked Japanese meal courtesy of an aquaintance of Laura's...and it was a fabulous feast. Home-made tempura, with shrimp, squid, shiitake mushrooms and sweet potatoes. I can't believe it, but I'd actually call myself a squid fan now...I'm even considering picking up some of the squid I always see at the grocery store. We also had chirashi-zushi with eel and salmon eggs...yum.

October 14, 2002

Work is coming along well on the page here, and I'll be converting a few more pages over each day...there's not too far to go. My favourite so far is the Aikido page...I did a little slide show that I think is pretty cool.

Yesterday I got fun mail from the Calgary contingent...a post card from Mr. Brooks and a letter from Ms. Needham. There was so much porn stuffed in the mailbox (as there is every day) that I hardly noticed them at first. I was so excited about receiving mail that I forgot to duck when coming back into the apartment...ouch. The impact almost knocked me over (as it has in the past) but it did little to diminish my good mood. I fear that over time, however, it will do a great deal to diminish my intelligence. Maybe I can start working on getting a sponsorship from CCM.

October 13, 2002

As of now I am in the middle of switching over to the new format for the website, so things will be far from smooth for the next couple of days...but please bear with me. I'm just in the process of changing all of the old pages over into the new format, which is rather time consuming. All of the galleries are still up, they'll just look a little funky until they're redone.

October 11, 2002

Just days away from payday now...down to our last few grains of rice and subsisting on reheated curry...

The next pictures that we have to put up are the ones from Kyoto's Imperial Palace, but of course, we haven't the money to develop the film. Soon enough, soon enough.

Work is picking up pace on my 'book', and it's starting to resemble a doable project. Who knew you have to actually plot these things out? My outline is almost finished, and I am itching to do the actual writing...

The redesign of the website is also well underway, and I'm just playing around with the new format right now. I'm thinking of doing something a little more search-engine friendly.

October 10, 2002

Autumn is finally arriving here in Kyoto, with the temperatures dropping down to levels that I am more accustomed to. With a slight chill in the night air I am sure that the autumn colours will be soon to follow.

I read a really interesting article in the LA Times recently about the state of the coffee industry. It's incredible to hear that despite the high prices we pay for coffee, the farmers don't make enough money to live, and it is hardly worth their while to even plant the crop anymore; they make a paltry 8 cents for every dollar we spend on coffee. Pretty shocking article, but well worth a read (you need to register, but it's free and it's worth it)

October 8, 2002

Finally got the Daigo pictures up...they're pretty nice, please check them out!

Laura and I are coming into our second week of carrying out our 'October Resolution' of going jogging everyday. We found the perfect place to do it, too; a long path along a river that runs along the base of the mountains near our place. The river is lined with Japanese maples and cherry blossom trees...it's quite stunning.

Time really seems to fly by, and looking on the date on the page, it seems incredible that so many days have passed since I last put up a post...hopefully that is a result of me putting so much effort into my book lately...

October 1, 2002

I scanned some more pictures from Sam's visit and put them all together on Sam's visit page, so check it out. I'm still pretty amazed that we were able to see so many Maiko in one day. Realistically, you pretty much never see them...they are rarely out and about, and never in the kind of numbers we saw that day. I guess Sam's good luck!

I also got the Kibune pictures up at long last...remember the dinner above the river months ago? Anyways, nice pictures...check them out. I'll be working on getting Daigo pictures up next, and when we can afford to develop our film I'll be putting up our recent pictures from the Kyoto Imperial Palace as well...it was pretty impressive. Lest you begin to believe that the ad at the top of the page is a total lie, I'll also be starting work on the China page!