Posts from — March 2003

Kyoto is divided into districts called “ku”, usually translated as “ward”. So, in addition to having a city hall, there are ward offices, which is where we go to handle national health insurance matters and get my gaijin license renewed. My ku is “Sakyo-ku”, with the “Sa” part of the name meaning “left”, as in your left hand, and “left ward” in combination. The funny thing is, look at a map and I’m all the way on the extreme right (east) side of the city, right up against the mountains. There is an Ukyo-ku meaning “right ward”, and you can guess where that is, over there on the left. (Hi, Trent, you reading this over on the west side?) So, what does it mean? In fact, the names were assigned based on the view from the Imperial Palace, which *was* in the extreme north (the city has grown a bit in the last 1200 years), and faced south, so left was right and right was left, and it still is. It’s all relative to your point of view, as with sooo many things. and yes, Kyoto follows the worldwide tradition of having it’s seedier neighborhoods in the south.

We went to a lecture yesterday by SuperTranslator/Interpreter to the stars Natsuko Toda at the Kyoto Kokusai Hotel. She translates and makes the subtitles for most major Hollywood movies coming to Japan.

Yesterday, she said she was working on a movie called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” with the deadline fast approaching, and she admitted that she was stuck on one line, so she put it up on the whiteboard:
[Read more →]

A house on the edge of Takaragaike Park. Across the street from this house is the Kodomo no rakuen (Children’s Paradise Park) part of Takaragaike Park, which is quite large for Japan. The interesting thing about the kids park is that there are signs at the entrance that say, “No adults allowed unless accompanied by children.” The white building detached from the house is called a kura, a storeroom or vault. Fires used to ravage entire blocks, so the thick-walled non-flammable kura served as a kind of saef deposit box. Some still are used, and others that still exist have been turned into shops.

The simple stuff is the good stuff. I suppose before I came to Japan I would have looked at something like this with some suspicion, but now it just sets my mouth to watering. Cooking by Yoshiko.

Where I can light incense and talk to Mom.

This prewar building was designed by American turned Japanese citizen William Merrell Vories, who also designed much of Doshisha University in Kyoto and the Toyosato, Shiga school that has been much in the news lately.

Safari v67…tabbed browsing…Get it now!…can’t talk. (scroll down below search box)

Click for 800 X 600 desktop background/wallpaper of a Matsubara ocha-ya.

Click here for 1024 X 768

On Kawabata street in Takano, Kyoto.