At the Tamura print shop, Kyoto.

Michael Lambe of Deep Kyoto has been writing for a few months on a shortsighted scheme under way in Kyoto City, selling off part of Umekoji Park near Kyoto Station to Orix Corporation to build an aquarium. Today he has a guest column on the Japan Today website.
There are many reasons why Kyoto doesn’t need an aquarium, starting with the fact that there is already a large, well-known aquarium in neighboring Osaka, WHICH IS A PORT CITY where an aquarium makes some sense. Kyoto Prefecture’s port is far away beyond …

This is the Daimonji Fire Festival video for 2010. 9 minutes, 16:9.

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
Video coming tomorrow. Here are some screengrabs in the meantime. Got home too late to do the whole edit tonite. Refer to previous post for details.

September 2010 Update: Exhibition has moved to Cafe Dell’ Orso for September-October 2010
My Nippon, a photo exhibition in Kyoto by Micah Gampel all through August, but only on weekends at Hanagumo Bar on Miyagawacho in Gion Kyoto. All my photos were taken by my ketai (mobile phone) camera as I work and play around Kyoto and Osaka mostly. It’s my Nippon world, but I feel like the viewer, not really part of the parade. I think I look a little shocked and …

September 2010 Update: Exhibition has moved to Cafe Dell’ Orso for September-October 2010
Weekends in August 12:00-18:00 at Hanagumo Bar on Miyagawacho in Gion, Kyoto.  Party Saturday, Aug. 7, Closed Aug. 8.
All my photos were taken by my ketai camera as I work and play around Kyoto and Osaka mostly. It’s my Nippon world, but I feel like the viewer, not really part of the parade. I think I look a little shocked and mystified by what I see in each photo. Please come and visit, in the month …

“For Gaza” is a Kyoto based collective that creates events to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, combining music, dance and politics with guest speakers, films and discussion.

This should be a great evening- with the proceeds going to JVC as has been the case with our previous events.

Elementary school kids ride free on Kyoto city buses (normally kids are half adult fare) through 8.31  by saying “Eco-summer” to the driver when getting off the bus. This is good for up to two kids per group, so if you have a big group, make sure they sit apart and pretend not to know each other and maybe wear fake mustaches and trench coats. Kids under elementary school age always ride free.
Kyoto City buses are usually green like this one, although they are sometimes wrapped in full-body advertising …

From a show I attended a few years ago.

In this first clip from the upcoming Peter MacIntosh/Nils Ferry video program Alive in Kyoto, Peter visits Nishiki Ichiba market and, after a snack of kara-age fried chicken, introduces a shop specializing in dashimaki omelettes, where the proprietor Mr. Tanaka shows us how it’s done.

The 2010 Gion Matsuri (festival) parade of yama and hoko “floats” is coming up. This is a spectacle of ancient pageantry not to be missed.

Also, on the three days and nights leading up to the parade, Yoiyama (16th), Yoi-yoi-yama (15th) and Yoi-yoi-yoi-yama (14th), revelers stroll up and down shijo street and the other main downtown streets, many in colorful summer yukata, eating, drinking, carousing, visiting the floats and listening to the distinctive music of the festival.