Glóðaðir gíraffar

And things just keep on happening, here in little, old Japan. Since last update, I have been twice to Osaka, seen more of Kyoto, parts of I hadn't seen before, and bought tickets to Okinawa. The weather is gradually getting better, no more snow, temperatures around 10-14 degrees Celcius over the day. A little bitter warmer and I would be a real happy camper.

Finally.. we bought tickets to Okinawa. I have been wanting to go there for a while now and we are going in the beginning of April, for 5 nights. Will arrive back the day before the second semester starts.

I went to 2 shrines, that are close to where I live. I won't even bother setting up pictures this time, when you have seen one shrine, you've seen them all. Well, not really, but it's close to the truth. Went to see Shimogamo and then Kitanotenmangu. Old shrines, fun to see but not as much fun to share. One thing you gotta love though is how crazy the Japanese were when making up shit to decorate their shrines with. There are very elaborate statues of deformed elephants, dragons and tigers. Sometimes it seems as the 3 of them are just spliced together, it is that funky looking. The reason for why they took the liberty of making this shit up is because Japan doesn't have elephants, dragons or tigers so they have absolutely no idea of how to shape their statues. OK, no one has had dragons either, but their version just doesn't cut the Chinese one...

On the 6th of March we decided to head over to Osaka and visit an aquarium. It is called Kaiyukan and is one of the largest aquariums in the world. That was an enjoyable trip, lots of interesting fishies to see. Nice to see a whale shark. That guy had a school of fishies swimming next to it at all times, it was like his possé and he looked all hardcore.
Next to the aquarium was a ferris wheel, 112.5 meters in height. One of the largest ferris wheels in the world. Amazing how many large things these small people have.

Then again today I went to Osaka. For some reason, you can't buy sumo tickets over the internet. Sumo matches last for 15 days. After a match has started, you can't even reserve tickets through phone. Comparing Osaka and Kyoto is interesting. To make it simple, Kyoto is to Osaka what Mosfellsbær is to Reykjavík. Not much there, but it looks pretty. Anyway, we saw sumo wrestlers walking on the streets on the way to the venue. Maybe it was their lunch break or something, but they were all over the place close to the gymnasium where the tournament is held. I snatched pictures of one, you can see them in my gallery. After having bought the tickets, we walked to Osaka castle. That was one helluva long walk as we managed to walk the wrong way for quite some time... Got a little sightseeing on foot through the heart of Osaka in return. Cool place, if you are into funky urban architecture and funky culture in general. I thought it was cool at least.
So, sumo tickets have been procured for the 21st of March, in the second worst seats in the house. There is one class lower than the one we bought and guess where those seats are? Yep. Next to our seats. This is gonna be great. I'm gonna bring my binoculars.

New pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/OsakaKaiyukan6Mars
http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/OsakaSumoticketCastle10Mars

Sykurhúðaðir smáhundar

Haven't had any incentive to write a blog lately. There is only so much you can talk about when you are on vacation and doing absolutely nothing with your time. Needless to say, during a period of that kind, the things to write about are not very interesting. Finally though, something interesting did happen: My brother came to visit for 5 days. During those 5 days, I saw everything I have seen over the past 5 months. Plus I went to Hiroshima. This told me one of 2 things. Either I haven't been spending my time wisely here, since I managed to wrap 5 months of stay into a 5 day schedule, or those 5 days were just fast paced and well organized. I am leaning towards the latter option, with a liiiittle dash of the former...

So, I went with my brother to see all the major tourist spots here in Kyoto. Kyoto this time of year isn't very exciting. The weather is cold and it snows from time to time. During my brothers visit then we had the first 2 good days in a couple of months, with temperatures around 13-15 degrees Celcius. It snowed alot for the other days so he got a good cross section of Kyoto weather. Snowing when there aren't any clouds above you to produce that snow is always good fun.

The trip to Hiroshima is memorable. Not many tourists this time of year so it was easy to get around. We of course saw the most famous monument of the atom bombing, the Atom Bomb Dome, and then visited the museum dedicated to the bombing. Very interesting to see this up close. Saw some Falun Gong practitioners who were causing all kinds of ruckus in the park there. Those Falung Gong with their crazy excercises and crazy propaganda! No, not really. They were just standing there, doing some excercises and looking all peaceful. Don't really get why the Chinese are out to get those people. Not the most threatening of people you might meet, but I guess they have some problems with their ideals... Don't get that either, but... bleh.

Went for the first time for a "All you can eat, all you can drink" buffet. There was this Korean restaurant near my brother's hotel that offered this type of buffet-dinner for roughly 3000 jen, or about 1800 Icelandic krónur. What this entails is that you have 90 minutes to stuff as much as you can down your throat. You can go with beer or strong liquor, doesn't matter. You order all kinds of various types of meat and then there is a small grill in the middle of the table where you cook it yourself. I tried my utmost to get my moneys worth and I went out of that place so stuffed that I felt a little bit ill. Healthy...? No. But daaaamn was it good.

Took my brother to a Japanese movie theater to see American Gangster. Before the movie, they showed an animated short film on how to behave in cinemas. They tell you not to kick the seat in front of you, not to record the movie, have your mobile switched to silent and so forth. The rules go without saying nowadays, but the way they present them is just so amazingly ridicilous that you can't help but laugh at it. The movie was very good, recommend that you go see it. If you follow the rap/hiphop/r&b/whatever industry a little bit, then you can see people like Common and RZA playing pretty big parts in the movie. If you follow the rap/hiphop/r&b/whatever industry a little bit closer than a little bit, then you can see people like T.I. and Anthony Hamilton as well (and Fab 5 Freddy as well, according to IMDB). Any movie that ends with the song "Can't Truss It" by Public Enemy is automatically good.
GO SEE IT

18 days until Daði and Steini arrive. Then there will be another tour around good, old Kyoto. This shit is making me bankrupt... Looking forward to seeing them though. Will be weird to see such familiar faces in this environment which I have kinda gotten used to by now. Will be interesting to get their take on it.

Added new pictures from Hiroshima: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/Hiroshima