Balloon Shapes By Cops » Kyoto

SCF at the Urban Guild Kyoto

Silentjim — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:27:04 +0000

A few weeks ago we went to see a friend of ours “perform” in his multimedia-electronica art performance duo “S.C.F.” (Click the link for their Myspace page if you want to have a listen – it’s not for everyones tastes, but I likes it – honestly Andy!).

The nights show was called “Exorcisms” and there were about 6 performances mainly dancers, all portraying in some way (some obvious, some not so) this theme.

What was this multimedia-electronica experience like I hear you ask…
Well:

SCF at the Urban Guild Kyoto

SCF who basically stayed at the back of the hall twiddling nobs and pressing buttons to make a wall of noise while a dancer dressed in a paper dress…”danced”…on stage with a video montage playing on the wall behind her.

SCF Dancer

The dancing was pretty unconvential but very watchable and the “music” reached a hypnotising level which made the whole experience fascinating (a little bit like watching a train wreck, but I mean that in a good way).

If you get a chance to be in Kyoto and this kind of thing is your bag (Radiohead and Japanese Noise fans might dig it) then I recommend checking them out.

They have a blog here (SCF Blog) which has some videos of their performances.

Meeting Friends in Kyoto and an embarassing restaurant experience

Silentjim — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:12:17 +0000

The other week we met up with some friends in Kyoto, the lovely Richard, and the even lovelier Clo. They were in Japan for a week and managed to get to Kyoto for a couple of days.

We caught up with them on a hot, humid day for lunch at a great noodle shop in the back streets of Kyoto. It was nice to see 2 sweating, smelly, Englishmen struggling with the sweltering heat (about 36ish in Kyoto these days) and humidity (about 110%), while the 2 hardly perspiring ladies floated along in the warmth.

After Noodles in Kyoto

I didn’t have time to photoshop out my belly, so just try not to look at it please.

Aki and I had planned to go to a very nice (i.e. posh) Italian restaurant in Umeda, Osaka (the Salvatore I think it’s called), that some friends (hi Gav and Max) had taken me to a few weeks before. It was so posh, the waiters had proper full on waiter uniforms and spoke a mix of Italian and Japanese.
They also have a dress code..and as you can see from the picture, I’d not worn my tux to Kyoto…shorts, sandals, etc.

Well we decided to try anyway, and finally I had one of those movie scenes where the snooty Maitre d’ peers down his nose at the shabby dressed customer, and asks him politely to leave…well not quite.

A very nice lady, asked us to wait, then, while apologising profusely (I think, couldn’t follow all the Japanese, but the body language was apologetic), told us I couldn’t wear shorts and sandals but they had some trousers and shoes I could change into!! And they did, and unbelievably (bearing in mind my feet are about 29cm’s which is off the chart in Japan), they fitted!

I was led into the toilets, asked to change and then escorted to our table. A fantastic meal ensued which was much cheaper than it should have been – it was one of those places where the waiter explains what’s on the plate just before you stuff it in your mouth – the food and wine were excellent!

Highly recommended if you’re ever in Osaka, it’s in the Herbis building near the Hilton hotel.
(Will try and confirm the name)

Kyoto and the Geishas

Silentjim — Tue, 02 May 2006 06:01:12 +0000

While we were checking out the cherry blossom at Arashiyama, we saw this beautiful procession of Geishas coming out of a temple garden. We could have had our photos taken with them in the garden if we`d got their earlier.

Geisha or Maiko

Maiko in Kyoto

Geisha in Kyoto

Maiko

Geisha

Maiko in Arashiyama

Cherry Blossom Season in Japan

Silentjim — Tue, 02 May 2006 04:00:55 +0000

A few weeks ago it was cherry blossom season here, this is quite an event in Japan. The blossom (or “sakura“) lasts about 10days to 2 weeks, and during this time thousands of Japanese partake in “hanami” or cherry blossom viewing. This involves sitting under a tree and having a picnic and drinking lots of sake and beer it seems.

We went to Osaka castle on one day to see the sakura, but it was pretty cold so we didn`t stay long.
Did see some poor office workers sitting on their own though.
The junior people have to get there early and just sit around, saving the space till the more senior members turn up.

Office Junior

Hanami

The Blossom is very beautiful.

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom Viewing

Hanami

The next day we went to Arashiyama in Kyoto, a very beautiful place with lots of great cherry blossom, and temples, etc. (well it is Kyoto!).

Arashiyama, Kyoto

Arashiyama Restaurant

Finally we went to Maruyamakoen (??) a park in central Kyoto, where we saw thousands of people drinking and partying!
It was like Glastonbury!
Great fun, but we couldn`t stay long as there was no space to sit down or anything.

Kyoto

Kyoto Party

The Main Cherry Blossom Tree

Nova and the Chibiko Lessons

Silentjim — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 06:17:37 +0000

Found out last week, that I`m gonna be trained to teach English to children aged 2 to 4. Bearing in mind how much I enjoy teaching 4 to 11 year olds (>:-[) you can imagine how overjoyed I am at this new endeavour.

The lessons apparently consist of 40 minutes of singing and dancing with a 2 year old and a parent (or up to four 2 year olds!). How is a baby supposed to learn English with just 40 minutes a week??? Me thinks this was invented by a Nova accountant, and gullible mothers are lured in with the big bucks.

Crazy.

Oh, I got sent to a kids school last week, as someone messed up the schedule, so had to teach kinders, followed by junior and then seniors! I nearly quit.

Seniors are too bored and cool to be there and play stupid games.
Kinders are too young to maintain attention for more than 2 minutes (one was particularly distracted by my beard, so she lunged at it, and groped my chin).
Juniors just want to beat each other up.

40 minutes of hell.

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Post tags: Eikaiwa, English School, Kyoto, Nova