Adventures in Japan

There was an earthquake on Sunday, but we didn't notice

The weather was lovely today, so we thought we'd risk going out even though we're not 100% better yet. Right now we're exhausted and my throat & eyes hurt, but we'll see how we're feeling tomorrow.

So what did we get up to while we were out and about, you ask. Art. First we went to see some treasures from some temples in Kyoto (currently in Osaka for our viewing convenience). It's probably not the kind of thing we would have bothered with normally, but we had free tickets, and today was the last day, so we figured we'd better go. Most of the time we didn't know what we were looking at because all the labels, descriptions, and explanations were in Japanese, but we saw some things we liked, some things we didn't, and the scariest elephant EVER.


The exhibit wasn't all that big, but it really wiped us out, so we ate a crêpe (according to the sign out front, today was crêpe day, so we couldn't not get one) and caught the subway home. On the subway we saw a sign advertising yet another art show ending today. It looked to be more interesting than the show we had just come from, so I thought I'd better check it out even though I was tired. Tyler went home for a nap, which was probably for the best. The show was called Modernism Shinsaibashi and featured mostly paintings, prints and photos either of, from, or having some association with the Shinsaibashi area of Osaka. I quite liked most of it (aside from some horrible bowl-of-fruit type pieces) but once again I didn't understand much because it was all in Japanese. Art may be universal, but I still feel like I'm missing out.


And speaking of art, Tyler & I finally saw Porco Rosso last night. It's an animated movie by Hayao Miyazaki (the guy who did Spirited Away, among other things). It's about a flying pig (Actually it's a pig that's a bounty hunter/pilot. In Italy. In the 30's. And there are pirates.) which sounds pretty stupid, but like all Miyazaki movies, it's actually really good. The Japanese version, anyway. Disney just released their own translation on DVD a little while ago, who's to say if they did it justice, but I still think y'all should check it out. And any other Miyazaki movies you can get your hands on. Or anything by Studio Ghibli. Go! Go now!