There are so many extraordinary temples to visit in Kyoto. Today I visited three more in the Southern Higashiyama area of the city- Kiyomizu-Dera, Entouku-in and Kodai-Ji, with a side-trip to a little ceramics shop in between. On the way home it began to rain heavily, and peddling slowly along on my bicycle in this […]
This afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Kyoto International Manga Museum in the centre of the city, which is run as a partnership project between the City of Kyoto and Kyoto Seika university. For the next three Saturdays the museum is hosting The Inter College Animation Festival showing the best work produced […]
I will be making a presentation about my early video work at the National Film Center at the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo next Weds, Oct 6th from 4:00-6:00 PM, so I must leave Kyoto on Weds morning. This will give me a couple of days in Tokyo in which to interview Michael Goldberg […]
Its hot again today, and my pace along the Kamo-gawa was definitely slower as a result. I cycled north, down beyond Kyoto train station to the Temple at To-Ji. There is a five-storey pagoda there- the tallest in Japan! After lunch I crossed the river to see the Zen temple at Tofuku-Ji. This temple complex […]
It gets dark early in Kyoto now, and although it is still warm during the day, the air cools down fast once the night falls. I passed this beautiful light shop in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto on my way home this evening, and I doubt I will pass this way again, so I took […]
Today the rain has set in, and thinking this would deter visitors to the temples at Ginkaku-Ji and Honen-In, I cycled across the river to Northern Higashiyama early this morning. Ginkaku-Ji was already quite busy despite the rain, but it was still possible to get an unimpeded view of the stroll garden and the carefully […]
This afternoon I made a presentation about my early videotape and installation work in the Media Centre at Kyoto-Seika University. Professor Shinsuke Ina provided an introduction and Isanori Oha made a live translation of my presentation for the students, as well as handling a question and answer section at the end. During the two-hour session […]
Last night Shinsuke took me out to Ume-N0-Hana, a traditional Japanese restaurant, to sample the delights of Japanese haute cuisine. Tofu-Kaiseki, which was originally developed as an adjunct of the tea ceremony, is served in a private room and presented as a series of small courses, and is a visual as well as a culinary […]
Fighting the throngs of school children (who far outnumbered the tourists!) I visited the gold-clad temple at Kinkaku-Ji today. It is a stunning sight, and waiting patiently for an opportunity to photograph it, I found time to have a bowl of green tea and a sweet cake in a little grove under the trees nearby.
Heading south beyond the Higashyama area of Kyoto this morning I explored the vast shrine at Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, which is spread out across a wooded mountain area to the east of the city. The most extraordinary feature of this huge shrine is the incredible number of gates (called Torii) which snake through the landscape in numerous […]