all along e cat had been taking buses with red or blue signs where e bus pass has to be fed into e fare machine, which will then spit it out. but buses like e 北8 with purple signs that go beyond e one day bus pass zone have fare machines that will choke to death on bus passes. & so you simply show your pass to e driver, who will tell you e additional fare to pay (or none, if you are still within e zone)....
seems that e cat will kena at least one si beh pai seh public transport blooper on every trip to Japan *grin*
Kitayama-dori, an 'atas' neighbourhood with e main road lined with boutiques, cafes, apartments & yellow ginkgo trees:
inhale + exhale = how to fit into e clothes sold here?
Ando Tadao's Garden of Fine Art, a dream come true =)) have been wanting to come here for many suns & moons liao. here are porcelain panel reproductions of famous paintings displayed within an amazingly compact space:
[L-R, top to bottom]:
- Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon
- looking in from e ground level entrance
- scroll 1 of Choju giga, almost 23 metres in length (twice e original size)
- looking back from e ground level exit
- as you walk in from e entrance, Michaelangelo's Last Judgement comes into sight
- e bridge in e Song dynasty painting 清明上河图 (Ascending e River at Qing Ming festival)
- Kyoto Prefectural University campus behind e Garden of Fine Art
- da Vinci's Last Supper
- looking out towards e exit
- info panel on e Last Judgement
- looking up from e second level - amazing how diagonal walkways break e monotony & 'enlarge' a small rectangular space
- on e lowest level of e Garden
once watched a NOVA documentary on how a China bridge historian & his team including USA collaborators attempted to build a 'rainbow' arch bridge similar to e one depicted in 清明上河图, with only this painting (of which only reproductions exist today) & a few surviving diagrams for reference. didn't catch e name of e painting at that time, but once e cat saw this mosaic panel, it recognised e bridge instantly =)) & only from e Garden of Fine Art pamphlet & Google did e cat find out how significant this painting is! totally mind-blowing....
[L-R, top to bottom]:
- e entrance along Kitayama-dori
- e best way to display Monet's Water Lilies: Morning - totally submerged
- cat from scroll 2 of Choju giga
- second level, where you look directly across to e part between heaven & hell in e Last Judgement
- Last Judgement
- blends in so perfectly that e cat missed e sign & almost couldn't find e place
- outside, inside & outside: e buildings west of e Garden, a window on a wall of e Garden, & trees of e Botanical Gardens east of e Garden of Fine Art
- second level again
- looking up from e bottom level at people gazing at e Last Supper
- falcon from scroll 2 of Choju giga - yet another reminder of e 'family'
- art students with their lecturer staring at hell
- helping to pull souls down into hell while posing for photos
on to 京都府立植物園 e Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Gardens (combined admission with Garden of Fine Art = 250 yen - a steal), where people were sketching by e lotus pond:
this guy's hat blends in perfectly with e big fat drooping lotus leaves (above right - spot him!) =P
walked along e west bank of e Kamogawa to e bus stop to catch a bus to Kawaramachi-Sanjo:
another happy shopping experience, starting with e JEUGIA CD store that e cat chanced upon along e Sanjo covered shopping arcade, which had a few Mizoguchi Hajime CDs =) listening to e actual CD isn't allowed, but you can scan e barcode & listen to 45 second samples of each track (same as what is available online) at e listening stations. & e staff called up their Shijo branch & got them to set aside their only remaining copy of Espace II for me!
down e Shinkyogoku shopping arcade towards Shijo, picking up dinner from e ampm konbini, & e cosmetic stuff from e pharmacy that had placed a special order on behalf of e cat. along e way, discovered Sakae supermarket at e intersection of 新京極通 Shinkyogoku-dori & 六角通 Rokkaku-dori, which has nice tempura-don bento & e omiyage 'sweets' that e cat bought for e 'family' (but only e maid & e whale got to eat them).
e cat got a bit lost along Shijo-dori as e JEUGIA store was far beyond e area covered by it's detailed map of Shijo. instructions from e Sanjo store staff were to look out for e Daimaru depato....but there are two Daimarus along this road! sought help from a parking warden, & in e process probably saved a few vehicles from kena-ing summons ;)
found e store, but it was on e 2nd floor accessible only by stairs....more torture for e troublesome knee. but made it up e stairs well before closing time =P & just as e cat was about to leave after getting e CD, it was stopped by e staff who wanted to put all e cat's barang (4 plastic bags of CDs, dinner, & omiyage stuff) into a large carrier bag for its convenience =)) so much for Tower & HMV....JEUGIA wins in Kyoto!
experienced e magic of 'sumimasen' in e Friday night crowd on board e #205 bus back to K's House hostel....everyone was squashed on e packed bus, yet trying their best not to squash one another's belongings (that is how considerate they can be even while they are squashing your face!). & by magic no one was unable to get off at their stop....with a soft 'sumimasen' e Red Sea would part ever so slightly (not sure how they managed it - everyone holding their breath simultaneously?), enabling whoever pressed e bell to squeeze his/her way from e darkest depths of e bus right to e front to pay e fare, alight, & expand back into his/her original size & shape.
[ filed under: thewanderingstraycat + kyoto_2005 + japanese1 + architecture1 + art1 + nature1 + music1 ]
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