lunchtime, & e cat is looking for fish, & e bear is eyeing e badger & ducks hungrily. can't read Japanese so no idea if badger spaghetti & duck sandwich are on e menu.
if you are not sure whether you still have hair:
nearing e Kyodai campus, bumped into a group of PRC students who were helping a friend move house, hence e furniture that they were trying to balance on their bicycles. across e street on e north side of Imadegawa-dori, spied a photo studio with Fujifilm logos - indication of a higher chance that it would have a xD card (used by only Fujifilm & Olympus digital cameras) reader. rate for burning photos was 525 yen per 400MB CDROM, about e average price in this city.
unfortunately e computer with e xD card reader choked on e 1GB xD card & collapsed after 45 whole minutes (& many puzzled looks from e staff & manager who checked on e progress every so often) of trying to transfer data from it. made e cat damn pai seh about bringing them this 'monster' that they couldn't tame....e staff even asked for e camera model & called up Olympus to find out if e problem was with their card reader/computer.
in e end they asked e cat to e back of e shop where they loaded e offending card onto another reader connected to what was probably e most powerful computer they had, confirmed through e language barrier that e cat wanted everything burnt on CD, & told it to come back at 17:00PM. & to apologise for having to make e cat wait, for not having a powerful-enough computer, for not being able to meet a customer's needs promptly, for not being perfect....they pressed 3 packets of tissue paper with e Fujifilm logo & cute-sy picture of 3 kittens & 3 doggies into e cat's paws, insisting with many deep bows that e cat accept them before it could leave. pai seh si....
suddenly, with e faithful Olympus bereft of any memory card, e cat was at a loss. & this explains why it has no photos of its visit to e Kyodai main campus & e university's history museum in e Kyoto University Clock Tower Centennial Hall, but only short notes copied from e exhibits on e university's rather interesting & tumultuous history, some reproduced in 'longhand' here:
recreation of lodgings of Econs student in 1930: 'many entered Econs faculty out of admiration for Kawakami Hajime who was studying Marxism....students in those days frequently read books on Literature & Philosophy that had no direct relation to their field specialisation....'
1913-14: 沢柳事件 Sawayanagi Incident (think this University President quit his post?)
1928: 河上事件 Kawakami Incident (expelled for subversion?)
'in e 1910s & 1920s, it [e university] also developed a strained relationship with e state concerning e issue of procurement & protection of university autonomy....'
'students during wartime....'
'student revolt....President Okuda Azuma calling for end to blockade of e Student Affairs Bureau & clock tower in 1969....1969 burned[sic] e main gate....entrance exams had to be off-campus....clash with riot police at Hyakumanben crossing....late 1960s - student revolts at universities across Japan'
1994: published self-evaluation 'Verifying e Academic Tradition of Freedom'
one who can confidently acknowledge/confront e past will be equally as comfortable dealing with e uncertainties of e future? somehow e cat thinks that Nantah's relatively short history can compete with Kyodai's, if only it could be documented & exhibited in e same way without stepping on any political toes ;) why is freedom so often equated with subversion over here?
more notes from e exhibits, for e cat's otaku-ish friends who actually have their own geek code:
manuscript of Yukawa Hideki's first article on meson theory (1934) 'On e Interaction of Elementary Particles I' - graduation thesis presented to Faculty of Science in 大正 Taisho period (1912-1926)
[070306 update] just realised that Yukawa became Japan's first Nobel Laureate in 1949 because of his prediction of e existence of mesons....
'postwar - admit women....last diploma certificate issued in name of Kyoto Imperial University in 1947, thereafter became Kyoto University....'
1869 vol 1 no. 1 copy of e very first issue of Nature journal: 'Nature! we are surrounded by & embraced by her; powerless to separate ourselves from her....we live in her midst & know her not....we constantly act upon her, & yet have no power over her.'
1637 Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison by Descartes
1823 vol 1 no. 1 copy of e very first issue of Lancet
1665 Philosophical Transactions of e Royal Society of London....'giving some account of e present undertakings, studies & labours of e Ingenious in many considerable parts of e world'
this cat admires & has much respect for e thirst for knowledge =)
explored e university co-op in e basement of e Centennial building for a peek at how similar/different it is from e one in e university-that-almost-refused-to-let-e-cat-graduate-from. Kyodai's version has a pharmacy, an incredible array of large recycling bins for various types of trash (even requiring you to separate caps from PET bottles), a business suit rental service (for job interviews) & notice boards full of job lobangs & info on discounted/concession concert/museum/etc tickets. & matcha pudding in e konbini section *satisfied burp*
through e ginkgo tree-lined streets of e main campus back to Imadegawa-dori & e photo studio to pick up e memory cards & CDROMs:
e incredibly helpful & very professional Korakudo 光楽堂 at 京都市左京区北白川西町82 (Kyoto-shi Sakyo-ku Kita-Shirakawa Nishi-cho 82)
& then e cat was off to Gion from e Kita-Shirakawa bus stop right outside Korakudo, where it discovered a very nice matcha cream puff 'bun' in e LAWSON konbini Gion outlet, & wandered into stores selling elaborate kimono accessories....
too-tiny-to-be-worn wooden clogs....
too-pretty-to-be-eaten wagashi sweets....
& a little textile art exhibition by Matsumoto Takehiro in e Kyoto Craft Center, a place full of pretty Japanese craft items on display & for sale.
tested out a hyaku yen (100 yen) kaiten sushi restaurant at e southwest corner of e Sanjo-Kawaramachi intersection - e quality is good (wouldn't survive in Japan if it wasn't?), items like ikura (salmon roe) sushi were just 100 yen/plate (2 pieces), & e amount of rice that comes with each piece of sushi is much less than what you get in Singapore (i.e. more liao4 less rice).
across e intersection was another kaiten sushi outlet that seems to specialise in some sort of unagi sushi, with a cute conveyor belt display at e door:
to be tested on another day =)
[ filed under: thewanderingstraycat + kyoto_2005 + japanese1 + labrat + art1 + catfood ]
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