Finally some nice weather again. I was waiting for some nice sunny day for a little trip to Nara, one of my favorite sightseeing spot.

I thought it would be a nice day for Momo to join me, but it turned out that Momo and the many tamed deers roaming the parks and forests begging food from people weren’t really getting along very well. Momo was excited seeing some young deers running away and eager to chase. She started barking at some only to find out that some of the elder male deers weren’t shy at all and started to attack back by trying to trample on her. I had to keep her on a short leash and try my best to keep as much distance between her and the deers. Unfortunately in some of the spots this was nearly impossible.

I only managed to get a couple of pictures, i think i will have to go back to Nara next year (without Momo) to make some good pictures of all the temples and shrines in that place. Fortunately Nara is less than an hour away from my place, so this won’t be a problem.

Koyasan (Mount Kōya – 高野山) together with Kyoto and Nara is one of the top 3 sightseeing spots within easy reach of the place i live.

First settled in 819 by the monk Kūkai, Mt. Koya is a sacred site primarily known as the headquarters of the Shingon school of Buddhism. Located in an 900 m high plateau amid the eight peaks of the mountain, the original monastery has grown into the town of Koya, featuring a university dedicated to religious studies and 120 temples, many of which offer lodging to pilgrims. It’s estimated that there are about 12 million adherents to this particular interpretation of Buddhism.

The main attractions of Koyasan are:

• Konpon Daitō (根本大塔), a huge pagoda that according to Shingon doctrine represents the central point of a mandala covering not only Mt. Koya but all of Japan
• Kongōbu-ji (金剛峰寺), the headquarters of the Shingon sect
• Okunoin, the mausoleum of Kūkai, surrounded by an immense graveyard (largest in Japan) with many historic graves

Transportation: The Nankai Railway from Osaka Namba station has express trains going directly to Koyasan. The idyllic ride on the train takes you through the mountains/tunnels/forests east of urban Osaka. The train takes about 2 hours to the Koyasan base station and another 5 minutes to go up by to the top by Cable car. I suggest you leave early for Koysan if you plan on a daytrip from Osaka, there are plenty of buildings and places to see and one could easily spend 2 days in this mountain village without getting bored.

Website: The Koyasan tourist website has up to date information about events and useful links.

It’s no secret that Japan is one of those few countries that still ignores protection of endangered species and hunts for whales. I don’t think whale meat is anymore that popular even amongst Japanese but it’s still sold on the bottom shelfs of normal supermarkets if you look close enough in the fish section.

We got it as a present from some of Itsukis friends … and i guess after getting it there was no point in just throwing it away so we warmed up the can and had this whale meat curry on rice. I was quite surprised to find out that whale meat doesn’t really taste much like normal fish .. and when biting the junkie meat pieces it almost felt like biting on a piece of beef. Taste wasn’t as bad as i expected but i still very much prefer the taste of normal beef curry!

Here are some pictures from the Kurama Fire Festival (in Japanese: Kurama-no-hi-matsuri – 鞍馬の火祭り). It was raining already on and off the whole afternoon, but that didn’t seem to keep people from visiting and enjoying one of the more spectacular festivals in Japan. Every year on October 22nd (rain or no rain) and 23th the little town of Kurama located in the hills about 20 minutes north of Kyoto is celebrating this festival.

At 6 o’clock in the evening, watch fires called kagaribi are ignited all at once in front of the houses, and soon after that the local men carrying taimatsu (pine torches up to 80kg or even more) parade all night long announcing in loud voices the arrival of the festival. It is said to reenact the scene of the enshrined deity greeted after traveling from the Imperial Palace to Kurama-no-Sato village, at the end of the Heian Period.

The Kurama Fire Festival is known as one of the three most eccentric festivals of Kyoto.

Seeing the whole town light up in fire and smoke made for a spectacular view and i tremendously enjoyed shooting photos with the new Nikon D90 camera i bought last month. Making pictures in the dark without tripod and of moving objects is always a bit of a challenge with any camera … and having rain passing in front of the lens reflecting the flashlight made things even more challenging. Unfortunately many of the pictures i took have been rendered useless by this rain. Luckily I still managed to get a couple of decent shoots for display in this gallery post here.

Transport: The roads to the village are closed for cars during the festival. There is not much space for parking in this little town and the small road connecting the town in the hills probably wouldn’t be able to cope with all the people coming to visit this festival. The only way to Kurama is by train (about 30 minutes ride) from Demachi-Yanagi Station on the Eizan Dentetsu Kurama Line. Demachi-Yanagi Station is about 15 minutes from JR Kyoto Station.

Website: The official website (all in Japanese) is the one of the Yuki-Jinja Shrine, that celebrates and organizes this event. Both the Kyoto tourist pages as well as the Japan Tourism pages also have some entries on the festivals in english. The Kyoto Shimbun newspaper website (japanese) features some videos of the event.

The Jidai Matsuri (時代祭 in Japanese) is held annually in Kyoto on October 22. The festival dates back to 1895 and commemorates the transfer of the capital to Kyoto in 794, the 1,100 years that it remained the capital(until it was moved to Tokyo in 1868), and the finishing of the Heian Jingu Shrine where the procession ends.

The Jidai Matsuri is one of Kyoto’s renowned three great festivals, with the other two being the Aoi Matsuri, held annually on May 15, and the Gion Matsuri, which is held annually from 17 to July 24.

It begins with the mikoshi (portable shrines) of the first and last Kyoto emperors being carried to the Old Imperial Palace, whereafter a procession of approximately 2,000 then embarks on a five hour, 2 km route to the Heian Shrine, led by drums and fife bands. The participants in the procession wear period costumes representing styles during the time Kyoto was the capital, beginning with the modernized soldiers of the Meiji era, corresponding with the end of the Kyoto capital in 1868, back to the founding of the capital with characters from the Heian period.

Unfortunately the festival this year was overcast by dark clouds and casual showers every now and then. It didn’t really help to improve the mood of the actors and it showed a lot in the faces of the elderly actors (and there are a lot of them!) that they weren’t happy to walk around in the rain.

Summer is ending and autumn arrived. Autumn is my favorite season in Japan. The temperatures start to drop to very comfortable levels compared to muggy summer hotness and the weather is usually excellent with plenty of sunny days (except this year). If you plan to visit Japan for a holiday then i recommend early October, it’s the best month!

Here are a couple of photos that i took of the colorful autumn trees:

Yakiniku (焼き肉 – grilled meat) party at my favorite pool hall g-Forest.

When will i learn .. just because the color of the drink looks awesome doesn’t mean it will taste good. And watching the tongue in the mirror afterwards made me aware that the new Pepsi Blue certainly wasn’t one of those drinks targeted at people in my age group

Finally got the new logo finished. It will be used on the club T-Shirts and also for the cloths of the staff.

Kelvin is a good friend of mine from New Zealand and decided to come over for a short visit. We did visit all the popular tourist places and here are some pictures (shot on my old Ixy50 camera).