Archery at Yasukuni Shrine

It was health-sports day in Japan so what better way to celebrate my heath and sports than to go to Yasukuni Shine to take in a bit of archery. Kyudo, as its called in Japan, is a super old sport. it's not robin-hood-exciting in any way; it's slow, methodical, and done with quite a bit of ceremony.

first the priests and the judges file in:


next the archers:


there were two teams, four to a team, plus the leader. The teams lined up and took a shot one by one from the same vantage. if the judge wanted an explanation of the shot (which he almost always did), there would be a lot of posturing and yelling of the clarification. the question mainly was, where on the deer did you mean to hit? if he hit where he was aiming, he got the point. if he answered wrong, he didn't get the point. kinda funny.



The bow holding arm was always out of the sleeve during the competition.


the single hot dude there:


she was pretty amazing. great form. the draw:


and release:


then they each had to put a stake in the mound of dirt to signify how many hits they got. there was also some rule about the placement on the mound and such but i didn't catch all that:


the 2 team leaders went at the end. their shots were 2 points a piece:


waiting for the results:


it was a beautiful day. the light was very bright so my shots are a bit over exposed but after a string of rainy days, i was happy for the good weather:




as it was health day, i decided to improve mine a bit by taking a lengthy walk through the imperial grounds:





it was a gorgeous day to be outside:

A Thai Hurricane

my dear friend duang finally made it to japan after years of threatening a visit. she brought her hubby pete and her 2 kids, Mew and Ton. They are a high energy bunch!


mew shows off her new child bride dress:


the girls conspire on the train:




super cute but hyper active! definitely a lot of fun:


the old crew together again!


nice to see you dude! next time, maybe we leave the rodeo at home and try to catch up!

K.O.O.K. Productions

went to a comic book store with a friend just to have a look around and i found myself thinking that a lot of the pictures would make for cool pieces of art. hence was born Komix Out Of Kontext or KOOK productions. Here are some of my prototypes. i think they look cool.



the blood splatter took some work. i got paint all over my floor. still ironing out the kinks in the splatter system:




the most interesting part for me was the comic book culture. perhaps i didn't fully appreciate otaku culture, but there is a smell to used comic book shops (maybe not just used ones): a mixture of sweat and body odor from people who clearly don't bathe as often as they should followed by papery undertones and a permeating dankness or dampness. it's really quite unpleasant but no one seems to notice. don't know if i will be frequenting used comic book stores; i suppose it will depend on how KOOK takes off. drop me your addy if you want me to send you one!

keeeee-yoto!

took a longish weekend to visit family and procure a very important item. first stop, lunch at a tempura joint before visiting the family graves:


picked up a few exy postcards from teramachi (they were real wood block prints):



cake and coffee at auntie's favorite spot:



last dinner at my uncle's (full on gourmet style! super yum!):



went up to mt. hiezan to escape the heat only to catch the rain:


went to the garden museum which has famous works of art replicated on giant tile slabs and set up throughout a meticulously kept garden. very cool stuff!


a moth seeks shelter from the rain:



it was really pouring:




we had to take refuge in the souvenir shop to wait out the rain:



once it let up and i could see the garden, it was quite remarkable:








i love this picture. my favorite from the bunch:



little critters get some sexy time:



went around the bend to see Enryakuji, a cluster of temples on the other side:



it was beautiful but the weather was coming in again:









and then it started shit storming. we decided to sit it out for a while and rest our legs:


then it was off to the station to catch the shinkansen back to tokyo. Thanks for a great visit!