Taking the Bullet to Kyoto

Kyoto - its not just a place where presidents from Texas deny global warming. Its a place where there are tons of ancient Buddhist shrines. Took the bullet train from Nagoya to go do a walking tour - very fast and cool.



Here's a couple of shots from the shrines.





If you've ever wondered where calamari comes from - I learned that its made in a machine like this...simply feed the squid in at the top, and down the chute comes delicous tubes and tentacles, ready to eat
Maybe the worlds cutest little cement truck. Everybody in our group thought it was real funny to get a picture of the big guy next to the little truck. I guess it needs to be this small since the streets are pretty narrow, but it seems like you'd be pouring your sidewalk all weekend long

Here's the Japanese cemetary I mentioned in an earlier post. It was a pretty cool view - and reaffirms that high density living in Japan doesn't just apply to those with a pulse

Shinto Shrine in Ise

Since we were in Ise, Japan visiting an equipment vendor for work, it wasn't hard to find time to visit Jingu, which is located in Ise, and is one of the holiest sites in the Shinto religion. Apparently the place dates back to 4 BC, and part of the belief requires that portions of the shrine are torn down and reconstructed every 20 years. There's a pretty good writeup on the place on wikipedia. My main impression was that the place was beautiful and reminded me at times of old growth forests I've hiked here in Oregon. Like everything in Japan, the place was spotless, neatly organized, and full of polite people

Downtown Nagoya

The Nagoya Marriott is located in the upper floors of a high rise in the middle of town. The lower levels are a swanky mall, and converging in the basement are dozens of of train tracks connecting from all over Japan. At street level there was a huge open plaza, offering some of the most interesting people-watching ever. At any given moment you could look through the crowds of bustling commuters and see about a hundred people all in the same pose, expectantly holding their cell phone out at arms length, waiting for their hook-up to text them.

I ended up with a killer view out my hotel window. Here it is both at day and night.

Factory Construction Progress

The construction crews are cranking along, and at least the structural pieces of the campus seem to be coming up remarkably fast. As always, we got to do a site walk and check the progress, and compare the real life building to the drawings we've been planning to. I thought this perspective below, looking down between the factory and the support building with the city in the background was kind of cool

Shanghai Cricket Market

On previous trips we've walked around the bird market...really more of an narrow city alley functioning as a pet store. Not much tourist traffic here, mostly all locals, and we've gotten some "what are you doing here" looks from the animal dealers as we've walked around. This time there was a change of merchandise - not a lot of birds, because we hit right in the middle of cricket season. Even on the sidewalks surrounding the market, dozens of guys were laying out tarps and setting out the rows of little tuna-cans of crickets for sale, as well as the associated accessories that no cricket should be without, including tiny little porcelain food and water dishes for them

These cricket's destiny is to be more than just a pet though...these are fighting crickets, and crowds would gather around shopkeepers who would use a piece of straw to tickle the back feelers on these tiny brawlers to get them agitated.

I never really saw a cricket fight, and I can't imagine that they can do much damage to each other. What could they do except maybe hop all over each other? Probably a lot of trash talk and posturing, and not a lot of legitimate action...like pro wrestling for insects

Getting Around Shanghai: August

Shanghai is a great place to walk around, and with a population of >20mil, there's lots of opportunities for people watching. There are also lots of creative forms of transportation, including:



The Motorcycle Family Transporter

The Bicycle Family Transporter

The Motorcycle taxi that doubles as a hammock

And my personal favorite, the KFC delivery bikes...thus allowing the Colonel's secret 11 herbs and spices to speed right to you door unencumbered by traffic

Besides a little taxi and subway action, we mostly walked while we were there. While walking I tried to grab a picture of a unique view of the old and the new...the hanging laundry down the street with the new skyscrapers in the background

We visited a Buddhist Shrine that weekend too. I forgot to write down the historical significance of this place, but this cool looking structure was off limits for tourists...locals said it was from the 1600s. There was a pretty good crowd of worshippers there too, and the monks doing their thing in the traditional robes and stuff.

Signs in China and Japan

Hungry for a little seafood? How about a little crab? Just head for this Japanese storefront that sells seafood...you'll recognize it right away because its got grandma's head - on the body of a crab. I thought that this was really bizarre at first, which is why I took the picture. But the I gave it some more thought, and realized its not so different from similar American icons. Consider Mayor McCheese....he's got the body of a man and a delicious head, and we don't even think twice
















Right in the heart of Kyoto we came across a cemetery. Japanese cemeteries are very different than traditional American ones. Very densely packed, and marked with little granite spires for each family. And fortunately, they sell them right outside the entrance, so you don't have to haul it far. They also have signs outside the entrance reminding families to keep their grave markers clean and straight. You can see from the sign, that a clean gravestone is a happy gravestone

In the Shanghai airport there was a gorgeous fountain - a huge stone wall with water running down its face into a large pool. Although I was dying for a little dabble, I was glad I read the sign first
Even the Great Leap Forward started with a few small steps. This sign below was posted above the urinals in a Buddhist temple compound in Shanghai. I felt a little self conscious whipping out the camera while standing there in the bathroom, lest somebody think I was some kind of a weirdo, but it was too funny to pass up.
Unfortunately, China could use a whole lot more of these signs. For some reason every Chinese man considers himself a volunteer fireman and stands way too far back, with the predictable results. At the Intel factory in Pudong I witnessed a similar sign that actually specified a 30cm dimension between the urinator and his target.
Check out Mini-Mini - fearless crusader of the Japanese convenience store. Not sure what his powers are, but they probably include speeds faster than a bullet train, and the ability to leap tall displays of kippered octopus in a single bound.


I've never seen a lot of dogs when I've been in Asia...in China, I just chalked this up to the fact that they're edible. In Japan, I'm not sure, although this sign made me wonder that they might all be in jail because of bodily indiscretions.

Speaking of things we never saw, there must be a bunch of Amish people somewhere in Ise, Japan. At least enough that they get their own crosswalks and associated signs