I'm on a Bus!

Hi! It's been a while, hasn't it? Well between bus trips and midterms, I'm still not sure if my head's still on straight. Please be a little more patient with me. Thank you!

Today Okaasan and I went on a bus trip sponsored by local neighborhood community thingie. Hannah was there too. It took around an hour to get to Kyoto, but we weren’t near any place I’ve been before. We were further west, near Lake Biwa.

Drunk Goldfish

First we went to the Sagawa Art Museum (wherefore referred to as SAM), an art museum sponsored by Sagawa Express (a delivery service). The outside is breathtaking, a modestly large building with a huge reflection pond surrounding it. The museum mostly focuses on three artists: a painter, a sculptor, and a potter, but it had a special exhibit on ukiyo-e (comic woodblock prints). For those of you who don’t know me, I absolutely adore ukiyo-e. My favorite picture there was a group of drunk goldfish. In other interesting things, I was most impressed by the pottery exhibit designs (Museum Studies minor at heart~!). They were the most amazing I’ve ever seen. The lighting was almost pitch black (we were in a basement) and the foyer was only lit by a strip of sunlight. Going over to inspect the source of light, I realized that the sunlight was shining in through the reflection pool that surrounds the museum; it was beautiful!

Now the way they exhibited the pottery was excellent as well. Using light to draw the viewer towards the various flower vases and such, I was astonished at how well it allowed the viewer to move through the exhibit. I also noticed this in the Genji Museum, but not in any of the other museums I’ve visited in America. Maybe it’s a technique used mostly in Japan? I don’t know. What I do know is that that exhibit filled me with a reverence that is usually only found in my holiest of holy places—the library archives, full of information and ancient books for me to peruse. Despite museums being held up with a ton of worship in my life, I’ve never experienced the same feeling that I did in the SAM. I am very impressed. For their explanation of this concept, please click here.

After visiting SAM, we went to lunch at some weird fish place. I don’t really know the name, but it was a mix of grocery store and really fancy restaurant. Don’t believe me? Check out these pictures of their decorations.

It had a bow tie  and top hat. I have no regrets!

It was bucketloads of fun, though. For lunch I had something called kaminabe (paper nabe). This title is due to the fact that the soup is heated while being encased in paper. 

Mmmmm....kaminabe

There's a flame, right under the paper. I still don't understand how it doesn't catch on fire!

There were also fish on a stick. They were staring at me...

"Don't eat us, Sarah!"

I have no regrets...except the skin was pretty bitter. I don't know how everyone else managed to munch it down...

Following that, we went to a planetarium, where I promptly fell asleep. I did wake up to see the cool graphics and a movie that really had nothing to do with stars or planets at all…but some very inventive uses of fish and cherry blossoms. In the beginning, I also noticed an interesting use of the Detective Conan theme song (a popular cartoon for children and adults alike) to keep children from getting scared from the dark. Okaasan seemed to find it pretty boring…I kinda did as well, but I think it had to do with the fact that the guide was talking at the speed of light, and my Japanese isn’t that good yet.

We went up a mountain on a gondola to see a shrine. I took pictures and went to the Inari (fox god of rice and the harvest) shrine.   

The view from the gondola

Then we went out for tea at an old wagashi shop (this means that the family has spent hundreds of years perfecting their sweets recipes). I found them delicious, yet weird-tasting. My dessert had something called agar-agar in it. It looked like an ice cube but wiggled like jello and crunched like waterchestnuts. I found the sensation very strange, but there was anko and the sweet rice dumplings (called mochi) had the consistency of someone’s first matzahball attempt (a.k.a. crunchy, chewy, grainy, and sinkers).

Soft, chewy, and delicious

...it was okay?